Paul Verhoeven's ELLE starring Isabelle Huppert: transgressive feminist satire or arthouse exploitation?

I lean toward the former, but it's a mighty uncomfortable film.

What a performance by I.H.

how do i convey how i feel about this movie without using the word "loved"

ruthlessly admired

it certainly did things

i haven't seen this but verhoeven in general is not an "or" guy imo

I am amused by the fact that early on they thought they could get away with making this in the States. About as feasible as his Jesus movie.

setting aside for the moment the thread title's question, there were many wonderful verhoevenian scenes--my favorite being the gothic-romantic shutter-closing with its attendant amazing sound effects.

i don't think i would condemn anyone for finding this movie exploitative or unpleasant, though i don't think it was necessarily either of those things.

I can't seem to find it now but one article I read noted that Huppert was given relatively free reign to define her character, which may have helped to mitigate any uh male creative bias

Also I've seen some people squirm at the "rape-revenge movie" descriptor but it's arguably more apt for this movie than any other

PV has said that Huppert was after the rights to the book before it was on his radar.

Fits.

FWIW I haven't seen any anguished hot "are we allowed to enjoy/admire this?!" takes but I also haven't been looking for them

haven't read the Molly Haskell piece in FC yet; she had problems with it.

(it's not online)

I was hoping Adam Nayman had written about it and he has, including an interview w/ PV:

http://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope-online/elle-paul-verhoeven-france-special-presentations/

^^^ that's great

getting to do a podcast ep w/ Nayman was one of the few highlights of my doomed filmcrit phase

link plz?

@Eric thanks internet archive! skip to 58:15 or so, he came on my show for Inherent Vice

https://archive.org/details/SoundOnSightPodcast400FinalEpisodeFeaturingInherentViceAndTheTop10MoviesOf2014400a

anyway so I was a bit dismissive of Elle when I saw it but I seem to keep thinking about it and really admiring the writing about it

lol this moie

movie even

got lotsa laffs at NYFF

more movies should feature one smart character and a lot of dim ones, provided Huppert plays the smart one

http://www.filmcomment.com/blog/film-comment-podcast-paul-verhoeven/

more movies should feature one smart character and a lot of dim ones, provided Huppert plays the smart one

― a serious and fascinating fartist (Simon H.),

Her double takes and throwaways are some of the most entertaining in recent memory.

This is exactly the sort of lurid, psychosexual neo-thriller (black comedy?) Hitchcock would have made in 2016.

I dunno, I just rewatched Frenzy (which is great) and he would yet be a little too Victorian, I think.

This thread should be longer.

friend in NJ went to see it today, i think it just went wide(r) last weekend?

He, the literal he/Hitchcock, would have been more Victorian, sure, but this seems to press most of his buttons re: damaged/damaging women, sex and violence and the unlikely humor that comes from their intersection. If his life had been scaled forward a few decades, and acceptable sex, violence and sexual violence been as graphic as it is today, he would have dived right in. What I suppose this one lacked was one of his trademark set pieces or elaborate camera set-ups. Speaking of that, I'm not sure it showed much in common with Verhoeven's own past style, save a nod or two (scissors!). Has Verhoeven ever worked much with this much hand-held cinematography or (more or less) natural lighting? This movie looked great, but his other stuff is a lot more formally hyper-attuned in its artifice.

That said, no other director gets fake blood as right as this guy.

The said, I thought of Frenzy a lot as I watched it. And The Piano Teacher, natch.

Has Verhoeven ever worked much with this much hand-held cinematography or (more or less) natural lighting? This movie looked great, but his other stuff is a lot more formally hyper-attuned in its artifice.

Yeah this is a pretty new aesthetic for him, it doesn't even really feel in line with his pre-Soldier of Orange work, then again I don't think he's ever given over nearly as much creative control to his lead before

just won the Globe for foreign feature

Sorry, Paul Verhoeven, but Isabelle Huppert’s character is a woman with whom I have much sympathy — we’re all surrounded by fools.

I've not seen it but she sle always gives off the aura of not sufferimg fools gladly. I love her so much.

Saw it today, really astounding. Huppert is brilliant.

I'm fairly confident she'll get nominated.

for the Nobel?

to run for mayor of NYC and as Dem prez candidate

I thought this was a mess. I liked the first 30 minutes or so but the tonal register is all over the place and nothing seemed to really land and there was a lot of stupid stuff in there like the son's mixed race child. I liked the actor though. I thought it was surprisingly timid too. I love IH but I thought her work wasn't really enough to sustain it.

The idea is that those strands and tonal registers get filtered through Huppert.

I think I got that but didn't think it worked. What can I say. I actually enjoyed it for the most part but thought it was stupid, on the whole. I think it seems like a film where any objection you may have might be intentional. Like when the rapist was revealed I thought, well, it didn't matter who it was and it could have been anyone, it could even have been her son, for example. Bit it was the guy you thought it probably was. I thought it wasn't extreme enough. Actually the most extreme thing is in the first ten minutes when she's taking a bath and the blood appears in the bubble bath.

Incredibly entertaining and enlightening and funny interview here. I looked at the stream near the end and was disappointed that there were only ten minutes left because I just wanted her to talk to me forever

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/awards-chatter-podcast-isabelle-huppert-elle-976899

I'd forgotten the moment when Huppert's prospective daughter in law's going into labor on a gurney, howling, and Huppert says, "I think I'm going to get a coffee" and the camera pans to a shocked Charles Berling.

Like when the rapist was revealed I thought, well, it didn't matter who it was and it could have been anyone, it could even have been her son, for example. Bit it was the guy you thought it probably was.

That was a non-mystery. Kinda obvious and more about events post-discovery.

The tone was of a consistent trolling one (overexcited and exhausting). Just felt like - and I've never read him, but by the reviews - a work by Houellebecq. Lets make the rapist's wife a Catholic (hot blonde too of course). Huppert's ex is now going out with a younger woman - but lets also add she's a yoga teacher (and Bikram at that, the sweaty westernized shit clueless sort). The men are almost all laughably clueless apart from the rapist (except you know, he's a rapist) and Huppert's father (a mass murderer). Huppert by contrast is just this incredible superwoman in her strenght to deal with the madness in her childhood, divorce, shit son and guys, bitchy daighter-in-law, mother growing older disgracefully with a gigolo (followed by death), and that's even before we get to her being raped (not shown once but twice, just bcz).

It says a LOT that Huppert makes this watchable.

Benedetta trailer is out. It looks awesome.

Is Greta any good?

I really can't imagine that it is, late neil jordan....

Oh I had no idea.

a habit-ripper! get hype

I can make a Scissor Sisters joke but ... ah merde!

Looks completely OTT and I’m here for it.

also, my man turns 83 this summer, so our sleaze supply might soon come to an end :(

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XgaLlP0xmqE