The director, Gaspar Noé, films this scene so that we see it as if we were sitting on the ground in front of it happening, helpless to do anything. The rape and beating continue for nine uninterrupted minutes - there is no break in the filming.

END OF SPOILER.

With these two scenes complete, the day continues to move backwards to the morning where Bellucci and her lover, Vincent Cassel (also her husband in Real Life) awake and spend time cuddling and talking as they prepare for their day.

The jury remains out for me regarding these two scenes. I think the presence of the graphic rape scene may have been important if only to allow the viewer to experience how horrific such an act can be. I can appreciate its context in the movie, more so than the murder in the club. As a male, I cannot appreciate, ever, what a women goes through while being raped. Watching this scene brought me a little closer to that experience. I could not imagine how the actors prepared for this scene, but both are brilliant. The scene is at once captivating and horrifying. At the same time, as viewers we have no frame of reference for what drives the rapist, making the act itself all the more difficult to process.

Did Gaspar Noé use excessive violence to make his point, or to be controversial? In the end, I feel that the inclusion of the rape scene was critical, and that the graphic murder scene wasn't necessary. The movie tells us that the balance of life is delicate at best, and that revenge is most often, if not always, pointless and futile. The acting in this movie is outstanding - all three leads are compelling and thoroughly believable.

Watch this movie carefully, and be prepared to be disturbed on a number of levels. How will you react to these two scenes? Are you willing to find out?