One of the most buzz-worthy performances of this past Awards season, Isabelle Huppert’s multi-dimensional turn as rape victim Michèle Leblanc in the French film Elle, directed by PaulVerhoeven, led to a wide array of nominations and wins, with her taking home the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Performance but ultimately losing the Oscar to Emma Stone. The film also took home Best Foreign Language Film at the Globes.
Beginning with the intense, jarring end of the horrific rape (the only witness, her less than helpful cat), Michèle (Huppert) doesn’t hysterically scream or phone the cops after her masked assailant has departed, but quietly cleans the mess left by the attack (and then herself) – simply returning to the normalcy of her life after doing the tasks.
Living alone in a large home on a picturesque Parisian street, the woman is the head of an avant-garde video game company – and they are in the midst of creating a violent, sexually explicit, alien-filled offering. Verhoeven interjects a multitude of unreliable men, possible red herrings, to keep us guessing. Surrounded by the opposite sex at work, other than her best friend and business partner Anna (Anne Consigny), most of them are bitterly resentful of her success, while a sole individual seems absolutely infatuated with her. Further complicating things, she is in the midst of having an affair with a married man, and is also sending off some rather sensuous signals to her next door neighbour Patrick (Laurent Lafitte), who also happens to be wed to a very religious Rebecca (Virginie Efira). Michèle left her ex-husband, Richard (Charles Berling), due to the fact that he hit her, though he still flits around in her life.
Accosted in public for having a murderous father whose sentence is coming up for appeal, she is always arguing with her self-centred mother Irène (Judith Magre) – the most recent bone to pick is that she is sleeping with a man less than half her age. Unwilling to visit her father, she is further bothered by the relationship her son, Vincent (Jonas Bloquet), has with his pregnant fiancée, Josie (Alice Isaaz) – a bossy, bombastic and unstable artistic soul who may be having an affair or two herself.
Interspersing flashbacks of the rape remind us that the vile event is still vivid in her mind’s eye, showcasing the full incident as well as creating a clear revenge fantasy that seeps into her constantly moving psyche. On top of the multitude of men who could have perpetrated the rape, weird things keep happening. Someone hacks into her company’s mainframe, stealing a portion of her game and transplanting her face onto a creature that is being sexually assaulted. She also receives several texts from the attacker, suggesting that it must be someone in her midst. Also, the same hooded man has been spotted by one of her neighbours. Every passing car, bizarre knock, and unusual sound is a possible threat that lies just round the corner. Will Michèle discover the identity of her rapist? Will she avoid further attempts? Will she get some sort of revenge?
Not an easy film to qualify, it has elements of so many genres. Part revenge thriller, part violent mystery, it also mixes in its fair share of drama and a few awkward laughs. Despite what has occurred, Michèle is still a sexually driven woman. Her desires have not been hampered by the rape, also placing the movie into the realm of the sexual exploration of womanhood.
As you can probably tell from the above synopsis, very few of the characters are what we would call ‘likeable’. And, it was an interesting choice to make the protagonist less than affable. She is coolly aloof, often snarly and in many ways, hypocritical, but is also a fighter and survivor, unwilling to be called a victim. Strong willed and brave, she sometimes seems more intrigued by the predicament than threatened by it. Unlike what we would see in an American film, we are unsure and unable to truly read what is coming – is she investigating her happening for a vengeful purpose? How much do some of the characters know about the goings on?
It is not surprising that Verhoeven, the filmmaker behind Basic Instinct, would choose this as his most recent effort after four years off from behind the camera. Using his sizeable skills, he builds an intricate, visually affecting motion picture for our lead to succeed in. There are many standout scenes, including a sensuous visit from Patrick during a violent wind storm. As the home is bombarded by the inclement weather, the pair close the shutters to protect the windows, but are also wooing each other (a disconcerting tension hangs in the quasi adulterous air). An earlier moment finds Michèle bathing after the violation, blood red seeping up through the bubbles – there may be no more beautiful way to depict the distressing damage that has been done to this woman.
Maintaining its haunting mood from bookend to bookend, Elle is, in a weird way, a very empowering film. Centred around Huppert’s masterful performance, its message of fighting, surviving, persevering and finally escaping from the chains that bind is a powerful one. You should definitely know about this unique motion picture, so let there be no confusion, I hope you’ll consent to see this most daring film.
This has a much different flavour than anything you’d find in North American. Complex, surprising and sophisticated, it left me a little bit speechless at times. An interesting film.