Elle

Paul Verhoeven's first French feature unrolls with a rather repugnant opening. Our main character Michèle (Isabelle Huppert) has been raped by a masked burglar of some kind. But after the incident, she seems to be cool about it & continues with her regular life. She does care. She is worried. But, she takes it in with calmness. This is maybe due to her age, experience & haunting past. From here on, you would think that the story's approaching towards the mysterious rapist. Who's he, how & why did it happen? There's also a later scene that shows the actual crime transpiring, which means the film is getting back to where the story bounds to travel on.

Unfortunately, the clunky screenwriting that moves around myriad aspects of Michèle's life takes away the essence of the primary story. Her work life as an assertive video game producer, her flirtatious and rebellious employees, narcissistic mother, mass murderer father, son who's in a mid-life crisis with his girlfriend, gaming industry, infidelity with her best friend's husband, potential homosexual relationship with her bestie and the charming neighbor who becomes her recent interest are the topics that are visited and too bad, dilute the single focus of the sexual assault case! Sure, these do give a holistic view on the character of Michèle Leblanc, but it makes the story go all over the place! If these are not enough, out of nowhere, an accident occurs for no reasons to help the movie go forward. The writers would have probably thought of all the most random things that could materialize and threw it into the script!

When we do get to the part where the real story is concerned, the motion picture is compelling at certain portions. Michèle's been receiving threat messages & morphed video game sequence in her inboxes. If she really wants to find out who's the culprit, she could have easily used the fresh semen left on her comforter for a DNA test, right? While she's been stalking & masturbating to her neighbor, it turns out that he is in fact the rapist! He gets a morbid fascination out of forcing himself on her, and a whole series of consensual rape roleplay ensues between the two. When she finally wants to free herself from the dirt, she stops lying about the affair, and decides to nail the rapist down after having what she wants.

European cinema has always been very daring, bold & brusque in their visual imageries, without relenting away from it. But, it is not all the time necessary if it doesn't bring any sorts of meanings to the picture. Many scenes are plain idiotic; the childbirth process's so damn quick! It's understandable that Michèle's growing suspicious towards her surroundings, but why would she attack a random car parker on the street? She could do something if anyone enters her home, right? Why would an unknown lady in a café litter on her? What is her son's occupation now all of a sudden, that he could afford a convertible? It's so coincident that the neighbor's wife has to leave for Mass, just to give an open interactional opportunity between Michèle and the man. Last but not least, her best friend comes and talks to her as if nothing happened, post knowing about the extra-marital affair Michèle's been having with her husband. What are all these illogics?