Elle (Paul Verhoeven, 2016)

[mfunk9786]

I did not know that this director, at this age, had this kind of a film in him. Elle feels more like Michael Haneke than Paul Verhoeven, from its considered and carefully repetitive setpieces to its overflowing nervous energy - but it also manages to unabashedly thrill like Haneke cannot - with no guilt, and no shame. Isabelle Huppert is astonishing in this film. She looks all of 40 years old, confidently embodying an unpredictable and complicated woman whose motivations are often a secret even to the viewer. As if the circumstances of the plot didn't already give the quieter moments of Elle the creeping feeling of a horror film, Huppert's controlled unraveling (or could it even be classified as one - that's a discussion for the spoiler boxes) is so intense at times that a pin drop would've shot me into the ceiling. The film's at its most subversive when it's at its most tame and polite, so the ending feels particularly cruel to those who're armchair screenwriting some kind of Grand Guignol finale, but all the more perverse for it. Back to Huppert [and Haneke] - imagine having starred in both The Piano Teacher and Elle [and La Cérémonie, for that matter!] during your illustrious career, practically cornering the market on the ways in which a middle-aged woman can be both fully in charge of and totally controlled by her unpredictable and sometimes frightening personality. It's a high bar to say that Huppert is at the height of her powers in this film, a much less high bar to say Verhoeven is - but I wouldn't balk at either of those proclamations.

[Bumstead]

Some great observations. The Chabrol and Haneke connections are absolutely valid. I found Verhoeven's flamboyant style to be deceptively restrained in ELLE. It's his most complex study of sexuality, gender role and Catholicism. Isabelle Huppert is both victim and assailant, heightening the ambiguity of her character. A frighteningly superior performance aiding Verhoeven's sly exploration of the role women play in our world. The closing scene answers who is truly in control of men driven by their base interests.

[tenia]

I think that more than anything, it's just a study of power play.
Michèle is a control freak, and absolutely nothing can be imposed on her, and not even being raped will take any control on her life away from her. Sexuality only is an element of it.
It's also a wonderfully comical farce. I've seen the movie in Belgium in a relatively packed room and I was surprised by how much we were all laughing, from the restaurant sequence or the flashback cued to the cat's meows. The whole movie functions on the gap between what people would expect the characters to do / react and what actually happens (notably how Michèle's family is of little help and support). It saddens me that some could have misinterpreted so much the movie (I just read this afternoon it contains the "pleasure of repetitive rape", which is non sense).

[Bumstead]

I think that more than anything, it's just a study of power play.

You're right. Power is indeed the central idea. This film has been in my thoughts over the past couple of days, and although it's not a "great" film by standard definition, it is impossible to shake off. Huppert's actions are singular even in their tiniest form: from insisting to view her son's new apartment before writing him a check; to refusing her doctor when he offers to prescribe a PEP, because she believes "It has too many side effects. I can't miss any work". The aftermath of the rape is dramatic insofar that it clarifies her uncompromising attitude towards objectification by a person or life events. Only she is in control of her fate. Incidentally, all the women in the film come out on top. Men are reduced to children in constant need of rescue. ELLE might be the most feminist film Verhoeven has made. Take that you haters!

[rohmerin]

I disagree with all the Chabrol or Haneke's world influence. Yes, it's about a bourgeois milieu and yes, with the Huppert, but the movie is a perfect mix of genres including black comedy, yes, it's very very very funny, and all reminded me Almodovar (without colors, it' set in a depressing, well Paris is depressing in winter, December - January) or Ozon; and let's not forget Verhoeven did The 4th Man.

[Michael Kerpan]

My wife and I had our own Huppert mini-festival -- Things to Come yesterday and Elle today. We were surprised by the fact that the two films seemed almost like two sides of the same coin -- sharing a number of motifs. Most obvious is Huppert as a recently divorced protagonist in each, as normally quite in-control individuals whose world seems to be falling apart (or in serious disarray). For example, both films feature rather scatty mothers of the protagonists

Spoiler

who die midway through the film

, grown children

Spoiler

who have children midway through the film

, and cats in supporting roles.

Give that Huppert is just a few months younger than I am -- and seems to be at the peak of her long career, i feel rather inadequate.

Query:

Spoiler

Do people think the son's presence at the home during the last attack was due to a pre-arranged plan -- or was he just distrustful of the neighbor-rapist and worried about his mother? In any event, how did he manage to get there in time -- as the neighbor doesn't seem to have dilly-dallied on the drive back. We both initially thought she was inviting the rapist to murder her -- after having given her "final" confession to Anne immediately before departing for home.

[dda1996a]

My dad and I both thought that she sort of knew he was going to come. Like getting her revenge, but not getting blood on her hands and in a way making her son be responsible for something and hopefully grow up. I think the car ride threw me off a bit, as I though she found her comfort place in losing control to someone before she gets her own twisted revenge. I still like Verhoeven's three American action masterpieces (Robocop, Total Recall and Stormship Troppers) but I rather liked it. I think Haneke's influence is slightly evident, but they are different films and directors. Verhoeven's blankly humorous touch and love for characters that are a bit off is evident, even though Haneke's penchant for brutal cinema is still a high bar for me (White Ribbon and Seventh Continent are masterpieces for me)

[Cronenfly]

I think that by the late point in the film where Huppert decides to lay all her cards out, including with her rapist, she is prepared for any eventuality. I do not think she arranged for her son to come home (we certainly never witness such a scene), but by that point her relationship with her rapist has evolved to the point where it is no longer clear who is in control or what the endgame is for either party (as I interpret the film). The son simply puts an end to a relationship that otherwise might have gone on for a while in one bizarre form or another.

Suffice to say, if you see this as a film about rape, you will definitely be offended (a la the local reviewer who awarded it one star for mostly political reasons). I think that the film is more about the Huppert character's lust for power and dominance in all aspects of her life, no matter how twisted the outcome (and I see these thoughts are already somewhat echoed above). She has had to battle for control over her personal narrative ever since the childhood tragedy involving her father, and the rape/her reaction to it is but one more extension of that need/desire. I could have done without some of the more juvenile touches that Verhoeven seems unwilling to part with (all the rape heavy video game footage, for instance, and Huppert's insistence that it be even more graphic are just a little too on the nose), but this is a solid picture with a wonderful central performance. Could maybe have used a little trimming, too, but that is a minor quibble. Also quite funny, even if I was often the only one laughing during my screening.

[Michael Kerpan]

Another query

Spoiler

Did anyone else get the impression that the protagonist was the victim of significant sexual abuse by her father -- and that this explains why he killed himself as soon as he learned she was coming to visit him?

[dda1996a]

Spoiler

No... I mean their might have been something there, but I thought he killed himself because of the refusal of his pardon

[Michael Kerpan]

Spoiler

No... I mean their might have been something there, but I thought he killed himself because of the refusal of his pardon

Spoiler

But she makes certain, by questioning, that he killed himself soon after being told of her impending visit -- so _she_ thinks there is a connection for some reason

[warren oates]

I agree with all the praise this film has gotten and with Michael Kerpan's take on the timing of the spoiler tagged detail above, which the film goes out of its way to make clear.

The one thing I feel like adding is due to a weird coincidence of other viewing I've done recently, a slew of old noirish Joan Crawford films like Sudden Fear, Autumn Leaves and Daisy Kenyon. It struck me seeing Elle so soon after this much older work that what Elle and some of Huppert's other films with directors like Michael Haneke are doing is updating a certain kind of "women's picture" for our much more cynical era. In all of the Crawford films, she plays a version of her character in Mildred Pierce -- a strong, independent women surrounded by varying degrees of shitty, greedy, crazy and otherwise ineffectual men. There's something very dark and intriguing about the way Elle expands this pool of failed masculinity to encompass what feels like not merely the protagonist's world but the whole world of the film -- if not the whole wide world itself.