Elle

Isabelle Huppert migh have signed a pact with the devil. She´s still incredibly sexy at over 60 years old and as unique as always. "Elle" it´s all about her (duh) and no other actress could have possibly made it. A classy production with moments of great tension but I find this to be a character study more than anything else. A woman and her circumstance: her family, her work, her friends and, of course, her sexuality. It might be controversial but it´s not cheap. She´s not an ordinary woman and her father and her mother both have an important role in the film as to know why. Everything else is plausible due to her condition, from her son´s character issues to her affairs and further. Nothing is taken lightly, every situation or decision is determined by her psychology. Now, I´ve seen how it enrages a lot of people. I guess they´re not familiar with Huppert´s work. There´s, of course, "La pianiste" but I find "Ma mère" to be worse. She´s always had a taste for moral uncertainty and she´s never been afraid of playing with its limits. Verhoeven is similar and this is a clear highlight in his appalling filmography. I wonder what would happen if "The Clockwork Orange", for instance, was made today? I´m not a fan of it but it´s widely regarded as a classic. We shouldn´t forget these are movies, not real life. Violence or pshycopathy are still a part of the human condition, however unpleasant they might be. I´m unfortunately close enough to rape reality to assert my opinion. "Elle" isn´t overly serious and never tries to be more than it is: two entertaining hours of drama.

Saw this great little comedy of manners, cleverly disguised as a thriller/whodunnit. The first image of the coldly distant, observing cat puts the spectator in the right frame of mind. A very clever script that makes every scene count, peak and slice away. A brilliant mise-en-scene that refuses to heighten the emotions or prettify. Isabelle Huppert absolutely shines, balancing all the minute emotional ticks in every scene, perfectly in control. She leads an ensemble of actors that play the diverse characters/antagonists to perfection. The story is actually all subtext, the main plot only used to connect all the dots and leading us by the nose to the bigger picture. The movie is marvelously playful, refusing to be dramatic, cute or opt for an easy way out. At the same time everything is done with great style and measured, cooked to perfection. Curiously i felt like i was about the only person in the audience who was chuckling along with every scene, maybe my dark sense of humor or feeling the unmistakably Verhoeven tone more acute with every movie of this great director i get to see. What else - a great score by Anne Dudley and Said Ben Said is getting to be my favorite producer !!! And now quite curious to read the source novel.

It's an odd thing, but the press seems to almost unilaterally adore this latest film by Paul Verhoeven, with myself being an exclusion to that fact. Even though I love most of Paul Verhoeven's work - even going so far as to publicly consider the much maligned Showgirls a very fun film - I had a hard time appreciating this film. Even though I admit there's a number of things to appreciate about it. First thing, it's a superb piece of acting by the lead, the fabulous French actress Isabelle Huppert. She delivers a grand performance as the protagonist, Michele, a powerful director of a video game company who one day unexpectedly finds herself the victim of a brutal rape by an unknown assailant. She effortlessly navigates the part of rape victim and dominant, matriarchal presence at her job and as head of her family of miscreants. Better yet, the dormant demons of her shady past awake to stir things up even more, which soon makes for an intense psychological game between herself and those around her. Nobody is a match for her, both in terms of character and in terms of acting. Sadly, the rest of the cast is nowhere near as exciting to watch and mostly consists of sleazy personas out to make her life more miserable. It's a shame less effort was put into making Michele's surroundings a bit more interesting, but with such a powerful performance as her own, it's hard to keep up. Second, Verhoeven basically does what he has always done: not give a damn about cinematic conventions and do as he like without taking what many people would consider 'good taste' into account. His continuation of exploring the underbelly of man proves devoid of adhering to the usual norms of narrative progression. Whoever thinks the rape dictates the rest of Michele's actions is wrong, as she doesn't end up a victim of the act, but rather her environment becomes a victim of herself. There's no tear jerking drama here wherein the violated female must come to terms with the traumatic event, nor is there your typical Hollywood style thriller plot which sees the aggressor hunted down by a revenge driven survivor. Yes, Michele does take matters into her own hands and aims to find her rapist, but this detective story thread suddenly comes to a dead stop as the identity of the culprit is revealed earlier than expected, to unforeseen and rather incredulous results. Wherever you think the story is going, Verhoeven doesn't care about your expectations. Such stubbornness I generally approve of, since there's enough predictable studio drivel going around already. Nevertheless, despite Verhoeven clearly putting his own stamp on Elle which makes it a rather unique final result, I still found it far from a satisfying movie. It's simply too rebellious for the sake of being rebellious. It's a strange and uncomfortable mix of a thriller, family drama and dark comedy, filled with wholly unsympathetic characters. It echoes Verhoeven's scandalous Dutch film Spetters, which saw the auteur heavily criticized and proved one of the prime reasons for him to switch from Holland to Hollywood (and a good choice that was!). However, that film was torn to shreds by critics, while 35 years later Elle is unanimously embraced. The times apparently have changed, but Verhoeven has not changed with them and continues to be an eternal provocateur. In the current political milieu, such an attitude is apparently rewarded. Just not by me. I appreciate Verhoevens refusal to change his style and stick to his (lack of) principles, but I much lament his cynicism. And though it seems the press doesn't share that perspective, I have a feeling many a regular audience member will agree with me upon seeing the strange shock that is Elle.

No, folks, Paul Verhoeven has not changed, not at all, and I doubt if he will in the future. He has never made any French feature before this one, but if I had seen this movie without knowing the director's name, I would have recognized him after only forty five minutes. And if you remove all the provocative sequences, you have the feeling to watch a Claude Chabrol's film, and not only because of Isabelle Huppert's presence. This film looks like a mix up between Verhoeven, Hitchcock and Chabrol, especially concerning the bourgeois families criticism...Verhoeven still loves provoking, shocking the audiences. The screenplay is not made with a strong suspense but despite that, you are glued to this movie. No suspense here, except concerning the rapist identity. But once you know him, you guess that the movie will finish, but it continues, and no, you are not bored. A real curiosity. Isabelle has a way of playing with her face, an expression that only her has. Especially when she says to some one that she has no opinion or something like that. Only her reacts this way.

From the late 1980's into the 1990's, Paul Veerhoven was one of the biggest names working behind the camera in Hollywood. Starting with 1987's Robocop and continuing through Total Recall, Basic Instinct and Starship Troopers, Veerhoven mastered the sex and violence ties that brought audiences out to his films in droves. But 1995's Showgirls ended his run of good fortune. Considered by most to be one of the worst films of the 90's (it's not), Showgirls all but put Veerhoven in Guantanamo Hollywood prison. And since 2000, Veerhoven has directed but three films – Hollow Man, Black Book and Tricked. With any fortune, Veerhoven will no longer take such a long sabbatical after his latest effort, Elle which was nominated for the Palme D'Or at Cannes and had its North American Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival this past Friday. Elle stars Isabelle Huppert as Michele, a corporate CEO of a small video-game design company who deals with the emotional effects of a rape that occurs before the screen even fades in with the open scene. When audiences do get more than the horrifying audio of the assault, we view Michele as she fights with a masked intruder on the floor of her home. Beaten and raped, Michele cleans up and continues with her life. A prior bad history with the police leaves her not wanting to report the crime and stoically she marches on with the rape but a blip on life's resume. But as time slowly separates her from the initial attack, it is clear that the attacker is not yet finished with is prey. Michele begins to find her house violated again by the unknown assailant and text messages from the rapist only further the intrigue. But Michele is no victim. She fantasizes about another return visit from the attacker with a more favorable result. And through her emotions she remains consistent in behavior which comes to a shock to others when she reveals the details of the attack. Making things more complex for Michelle is her circle of family and friends. A father doing time for being a serial murder, a mother who pays young studs for sex, a son who can't hold either a job or a girlfriend and her co-workers, some of which she is sexually active with, only complicate her delicate situation. Although Elle might seem like a mystery thriller, it is more of a character driven drama than a 'can-you-guess-who's-behind-the-mask'. So much so that Veerhoven reveals the face behind the ski mask early in the second half of the film. The reveal is to both the audience and to Michelle and how she continues to explore events on her own terms is as fascinating as it is head-scratching. Although Veerhoven has routinely had strong women roles in his films, nothing is on par with Huppert's Michelle. The film is carried by her strong and intoxicating performance and Huppert is remarkably able to keep us involved and rooting for a woman who is mean and calculating to all those associated with her path. Events don't exactly zig and zag towards an ending but I doubt audiences will be able to stay ahead of the smart script in determining what might occur next to our protagonist. Elle isn't perfect, but it is perfectly cast and executed. The story will leave most in the cold and it isn't a feel-good film even if everything does eventually work itself into a nicely bowed present before the end title card.

Look, I'm not even going to engage the question of whether this movie is essentially misogynist or not. I'm going to take the film at face value. Because I actually enjoyed the first third of the movie immensely. Isabelle Huppert's performance is fantastic and compelling, the concept of a woman dealing with a violent rape by sitting back and methodically preparing to take her revenge, and the way she treads through the male world she lives in are all compelling ideas! But the story is a train wreck! And not in an enjoyable way! The first engine of the movie is Elle's mission to track down her rapist. Very compelling. Then we get this backstory that her father was a mass murderer. Also interesting enough to keep me watching. But not tied in to the rest of the movie in anyway whatsoever. It almost seems random. And then some very boring subplots about her whiney son and his obnoxious girlfriend, and some casual relationships with the other people in her life. No tension driving those subplots. And then! *spoiler alert* She discovers her rapist, it's the neighbor she has a crush on! Wow, interesting! The person she's been trying to track down this whole time! But then, she seemingly doesn't care at all! She lets him go, gets into a random car rack which he saves her from for some bizarre reason, she continues to hang out with him, he rapes her again but it's bizarre because the movie plays this like it's a bad thing but she also wants it maybe? Not clear. And then he tries to rape her again in the end which is totally undramatic at this point because she's totally given up on trying to stop him from raping her. The last third of the movie lacks tension or any compelling conflict at all. This could've been a good movie. :(

Incredibly overrated movie (On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 88% approval rating based on 117 reviews, with an average score of 8/10) While anticipating a movie like La Pianiste( with an amazing Huppert)this movie turned out to be the biggest movie disappointment of 2016 for me. Bad storytelling( just one example: Michèle leaves her son at the party, on arriving in the house she got raped( again...) and after a couple of minutes who turns out to be her saviour? Yes her son, a real Deus ex Machina....pffft..) The biggest flaw is the psychology and character building in this movie; behaviour of the main protagonist is like we are watching a drama from Pluto...erratic and impossible to empathise. Yes Michèle was traumatized is a child( in itself a grotesque story)but that explains very little about how she deals with the rape, with the people around her, etcetera. This movie was highly praised in Cannes and the world over, for me this is a case of The Emperor's New Clothes

The wealthy entrepreneur Michèle Leblanc (Isabelle Huppert) is the owner of a video game company that she runs with her best friend Anna (Anne Consigny). She is divorced from Richard Leblanc (Charles Berling) and has a love affair with Anna's husband Robert (Christian Berkel). Her son Vincent (Jonas Bloquet) lives with his girlfriend Josie (Alice Isaaz) that is pregnant. Her mother Irène Leblanc (Judith Magre) tries to convince Michèle to visit her father that is in prison for a life sentence after killing twenty-seven neighbors in an outbreak. One day, Michèle is raped by a stranger wearing ski mask. She buys pepper spray and an ax for self-protection while she seeks out the attacker. She also befriends her next door neighbors Patrick (Laurent Lafitte) and Rebecca (Virginie Efira) and invites them to a Christmas party at her home. When the stranger breaks in her house again, Michèle subdues him and has a surprise. Who might be the rapist? "Elle" is a weird and bizarre film directed by Paul Verhoeven. Despite the great performance of Isabelle Huppert, the story is pointless and the movie is overrated in IMDb. Michèle Leblanc is a tough, ruthless, cruel and disloyal woman that betrays her best friend having a love affair with her husband. But the annoying plot goes nowhere and is totally disappointing. My vote is five. Title (Brazil): No Available

Don't believe the media hype! If moral and ethical decay coupled with a total lack of self awareness, set in a mindless world of self indulgence is what you crave - then this is the one for you. It plays like an inside view of the moral depravity of the Democrat and Republican parties. The cast is first rate and Huppert's performance is exquisite - if wasted. As the protagonist she is completely unlikable. The attacker is played as marginally more human than the attack victim. Every possible universally held value is destroyed. Worse - nothing in the movie makes much sense; the overwhelming improbability of the premise is laughable. I found myself chuckling partway through it. That may have been the Director's intent.

Elle has been making the rounds at film festivals since its premiere at Cannes this past year, with much acclaim and, in typical Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instinct, Showgirls) fashion, some controversy surrounding its content. It tells the story of Michele Leblanc (Isabelle Huppert), a successful business woman, who is raped by an unknown ski-masked assailant. Unfortunately, in today's world, this isn't something that's entirely shocking itself, but it's the way Verhoeven's Michele reacts to the rape that will unsettle viewers. The film opens with a struggle that isn't seen. The noises that are being made, however, are unmistakable. When we catch a glimpse of the sight, we see Michele on the ground with her assailant dressed in black standing above her, he quickly leaves, Michele still lying on the ground stunned for a moment before getting up and doing everything a rape victim shouldn't do. First, she cleans up the crime scene and then gets into the bathtub with a glass of wine with an odd look that I couldn't discern the moment that I was viewing it, but as the movie went along, I figured it out. Her look was that of pleasure. Yes. This film goes there. Michele doesn't tell her son when he asks about a bruise on her face. "Fell off my bike," she says as she continues about her evening as if nothing happened. It isn't until later, at dinner that she tells a group of people, including her ex-husband, that she 'supposes' she was raped. Her odd behavior is given a backstory. Her father, Charles Leblanc, was a serial killer who killed a number of people in their town and it's even suggested that ten year old Michele may've participated in this horrific act. As the film continues, a thread of dark comedy surfaces; Michele goes to the doctor to get an STD panel. "Are you concerned about a recent exposure? I can give you some PEP?" "Nah. I'll just roll the dice." She looks at a co-worker's outfit, similar to that of her assailant. She gives her co-worker that same look she had in the bathtub. "I like your outfit." It's safe to say, this isn't a typical film about rape, and those who are sensitive to this topic probably should avoid it. It's slated to have an awards friendly November release date, most likely for Isabelle Huppert's fantastic performance, but I'm not sure how awards bodies are going to take to this. A French movie about rape from the point-of- view of a woman who enjoys it? How on earth does someone sell that?