"Time destroys everything."
Like Memento and Pulp Fiction, this movie is not chronological, starting at the end and making it's way back to the beginning. The first part of the film is shot in a gay S&M club, Rectum, where you catch glimpses of various fun and debauchery. Be warned that the first part of this film is shot with a frequency of 28Hz (low frequency, almost inaudible), similar to the noise produced by an earthquake. In humans, it causes nausea, sickness and vertigo (compliments of imdb.com). The camera work is also very warped, moving around the club in a smooth, but nontraditional manner. However, the whole film is not like this and worth seeing once you get past this point.
The opening is one of the most brutal scenes I've seen on film. It's an interesting juxtaposition of consensual violence, S&M, and non-consensual violence, vengeance. You see the lives of Alex, her current boyfriend, Marcus, and her previous boyfriend Pierre before what happens in Rectum. The most noted is a ruthless rape scene that lasts for about ten minutes. Reading other reviews, many were horrified and disgusted by the length and brutality of the scene. Yet for some reason I was desensitized to it. I didn't care about the character being raped, she was barely on screen until you see scenes after of events that happened before the rape. But as the scenes scroll back from fucked-up and violent, you see tender scenes between Alex and Marcus in their apartment. Alex theorizes about the meaning of time and your eventually brought back to a place, wondering if she dreamed it all.
The first part of this movie is difficult to watch both for the content and manner in which its shot, but stick with it.
(I'm actually very interested to discuss this movie with someone. If you see it, drop me a line.)
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