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Elle is not your average love story. In fact, I’m not sure if it should even be classified as a love story. There are optimistic, comedic, and slightly romantic moments sprinkled throughout the film. Glimpses of light peek through despite a series of unfortunate events as well. Even with that, it is not a love story. While there is a classic girl meets boy plot, it is not the main focus and it definitely becomes hard to appreciate it, as it quickly gets overshadowed by a bewildering cat and mouse game, that is combined with awkward, but necessary topics such as infidelity, rape and sadomasochism.
The film follows Michelle (Isabelle Huppert) an independent co-owner of a video game company, who’s life is turned upside down after she is attacked by an unknown stalker. The day in the life glimpses that we see are trivial compared to the opening sequence where we soon learn that Michelle has been violently raped. Instead of dwelling on the attack, she nonchalantly brushes it aside, and discloses the event to a few of her close friend. As she begins to receive harassing calls, texts, and gifts, she continues to move forward, refusing to seek out her assailant or contact the authorities.
Michelle’s traumatizing backstory only slightly explains her obsession with pain, and her refusal to get help, especially after she discovers who her attacker is. Not only did she bear witness to her father’s plan to cover up several murders as a child, she also unknowingly assisted with his scheme. This experience negatively impacted her well into her adult years. While she may hold it together for her son and peers at work, she is a wreck when it comes to her personal life. She is a divorced mother, who has a semi-respectable relationship with her ex-husband, and a rocky relationship with her own parents. She exhibits early on that she is ruthless as she vies for the attention of her religious neighbor’s husband, while also having relations with another married man.
This film not only informs, but it also seems to make light of sadomasochism themes as well as rape. It’s hard to decide whether the film did a good job of portraying the experiences of a shattered women. Viewers don’t have to be personally connected to the subject matter in order to feel empathetic towards Michelle’s situation and to feel a little unsettled by the offhanded decisions that she makes throughout the film. The female character wasn’t unlikeable because of these decisions, and at times her bold statements and jokes added to her character and made her more affable.
Infidelity was treated unsurprisingly lightly throughout the film. All parties involved seemed nonchalant that their stable, or maybe unstable relationships were shaken up by their cheating significant others. When the scandal was brought to light, the subject matter seemed to be swept under the rug. One of the parties involved was punished, but it wasn’t because of his unfaithful behavior. Each couple’s relationship was only slightly developed, and was only mentioned in order to advance Michelle’s storyline.
This film highlights sadomasochism from the perspective of a strong female lead, instead of a feeble supporting character. The media isn’t shy when it comes to talking about sexuality, especially female sexuality. In recent years, thanks to popular series such as Fifty Shades of Grey, BDSM, has become more widely known in the media. The problem with making such topics as S&M more public, which falls into BDSM, is that it must be “sexy”. Normally, pain is glorified in these films and the obsession is barely explained or touched on. With Elle, the leading lady is established as flawed, but a grounded older woman. Having an older, more established women, who unexpectedly appreciates S&M, from a masked attacker nonetheless, is a much needed twist.
How does one cover the topics of sadomasochism, rape, and infidelity in the same film without getting a few nodes of disapproval from critics? Although topics of rape and infidelity were touched on briefly during the festival, none were as intense and boldly expressive as Elle. Overall the film did an amazing job of establishing a likable strong female lead, with an equally expressive personality to match. I like that Michelle doesn’t pout or play the victim, which is completely acceptable, but the downplay of being raped is also a problem. This topic is not one to be made light of, but somehow the film gets away with doing so.
Elle (2016)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writers: Philippe Djian (based on the novel by), David Birke (screenplay)
Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Christian Berkel
Run time: 2h 10min
Elle: This is Not a Laughing Matter
Elle is not your average love story. In fact, I’m not sure if it should even be classified as a love story. There are optimistic, comedic, and slightly romantic moments sprinkled throughout the film. Glimpses of light peek through despite a series of unfortunate events as well. Even with that, it is not a love story. While there is a classic girl meets boy plot, it is not the main focus and it definitely becomes hard to appreciate it, as it quickly gets overshadowed by a bewildering cat and mouse game, that is combined with awkward, but necessary topics such as infidelity, rape and sadomasochism.
The film follows Michelle (Isabelle Huppert) an independent co-owner of a video game company, who’s life is turned upside down after she is attacked by an unknown stalker. The day in the life glimpses that we see are trivial compared to the opening sequence where we soon learn that Michelle has been violently raped. Instead of dwelling on the attack, she nonchalantly brushes it aside, and discloses the event to a few of her close friend. As she begins to receive harassing calls, texts, and gifts, she continues to move forward, refusing to seek out her assailant or contact the authorities.
Michelle’s traumatizing backstory only slightly explains her obsession with pain, and her refusal to get help, especially after she discovers who her attacker is. Not only did she bear witness to her father’s plan to cover up several murders as a child, she also unknowingly assisted with his scheme. This experience negatively impacted her well into her adult years. While she may hold it together for her son and peers at work, she is a wreck when it comes to her personal life. She is a divorced mother, who has a semi-respectable relationship with her ex-husband, and a rocky relationship with her own parents. She exhibits early on that she is ruthless as she vies for the attention of her religious neighbor’s husband, while also having relations with another married man.
This film not only informs, but it also seems to make light of sadomasochism themes as well as rape. It’s hard to decide whether the film did a good job of portraying the experiences of a shattered women. Viewers don’t have to be personally connected to the subject matter in order to feel empathetic towards Michelle’s situation and to feel a little unsettled by the offhanded decisions that she makes throughout the film. The female character wasn’t unlikeable because of these decisions, and at times her bold statements and jokes added to her character and made her more affable.
Infidelity was treated unsurprisingly lightly throughout the film. All parties involved seemed nonchalant that their stable, or maybe unstable relationships were shaken up by their cheating significant others. When the scandal was brought to light, the subject matter seemed to be swept under the rug. One of the parties involved was punished, but it wasn’t because of his unfaithful behavior. Each couple’s relationship was only slightly developed, and was only mentioned in order to advance Michelle’s storyline.
This film highlights sadomasochism from the perspective of a strong female lead, instead of a feeble supporting character. The media isn’t shy when it comes to talking about sexuality, especially female sexuality. In recent years, thanks to popular series such as Fifty Shades of Grey, BDSM, has become more widely known in the media. The problem with making such topics as S&M more public, which falls into BDSM, is that it must be “sexy”. Normally, pain is glorified in these films and the obsession is barely explained or touched on. With Elle, the leading lady is established as flawed, but a grounded older woman. Having an older, more established women, who unexpectedly appreciates S&M, from a masked attacker nonetheless, is a much needed twist.
How does one cover the topics of sadomasochism, rape, and infidelity in the same film without getting a few nodes of disapproval from critics? Although topics of rape and infidelity were touched on briefly during the festival, none were as intense and boldly expressive as Elle. Overall the film did an amazing job of establishing a likable strong female lead, with an equally expressive personality to match. I like that Michelle doesn’t pout or play the victim, which is completely acceptable, but the downplay of being raped is also a problem. This topic is not one to be made light of, but somehow the film gets away with doing so.
Elle (2016)
Director: Paul Verhoeven
Writers: Philippe Djian (based on the novel by), David Birke (screenplay)
Stars: Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Christian Berkel
Run time: 2h 10min
