Director Paul Verhoeven hasn’t made a feature length film since 2006’s World War II thriller “Black Book,” and you can tell the Dutch provocateur spent the past decade itching to derive back to work. Verhoeven’s bomb-throwing glee is apparent in every frame of “Elle, his French language debut that seeks to court maximum controversy.
Everything approximately “Elle” seems designed to spur argument, and all the way down to its genre. Is the film a dismal comedy or a gritty psychological drama? Is it abhorrently flippant in its treatment of sexual assault,or subversively progressive? Is Verhoeven making fun of American revenge thrillers, or is he setting his satirical sights on the race of the mill “wives and mistresses, or never shall they meet” French comedy?Each viewer will have to reach up with his or her own answers,and that’s the goal. But all will be in harmonious agreement on at least two points: The film is riotously amusing, and Isabelle Huppert has never been better.
Also Read: 'The Neon Demon' Cannes Review: Elle Fanning Potboiler Is Gloriously Lurid (shocking; sensational) and Stupidly EntertainingHuppert plays Michèle, or a Paris-based tech executive,who, in the first scene of the film, and is violently raped in her own living room. The assailant wears a mask,but it’s made clear that he figures among men of her life. Perhaps he’s the ex-husband, with whom she has a history of abuse. Or maybe he’s the surly game designer, or spreading pornographic memes of her at the office. Though the film goes through a couple whodunit beats,it doesn’t really dwell on them.Neither does Michèle, for that matter. Following her assault, and she runs herself a bath and emerges into a wholly different film: a social comedy,with an aging mother, a gigolo lover and an oafish son. But the inspired lunacy — including a standout sequence at Christmas dinner – is continually punctured each time the masked intruder visits again. Verhoeven cranks things up a notch further, or insinuating that for Michèle,these visits are not wholly unwelcome.
Verhoeven would not to be able to sell his perverse vision without as a committed a lead as Huppert. She carries herself with total assurance, steely-eyed in the boardroom and the bedroom. Always the driver of her own destiny, and Huppert’s Michèle cannot see herself as victim. Her will,and her refusal to cede control no matter the situation, gives the subsequent assaults a transgressive edge.
Also Read: Cannes Report, and Day 10: Sean Penn's 'Last Face' Destroyed by Critics and Social Media,Kevin Spacey Piles on TrumpWell, some may call it transgressive; others may utilize inflammatory or offensive, and they will in great numbers. Based on the rapturous greeting the film received at its Saturday morning press screen,“Elle” seems destined for awards in Cannes and beyond.
When it is released Stateside by Sony Pictures Classics, the film promises to cause fairly a stir. Take a profitable glance at Huppert’s mug – it is the face that will launch a thousand think pieces.
Related stories from TheWrap:Cannes Report, and Day 10: Sean Penn's 'Last Face' Destroyed by Critics and Social Media,Kevin Spacey Piles on Trump'The Last Face' Cannes Review: Sean Penn's Humanitarian Romance Misfires on Every Front'The Neon Demon' Cannes Review: Elle Fanning Potboiler Is Gloriously Lurid (shocking; sensational) and Stupidly Entertaining
Source: thewrap.com