Gaspar Noé

Irreversible runs its scenes backwards, so the film opens on a man's head being destroyed with a fire extinguisher and closes on a couple in bed on a sunny morning, and knowing the order is what makes the last shot unbearable. The technique is always doing that job. Enter the Void stays locked to a dead narrator's point of view for two hours, Climax films a dance troupe's collapse in unbroken takes while the camera goes upside down. The credits often arrive first.

Signature

• Structural gimmicks that reframe the whole film: reversed time, first person, one take.
• Roaming camera untethered from any character's position.
• Strobing light, subsonic sound and other physical assaults on the viewer.
• Extended real-time sequences of violence or panic.