Elle

This movie was very different! It was good but kind of unbelievable as far as her personal relationships in the story went. Don’t want to spoil anything; I would recommend just to hear other reviews.

The movies that are not in English need to be labeled as such. We do not care to watch movies with the subtitle words throughout. Thus this movie was not of any use to us. Should get a refund but no means to ask or apply for one. We only watched a few minutes and then went elsewhere.

Interesting movie. Not surprising given the director.

Director Paul Verhoeven is famous for his provocative films, often combining sex, violence and psychological power play. Actress Isabelle Huppert is famous for her demanding roles, often playing powerful women with an obsession for sex and/or violence. Put the two together and you can guess what you get. Elles lead character, Michèle, is a woman who owns a video game company, specializing in games filled with extreme sex and violence. She casually shares her bed with her best friends husband. She masturbates watching the neighbour unloading the trunk of his car. Her father is a convicted serial killer. Oh, and she doesnt seem to mind getting raped. At least, thats the impression after the very first scene. After having been attacked and violently raped, she doesnt call the police of even a friend, but a fast food restaurant, ordering something to eat. The film explores not only Michèles relationship with her rapist, whose identity is established after about two thirds of the film, but also the men and women in her immediate circle. They all have their problems and peculiarities, and Michèle seems to pull all their strings as a hard, cold woman, superbly mastering her feelings and emotions. For the viewer, it takes some effort to understand all the different relationships, and even more to grasp Michèles behaviour. The only explanation Verhoeven offers, is her troubled youth as the daughter of a serial killer. In my opinion, the film suffers from an overload of characters with psychological difficulties. Theres a mother hiring a gigolo because she cant accept getting older, theres a son clinging to a dominating girlfriend, a neighbour with a wife obsessed with religion, an employee playing a dirty trick on Michèle, and so on. Personally, I found it a bit too much. The one thing that stands out in this film, is Isabelle Hupperts acting. Any other actress could easily have made Michèles character unbelievable. But Hupperts utter detachment from any form of sensitivity makes the part completely convincing.

Isabelle Huppert is amazing in a story that is provocatively contrived yet with a grain of truth at its base. What starts out like some Hollywood revenge fantasy veers into workplace drama, deranged family farce and of course, sexual transgression. Its got all the earmarks of classic Verhoeven: venal men, strong, if bare breasted women, perverse twists, taboo toppling. the director seems to take especial glee in humiliating just about every character in some way or another. Its ultimately a pitch black comedy, with Huppert doing her best Buster Keaton: she takes a licking and pops back up with a sort of aggressive impassivity. It revels in going to extremes, but like a Lynch, Almodovar or Cronenberg movie makes weird sense on its own terms. The story is riffing on the phenomenon of how some victims of trauma come to find comfort, even pleasure in ritualized violence, BDSM, in this case, rape play. Hupperts character is the daughter of a notorious mass murderer grown up to be the CEO of a company that makes hyper violent video games. She seeks to dominate all around her, with mixed success, when a sexual assault puts her on a path of self discovery and acceptance. Really. Less in line with the directors more tepidly risque Hollywood output, Elle hearkens back to the giddy perversity of the The 4th Man. Which makes it kind of a homecoming for Verhoeven, finally returning to making the kind of movies he was clearly put on this earth to do.

Well, full of twists and tangential story lines, which can be good. Boundaries were definitely pushed. However, in this film, conclusions and resolutions were reached without being earned. Story lines just jumped from problem to the problem being solved, which is lazy writing. The performances were good, but ultimately the film left me disappointed.

Not quite what I expected (which was something along the lines of Hard Candy) but it wasnt bad, just a bit strange

ugh, Huppert is a great actor but geez, the storyline is rather unbelievable, and the happy ending is rather absurd....

I must say that Isabelle Hupert gave a pretty impressive performance in this leading role. As the name of the movie kind of reveals, the whole action spins around... HER. It is like an open spiral... we are guessing where it began... but its hard to predict where and when it will end. Altough the plot is overloaded with sexuality, it all evolves in a fairly natural way... It also depicts various stages in life when the meaning of feelings and emotions are continuously changing. The one thing I would skip is probably the interview at the end of the film, included as bonus feature.

Terrific!!! I love French cinema! And this movie doesnt disappoint!!