Are you Dreaming of France? Is Elle on your Must See list?

Thinking of France we enjoy the idea of fine wine and gourmet cuisine (both French words after all), the beaches of the south of France, charming hilltop villages, the lovely lavender fields of Provence, the haute couture of Paris. As the birthplace of cinema, we also think of movies and France’s tradition of pushing the envelope from time to time. This year, the envelope has been pushed with the controversial Elle, about a woman who plots to take revenge on her rapist. 

Isabelle Huppert won the Golden Globe for her performance in Elle, she may win the Oscar too although the material may be too rough for some Academy voters. Her character Michele, is the head of a video game company. The audience for those games, some sexualized in nature, is male, as are most of her employees making Michele a sexually charged fantasy figure herself. Michele is raped at the beginning of the film, a brutal event that she takes in stride on the surface, but underneath is plotting her revenge. Is she overly zealous in her response? That remains to be seen. And I have yet to see it.

A controversial film, the movie has received a variety of responses. Read Erik Cohn’s review written after Elle’s debut at Cannes for IndieWire. Below, Isabelle Huppert, also via IndieWire.

Based on the French novel Oh! by Philippe Djian, and directed by Paul Verhoeven, Elle is in French with English subtitles. The trailer is at the bottom of the post.

Have you seen Elle? What do you think?

Love everything French? Check out this week’s Dreaming of France meme at An Accidental Blog.