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 get 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 about “Elle” seems designed to spur argument, all the way down to its genre. Is the film a dark 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 run of the mill “wives and mistresses, never shall they meet” French comedy?
Each viewer will have to come 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 funny, and Isabelle Huppert has never been better.
Huppert plays Michèle, a Paris-based tech executive, who, in the first scene of the film, 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, 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, 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, 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, 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.
Well, some may call it transgressive; others may use 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 quite a stir. Take a good look at Huppert’s mug – it is the face that will launch a thousand think pieces.
Cannes Parties 2016: Katy Perry, Usher, Village People Are Best in Show (Photos)
Katy Perry, Salma Hayek, Usher and a surprise appearance from the Village People top the glam circuit of the year at the Cannes bashes.
Getty Images
Elle Fanning and Katy Perry stole the show at the amfAR Cinema Against AIDS gala on Thursday, May 19. It is the last big bash of the festival and the most prestigious, located about 30 minutes outside Cannes.
Getty Images
Paris Hilton ... is still on the list for amfAR. Models Toni Garrn and Karlie Kloss are now regulars, and Uma Thurman is a permanent fixture.
Getty Images
At amfAR on the grounds of the Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, one of these things is not like the other. The Village People have yet to draft a beret-wearing, bicycle-riding, baguette-eating stereotype in to their band for this special appearance.
As for getting away from Cannes madness, David Unger and Three Six Zero entertainment went large earlier in the week with helicopter transport to their lunch.
Courtesy of Three Six Zero
Inside, Unger (far right) welcomed guests Sebastien Besson (CEO of the Ace of Spade champagne house, Armand de Brigand) and Usher, in town promoting his role as Sugar Ray Leonard in "Hands of Stone."
Courtesy of Three Six Zero
Usher with the real Roberto Duran after the "Hands of Stone" premiere. Someone should have told the audience "no mas." The famed ("no more" in english) quote from the Leonard-Duran 1980 boxing match is a part of sports history, but could have applied to the 15-minute standing ovation for the biopic.
Getty Images
Edgar Ramirez (who plays Duran), Ana de Armas, and the real Roberto Duran.
Getty Images
At the Weinstein Company party for "Hands of Stone," Toni Garrn is barefoot because that's yacht protocol ...
Getty Images
... unless you're Harvey Weinstein, of course. In a real power move, Harvey need not remove his shoes on the Weinstein yacht.
Getty Images
Directors Nicolas Winding Refn and Jim Jarmusch ported the boxing "fist pose" to other parts of Cannes, striking it at Col Needham's IMDb dinner party ...
Getty Images
... as Oscar Jaenada (far right) brought it to the Vanity Fair party on Saturday night at the Hotel du Cap.
Getty Images
VF had a golden hour bash, starting in the day...
George Pimentel/Getty Images
... and transitioning to night.
George Pimentel/Getty Images
VF host Graydon Carter welcomes Livia Firth (left) with Anna Scott Carter. HBO partnered on the dinner.
George Pimentel/Getty Images
The idyllic early summer south of France sunset provided this postcard from the festival party scene with Salma Hayek and Chloe Sevigny.
Robert De Niro received a tribute at the festival, tied to his role in "Hands of Stone" as boxing trainer Ray Arcel.
Getty Images
A peek inside Amazon's five-picture joint party at the popup of Paris club Silencio.
Getty Images
The HFPA lived up to their "global" moniker with a hot party in the opening days. Lilla Soria, HFPA president Lorenzo Soria, Sony Pictures Classics Co-President Michael Barker, Caroline Baron, and SPC Co-President Tom Bernard.
Getty Images
Jury president George Miller, Jeff Skoll, and Fox studios president Jim Gianopulos made the scene at the benefit for Filmaid International.
Getty Images
The HFPA's most social savvy duo: Lorenzo Soria and Munawar Hosain scoped out their bash.
Getty Images
Paul Allen's yacht party made a comeback this year with a more upscale crowd than recent years: Mick Jagger, fellow rock royalty in the form of Elvis offspring Riley Keough, Kate Hudson, recent Oscar winner Mark Rylance, Kristen Stewart, Heidi Klum, and the host played Pink Floyd guitar solos partied at sea. Cellphones were frowned upon.
The theme of the event was "enchanted garden" and included a live sculpture model greeting guests waiting to board the shuttle boats out to the yacht.
Millenium's Avi Lerner checked in with Meir Fenigstein at a cocktail party promoting this fall's Israeli Film Festival in LA.
Courtesy GSEMG
IMDb's Col Needham, Chaz Ebert, and TIFF's Cameron Bailey, who gets to enjoy Cannes as a guest, not a programmer.
Getty Images
1 of 27
The top shots from inside the fest’s best bashes from the Party Report’s Mikey Glazer
Katy Perry, Salma Hayek, Usher and a surprise appearance from the Village People top the glam circuit of the year at the Cannes bashes.