Elle [Blu-ray] [2017]

Isabelle is really superb, enjoyable, dazzling, congenial, funny and so on. As good as Benedetta or even slightly better in his own way. Paul Verhoeven is a master in the power of suggestion.

This is a superb film. If I could give it more than 5 stars I would.Isabelle Huppert's performance is mesmerising, although there is wonderful support from all the cast.She is raped at the very start of the film, but instead of withdrawing, she tries to track down her attacker. This is a thriller utterly uncompromising in its portrayal of sex, but without ever being gratuitously sleazy.She plays the boss of a film company producing animated videos, but that is just a framework for her more personal life.Deservedly she won a Golden Globe for her performance (2017) and was nominated for an Oscar Best Actress. I haven't yet seen the competitive performances from actors like Meryl Streep and Natalie Portman, but I doubt whether they could hold a candle to the intensity of Huppert's. (It was the year when La La Land swept the Oscars so Emma Stone won)

Isabelle Huppert is superb as the psychotic woman whose main purpose in life is to cause as much pain and chaos as possible. Her father was a multiple murderer who may have been more influenced by his ten year old daughter than his own sense of self. She uses sex in a violent manner that reflects her own psychological state. Her approach is to life is replicated in her gaming business where the dynamics of her creations are underpinned by the violent physical and psychological urges of her own world.At the end she manipulates her son into killing her neighbour who has acted out a violent rape scenario on her, partly with her own connivance where the 'natural' climax is his death.One fears about what will happen to her son's girlfriend and child!

Having read the rave-reviews I was a bit disappointed. The acting is superb by all the cast. Not wishing to add spoilers here, but the cold, ruthless and calculating way in which the main character deals with her rape, her sexual desires and her relationship with her parents leaves no room for any empathy at all, and that's partly because there is virtually no exploration about where these (almost psychopathic) traits come from; more time spent on this and less time spent on needlessly repetitive, abusive sex-scenes might have made for a more intelligent view of a complex character (who is thoroughly unpleasant and abusive to others in all aspects of her life) and a more engaging experience watching the film

The setting is French urban chic. The central character plus friend are both bosses of their video-gaming company. Female leadership and therefore the drive to characterization is from that sex. The protagonist is dealing with various levels of complicated relationships: with her son, with her mother, with her ex-husband, with her lover, and with the desired focus on the particular game being developed. In that context, the unfolding story is how she responds to being raped; violent in itself. It's the unfolding twists - 'twisted even' reactions that take one's breath away. There is a deep psychological dimension. For some who might explore more, read 'Whose Been Sleeping in Your Head'.

Very good

I was gripped from start to finishReservations? Very French in that we move to another scene before we can digest what we've just watched, (not to mention the tolerant attitude to infidelity). The rapist's disguise was more than a touch flimsy. I was not convinced the victim wouldn't have gone to the police.But Isabelle Huppert was brilliant, as was her (cuckolded) close friend, and the religious neighbour.And there was suspense too. Plus food for thought.Loved it.

Huppert plays the head of a video game software development company who gets raped by an unknown assailant early on in the film. She then starts to suspect some of her employees as the video game they are currently working on is quite violent as she oddly decides not to call the police. Then we learn her father is an incarcerated serial killer, her mother an old cougar messing around with a much younger man and other distracting nonsense. In between, Huppert is having an affair with her best friend's husband as the film ambles along and she tries to discover who the culprit is. Later in the film she does and then it gets really unbelievable and silly as she again does not report him to the police but tolerates it and to a certain point encourages this abnormal behaviour. Overall, it is just about watchable nonsense that just escapes being a one star.