beckyhiggins-29000
Having read many reviews on this film, it's fair to say Elle splits opinions; it's either a masterfully acted, powerful psychological drama, or a convulted piece of drivel with gratutitious sex and violence. I was intrigued to watch this after reading some of the reviews, particularly of Hubbert's 'Oscar-worthy' performance, though disappointly, I happen to share the latter viewpoint. This is a film trying to be clever, and getting it all wrong. I have so many issues with this film; Firstly, for it to be a great psychological drama there has to be some genuine intrigue as to who the mystery rapist is. Considering there's only really about 2 or 3 possible suspects, one of whose character's is never built sufficiently for it to be him, and another is quickly suspected then discounted in the same breath, it hardly becomes a real whodunnit... more of a baffling why... and even more bafflingly/ troublingly why she reacts like that. Also, why reveal his identity part way through and then have nothing come of it... it was quite anti-climatic (unlike all of her sexual encounters). The (totally pointless) back story of the serial killer Dad is perhaps meant to provide some explanation for why she troublingly seems to let all men, except her ex-husband and some random employee at work, walk all over her. She's presented as obstentiously this hard-nosed women who'll take no prisoners at work and who'll never forgive her ex who once hit her, but then but will forgive the random masked stranger who comes in, beats the shit out of her and rapes her repeatedly, yeah sure that makes sense. Perhaps she's meant to subconsciously feel guilty or unworthy of love, but that's never really expressed and she seems to have no qualms about cheating on her childless best friend and admiring herself in the mirror, so perhaps that's not the case. As someone else has mentioned, it's not just Michelle who has bizarre emotionless reactions to events. Really no-one in the film really reacts with anything even remotely resembling human emotion to anything that happens to them, making it genuinely difficult to relate to any of the characters. Her son seems absurdly dumb, grinning inanely in front of the clearly mixed raced baby in front of his black friend; her friend is oddly calm on hearing her best friend and husband have been cheating on her, the uber religious woman isn't at all mad/ sad her husband's dead, everyone is allowed to say the most offensive things to each other and just get away with it and after one car accident, two affairs, three break-ups, multiple deaths, several rapes and a cacophany of other shit that would bring down even the strongest individual no-one cries.... the whole thing is bizarre!The plot has more stories (and plot holes!) in it that a latin american telenovela. Everyone has some psychological disorder/ lazy stereotyping; the son is a lazy layabout, good for nothing, his girlfriend is a blonde pyscho, her mother is in denial of ageing/ ever been married to a serial killer, there's the pretty pious one, the ex with a thing for younger yoga instructors, the clueless, kind best friend, the sleazy lothario best friend's husband, the token black guy, the list goes on... The most troubling thing in this film is the portayal of woman and what they either do, or have to put up having done to them; Michelle, the main character; receives physical assaults for the actions of her father when she was a child, sexual harrassment at work by an employee, verbal assault by an employee, is used for sex by her best friend's husband - despite callling it off- after a car accident which leaves her in crutches and his response was 'well we won't be skiing' and then plays dead during intercourse, is harrassed by journalists and is raped several times - something she claims she can't report to the police because of her past involvement with her father's crimes, in someway implying she believes/ accepts she deserves it, and is beaten to the point of near unconsciousness. Her mother is used by a younger guy who wants to screw the wife of a serial killer, her friend accepts the betrayal of her best friend and suggests to move in with her and the daughter in law is presented as erratic, unfaithful, controlling and irresponsible. If anyone has pyschological issues in this film, then I'd say it's the director! He has a disturbing attitude towards women. If fact, it's pretty ironic this film is called Elle/ Her, as the perspective couldn't be any more masculine; of course she works making erotic, demeaning to women video games, of course she's letting herself be abused by a stranger, taken advantage of by a friend and showing herself as sexually provactive to a neighbour. Of course all women masturbate over a man across the street moving furniture - or they do Verhoeven's sick head. Of course she's wearing revealing, rip openable dresses and sexy underwear to be raped. Of course she tells her friends calmly of the rape, and then suggest they order food. Of course she has a terrible relationship with her mother, a disapproving reaction to her son's girlfriend and a jealous reaction to her ex's new partner. Verhoeven has made some kind of sick fantasy of his into a film, where this women secretly enjoys being attacked, beaten and raped. The rape scenes are genuinely shocking and if i believe they were done to show the horror of sexual violence I could just about contenance their inclusion, but to me they feel gratutitous and profoundly disturbing to watch, let alone film. In the week in which the topic of male director's subjecting female actors to distressing scenes in the name of art, it's worth again considering whether this is art, or abuse of power. Of course in his eye's a 'strong female character' means detatched and devoid of emotions and complicit in her own abuse. I really struggle to see how anyone can watch this film and view any of the female characters as strong, any of the reactions believable and any of the plot line convincing. Some good acting (Isabelle Hubbert should have saved her talents for a film worthy of them) and good camera work aside, this film is a farce.
aarosedi
This film can be best described as an examination of the portrayal of rape in the audio-visual medium, and starts it with just that. The protagonist, Elle, a middle-aged lady, head of a video game company, becomes a victim of a brutal attack by a masked man in her own home. She is then seen later on to be actively critiquing the CG animation medieval fantasy rape scenes being made by her company. She barely has time to go to the hospital and went on to get tested for STD instead and not even bothering to report the incident to the police. Deadlines are tight in the office.Spoilers are necessary for people who are being introduced to this film that should be restricted to that introductory scene if only to serve as a forewarning. The film should be considered synonymous with the word rape. Doing so will not dampen the appreciation for this film for that only just barely scrapes the surface. The meaty aspect of this film is in the methods that Elle used in identifying her predator, and that subversiveness in infusing black comedic elements to a very a dark subject. An example of that would be how the rape at the start of the film would be replayed twice and with each iteration of the horrific, horrendous, hideous incident, the humor pervades. It is weirdly amazing and twisted. That's what I consider the Verhoeven genius. My knowledge of French-language films is fairly limited, don't know the language, and I've only seen Huppert on film once before, Ma mere, where she played a character that's not really very flattering, and my ignorance of her stature in French cinema certainly didn't help. But, man, she's gives a tour-de-force performance portraying an embattled lady having to also contend with domestic and workplace problems.It's sublime how the clever script, the musical score, superb cast and the cute black cat named Marty really helped elevate this thriller into becoming a window to the world of a steadfast but flawed lady that still manages to be such a paragon of resilience.My rating: A-flat.
