THE gripping psychological thriller Elle is still showing at the Edinburgh Filmhouse until Wednesday.
The film - directed
by Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven - combines black humour and unsettling
scenes of sexual violence.
Isabelle Huppert is captivating as the lead Michele – a
strong, wealthy co-owner of a male-dominated video games company with her
closest friend Anna (Anne Consigny).
She lives alone in a spacious townhouse fitted with large
glass patio doors that provides a chilling setting for which a masked intruder
suddenly appears within the opening scenes.
The man rapes Michele and during a frightening struggle she is
seen desperately trying to escape and tugging on a table cloth from behind as
she falls to her back pinned underneath him.
Afterwards she cleans up the blood from her legs and sweeps
up a broken vase from the table before resuming with her day as if nothing
happened. Then later at work she leaves to visit a doctor, but does not contact
the police, before brazenly continuing on with her business.
We are gradually introduced to others within her life – all of
whom she shares an impaired relationship with.
Notably, her son Vincent (Jonas Bloquet) and his domineering
pregnant girlfriend Josie (Alice Isaaz), her ex-husband Rochard (Charles
Berling) and his new girlfriend, and a man who she is seen in various states of
undress having a physical affair with.
Michele is unfazed by a visit to her mother Irene (Judith
Magre) who is accompanied by a young, unclothed lover. Here we learn that her
father, who was imprisoned for mass murder when she was a child, is applying
for parole. Michele is wary of law enforcement and the media as a result of her
traumatic childhood ordeals during his case, whilst its reopening causes an
impending sense of danger that she may be targeted.
The film weaves in and out of the different stories and
throughout this time Michele is seen replaying the rape over in her mind. In
one reimagining she is able to protect herself which emphasises her quest not
to be a victim.
However, by choosing to delve into so many different
relationships within a two hour film fails to allow any one of the sub-stories
to carry enough weight for the viewer to form an interest in.
Between this dizzying number of events there are unnerving
scenes where the camera closely follows her in her empty flat locking doors,
and jumping as her cat appears.
She begins to receive threats from the unknown assailant,
and starts to suspect that her attacker might have been one of the men from her
work. In the meantime a sexually explicit animation circulates her office, and an
eerie sense that she is being watched is created as she tries to establish who
her attacker is.
Relationships further intensify as does the connection with
the rapist. It appears that Michele is being punished from all sides as the
film evolves to take a perverse and unexpected turn.
Huppert offers gripping performances which portray the films
mounting tension, and add a depth of feeling throughout the horror of the storylines
- scripted by David Birke and based on the novel Oh… by French novelist
Phillipe Dijan.
The director, Paul Verhoeven, who made the controversial erotic
thriller Basic Instinct (1992), the 1997 satirical action film Starship
Troopers, and the highly praised 2006 Dutch thriller Black Book. He felt that
Elle was an opportunity for him to experiment with something different.
He struggled to find an actress to take on the role of
Michele, and felt that Nicole Kidman “could handle it”. He also considered Charlize
Theron, Julianne Moore, Sharon Stone, Marion Cotillard, Diane Lane, and Carice
van Houten.
Verhoeven told The Guardian that his inability to convince a
major American actress to play the part left him frustrated. He explained,
"I agree that there are not many female parts – certainly not in American
cinema. It's weird that when there is one, they lacked the audacity to be
controversial. I hope all these actresses see the movie."
The film then proved too difficult to shoot in the United
States due to its immoral and violent content. Verhoeven felt that to film
there would mean changing the film’s direction and therefore diminishing the
story and its mystery.
He decided to produce the film in France, and spent time
learning the language, to communicate with his French cast and crew. He cast
the star, Huppert, 64, who accepted immediately, describing him as “one of the
best directors in the world for me”.
 |
| Isabelle Huppert with the Elle cast at Cannes 2016. |
She said: “I had no doubt about the integrity of the role,”
and added that Michele’s “a really interesting character because she always goes
against predictable definitions of what it means to be a woman, what it means
to be a man.
“Obviously, the movie's about a woman. But it's also about
men, you know, and the men are sort of fading figures, very weak, quite
fragile. So it's really also about the empowerment of a woman.”
Last year the French actress, who has starred in more than
100 productions since her debut in 1971, won a Golden Globe Award, Independent
Spirit Award and nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress for work in
Elle.
She is the most nominated actress for the Cesar Award and
won Best Actress for Elle, and previously in 1995 for her film La Ceremonie – a
film The Guardian newspaper rated as number 16 of their 25 Best Crime Films of
All Time.
Her English-language films include a western, Heaven's Gate
(1980), comedy I Heart Huckabees (2004), The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby
(2013), and the American drama, Louder Than Bombs (2015).
Online film database, IMDB, has more than 30,000 reviews for
Elle, with an overall rating of 7.3/10. David Sexton of The Evening Standard described
the film as "outrageous, funny and shocking, exhilarating and
original."
Catherine Bray of Time Out wrote that it takes “constant
delight in venturing where the vast majority of filmmakers would fear to tread.”
Predicting: "It's a film that will inspire debate for decades to come.”
Elle is showing at the Edinburgh Filmhouse on Tuesday, April 4, at 3.25pm and 6pm, and on Wednesday, April 5, at 1.15pm and 8.25pm.
Star Rating: Very Good 4/5
Details
Language: French
Release: May 26, 2016
Length: 130 minutes
Country: France and Germany
Cast: Isobelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles
Berling, Virginie Efira, Judith Magre, Christian Berkel, Jonas Bloquet, Alice
Isaaz.
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Screenplay: David Birke
Based on Novel: Oh… by Philippe Dijan
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