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Elle

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01:56

Elle

Name: Elle
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Genre: Thriller, Action, Crime/detective, Drama, Mystery
Released: 2016
Duration: 2 h 5 min
Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Laffite, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira

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Thriller
Action

2016
Paul Verhoeven
125 mins
18

Summary

Thriller starring Isabelle Huppert. When divorcee Michèle Leblanc is attacked and raped in her home, she does not report the crime to the police and instead carries on stoically with her job as the head of a successful computer games company. However, it soon becomes apparent that her assailant is still around and an unconventional game of cat and mouse commences.

IMDB

Review

A star rating of 4 out of 5.

Andrew Collins

Dutch provocateur Paul Verhoeven learned French in order to set this bold, surprising adaptation of prize-winning novel Oh... in genteel Paris, with Isabelle Huppert in the taxing role of divorced video-game CEO Michèle Leblanc, raped at home by a masked intruder in the harrowing opening moments. To simplistically call the neo-noir that follows a revenge thriller overlooks the delectable undercurrent of Gallic social satire in David Birke's script (a scene involving a nightmare Christmas dinner rivals anything from a Mike Leigh drama). There's also the fact the sexual assault fades from the foreground while Michèle deals with the other convoluted threads of her life: her feckless son's rushed marriage; an affair with the husband of her business partner (Anne Consigny); her sexually flagrant elderly mother's gigolo toy boy; and an unimaginable childhood trauma that feeds everything (and dissuades Michèle from reporting the rape to the police). The attack, repeatedly shown, is brutal and terrifying, but Huppert is anything but a victim, surrounded on all sides by weak men, which at least suggests a feminist slant. You could say Verhoeven has translated his own Basic Instinct into French, but this film benefits from the change of setting and will spark debate about everything from violent computer games and sexual empowerment to lax suburban crime prevention for days to come.

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7.1/10

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Credits

Cast

rolenameMichèle LeblancIsabelle HuppertPatrickLaurent LaffiteAnnaAnne ConsignyRichardCharles BerlingRebeccaVirginie EfiraRobertChristian BerkelIrèneJudith MagreVincentJonas BloquetJosieAlice IsaazHélèneVimala Pons