Michèle Leblanc is raped in her home by an assailant in a ski mask, then cleans up the mess and resumes her life. At her workplace, her male employees are alternately resentful of or infatuated with her. She carries on an affair with Robert, the husband of her friend and business partner Anna, and flirts with her married neighbor Patrick.
Michèle feels detached from her son Vincent, who submits to his abusive, pregnant girlfriend Josie. She has a contentious relationship with her mother, Irène, whom she resents for her narcissism and involvements with younger men. She is also the daughter of an infamous mass murderer whose parole hearing is approaching. Haunted by her father’s actions, Michèle is wary of law enforcement and does not report her rape to police.
Michèle grows increasingly suspicious of the men in her life. She receives harassing text messages from her assailant at a blocked number, indicating he is stalking her. She at first suspects Kurt, a particularly resentful employee, when a CGI animation of a monster raping her is emailed to everyone at the company. She pepper-sprays a man lurking outside her house, only to find out it is her ex-husband Richard, who was checking on her safety. She later discovers that another employee, who has been infatuated with her, created the animation but did not rape her.
On Christmas Eve, Irène suffers a stroke and begs her daughter to go see her father before she dies at hospital. Michèle is later attacked in her home by the assailant and, after stabbing his hand and unmasking him, learns that he is Patrick. Though she now knows his identity and realizes that he is able to enter her home despite having her locks changed, she still does not call the police and takes no measures to increase her home security.
Michèle decides to visit her father after his parole application is rejected, only to find that he has hanged himself hours before she arrives. Michèle suspects he killed himself so he could not bear to face her again. On the way home from the prison, she gets into a car crash in a secluded area. Rather than calling an ambulance, she first tries to call her friends, and then decides to call Patrick. After he rescues her from the car and bandages her, Michèle courts a brazenly dangerous sexual relationship with him. She engages in a vivid rape scenario while attempting to mitigate his inability to perform with a consenting woman. The two of them walk a delicate line in which Patrick has to feel as though he is raping Michèle, even though she consents to the roleplay.
Elle (French for “she” or “her”) is a French-German-Belgian psychological thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by David Birke, based on the novel Oh… by Philippe Djian, and starring Isabelle Huppert. The film tells the story of a businesswoman, Michèle (Isabelle Huppert), who is raped in her home by an unknown assailant and stalks him back.
It is Verhoeven’s first feature film in ten years after his 2006 film Black Book, and his first in French language. The film premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim. Elle was subsequently selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language film at the 89th Academy Awards.
Elle (French for “she” or “her”) is a 2016 French-German Neo-noir psychological thriller film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by David Birke, based on the novel Oh… by Philippe Djian. Djian’s novel was released in 2012 and received the Prix Interallié (National Literary Award).[4] The film stars Isabelle Huppert as a businesswoman who is raped in her home by a masked assailant and decides not to report it due to her past experience with police.
The film is Verhoeven’s first feature since 2006’s Black Book, and his first in the French language. It premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim.[5] Elle won the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and Critics’ Choice Movie Award for Best Foreign Language Film; it was also selected as the French entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, but was not nominated. At the 42nd César Awards in France, the film received eleven nominations, and won Best Film.
Huppert’s performance was widely acclaimed, considered to be one of the finest of her career. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress, and won several Best Actress awards, including the Golden Globe Award, César Award, National Society of Film Critics Award, New York Film Critics Circle Award, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award, Gotham Independent Film Award, and the Independent Spirit Award.
Elle
Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira, Alice Isaaz, Vimala Pons, Jonas Bloquet
Screenplay by: David Birke
Production Design by: Laurent Ott
Cinematography by: Stéphane Fontaine
Film Editing by: Job ter Burg
Costume Design by: Nathalie Raoul
Music by: Anne Dudley
MPAA Rating: R for violence involving sexual assault, disturbing sexual content, some grisly images, brief graphic nudity, and language.
Studio: EuropaCorp
Release Date: November 11, 2016
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