If you cannot watch depictions of rape in TV shows and movies, do not watch Elle and stop reading. Elle is a French movie directed by Paul Verhoeven and stars Isabelle Huppert. Elle starts with rape, which is just one aspect of the central character’s life. She is essentially herself and undefined by her relation to other people. Rape is a brutal intrusion on her life, and Huppert’s character will find a way to move forward and deal with it. She has shit to do, and she is hungry. This rapist is just one in a long line of people who temporarily got her at a disadvantage, but not for long. I have been a Verhoeven fan for a long time with a preference for his European work over his American films, but Elle is the first time that I had an opportunity to see his work on the big screen, and in spite of the moments of unflinching brutality, I am happy that I did so. I am now a Huppert fan who gave the most fearless acting performance that I have ever seen in my life.
There are no contradictions when she plays different roles. She is the same whether she is a video game mogul, a boss bitch, a literature expert, an ex-wife, a mother, a daughter, a mistress, a grandmother, a friend, a neighbor, a mother-in-law, a stepdaughter or a notorious media figure. If viewed objectively, she is kind of a horrible person, but I liked her anyway, maybe because she is a nasty woman who knows what she can control and is unwavering in her sense of self. A viewer could never rationally blame her for what happens to her even if she is an awful person who benefits from rape culture and exploits Gamer Gate attitudes with hentai inspired graphics. Instead I admired Huppert’s textured and unapologetic approach to a minefield-laden film.
Elle absolutely could not be done in America. In America, even when everyone, including the perpetrator, agrees that rape occurred, we try to blame the victim by pointing to some aspect of the victim’s external behavior whereas Verhoeven’s Elle explores the full spectrum from rape to violent sexual role play. I am used to Verhoeven’s obsession with characters who are raped and subsequently enter complex relationships with the perpetrators while simultaneously not absolving the rapist of any guilt. Even though Verhoeven is Dutch, I think Elle is a very French film, and the French approach to sexuality tempered his usual approach to the subject matter while retaining the same complexity. There is an impudent and saucy approach to the rapist’s obligations to his victim. You owe her buddy, and she is never going to let you forget it. At the end of the film, rape only reveals that when unmasked, the rapist is not a real man, but inadequate and unsatisfying under the female gaze. I correctly guessed the identity of the masked rapist because I am familiar with European sensibilities, and his career and choice in extracurricular activities were dead giveaways.
Oddly enough, no one ever mentions that Elle is kind of like a subversive European take on the traditional holiday movie reminiscent of A Christmas Tale. Elle is a holiday movie centered on a woman bringing her crazy assortment of family, friends and neighbors together in a most untraditional manner complete with forbidden flirtations, sniping at your younger stepdad, making snide comments at your cuckolded son and grotesque mother. Because I knew little about Elle before seeing it, I was pleasantly surprised as the story slowly reveals the main character’s life story, even her irreverent take on her childhood. Elle is really funny. Her life is interesting without the rape, and we soon learn that she is an expert at rewriting stories where others victimize her: her ex-husband, an obsessed employee(s), her father. Elle also has an implicit caution: is the grandfather’s madness transmitted by blood?
I went to the film alone, and the older woman seated next to me was in shock. I turned to her and asked, “You have never seen a Verhoeven film before, have you?” She had not. Elle can be a shock to a Verhoeven acolyte, but one of his most sophisticated to date so it is as good a movie as any to start with, but his other films are more working class. Elle is definitely my favorite Verhoeven film, and I may want to see every film Huppert has ever been in. While I cannot heartily recommend it because of its provocative and mature subject matter, people who enjoy European films who are not traumatized by sexual violence depictions on screen will love it.
My only criticism of Elle: cats don’t leap into their human’s arms and shriek like that. They only act like that in movies.