Elle

ELLE

Director : Paul Verhoeven
Year : 2017
Genre : Thriller
Rating: ****

It would seem rather ironic, nay wholly contradictory to consider that Paul Verhoeven, the same director who once shocked and scandalized audiences with his steamy and sleazy psycho-drama 'Showgirls' (a film which was heavily cut by censors for it's supposed glamorisation of sexual violence) would go on to create one of the most contentious and evocative pictures I have seen so far in my film reviewing career but 'Elle', his first French language feature (adapted from Phillippe Dijan's 2012 novel 'Oh...') is a truly powerful one that gleefully lifts the lid on certain cinematic taboos while unapologetically delving deep into thematic territory that Hollywood would, quite simply, never dare touch upon. 

'La La Land's Emma Stone won the Best Actress Oscar but it is the fearless and formidable Isabelle Huppert who should have picked up the gold statuette for her magnificently acidic (and Golden Globe winning) turn as the psychologically complex Michele, a developer of overly sexualized and horrifically violent games who, at the beginning of the film, suffers a brutal and protracted rape. However, instead of reporting the assault to the police - for reasons which become more apparent as the film goes on - she takes matters into her own perfectly manicured hands and what ensues is an undoubtedly disturbing yet sardonically funny psycho-thriller as the increasingly steely Michele attempts to discover the identity of and bring vengeance to the man who so savagely violated her.

In many ways its hard to review a film as divisive, as acerbic and as purely indescribable as 'Elle' in mere words. Much of it's pitch black joy comes from the performances and the way in which Verhoeven, one of cinemas true provocateurs, directs it. It would be easy to say that Huppert, one of the greatest actresses ever to grace the silver screen, delivers a simply astonishing performance that effortlessly confronts gender roles and audiences perceptions of sexuality while Verhoeven has made the best picture of his disparate and often controversial career.

However, therein lies the problem - 'Elle' is not an easy movie; to review or indeed to watch. The many troubling themes that its director and his indomitable leading lady are tackling are so deeply harrowing that it is morally impossible to truly recommend the movie to a wide audience while the upfront, almost blaze methods in which Verhoeven and screenwriter David Birke tell their very challenging story could easily be construed by viewers as obscene, as exploitative or even as downright offensive.

With its twisted characterisations, bizarre narrative contrivances and ambiguous ethics towards its lead protagonist, 'Elle' is a film that purposefully asks more questions than it ultimately answers. However, for me, it is in this ruthless ambiguity that the true genius of the movie lies. Is it a pro-feminist work? Is it a proto-feminist work? Does feminism even play a part in this? Only you can be the judge of that. I know it's certainly going to take me a couple more watches before I can reach any kind of satisfying conclusion.

In the same way that Verhoeven is ambivalent towards his characters, I myself remain ambivalent towards the film. It is morally problematic to say the least and, quite frequently it is laughably preposterous but what makes 'Elle' so utterly unmissable is the presence of Isabelle Huppert without whom the picture quite simply wouldn't and indeed couldn't exist. At a time when Western cinema is content just to stick to tried and tested conventions, it is refreshing to watch a movie that goes out of its way to not play by the rules - whether for better or for worse - and its politics, its themes and its overall execution are sure to provoke intense debate among film students and scholars alike for many more years, even decades to come.