“Elle” – misogyn soup or feminist hämnarrulle? – Radio Sweden

Movie title: Elle
Director: Paul Verhoeven (Basic Instincts, Total Recall)
Actor: Isabelle Huppert, Anne Consigny
Genre: Thriller/Drama
Score: 3 of 5

The first thing we hear is screams and moans.

What we see: She is lying on the floor among broken glass in a torn dress. The chest is uncovered. She has been attacked and raped in her home by a masked man.

She settles in the bath. The foam is colored red. Then Michelle to the job. And says she fell.

She settles in the bath. The foam is colored red. Then Michelle to the job. And says she fell. So many women have done throughout history.

Michelle Leblanc played phenomenally by Isabelle Huppert. She is the boss in the gaming industry, surrounded by young game designers. She is cool, daring, stylish, upbeat in the face and of course sensual. With a fiendishly dark and violent family history behind them. She is almost a kind of superhjältefigur. Which is punished.

She report the abuse, she tells me less than if it had happened even to their friends. Instead of preparing herself with an ax, making themselves ready for revenge.

Three rapes later, I am both provoked and confused and wonder where the movie is on the way.

Three rapes later, I am both provoked and confused and wonder where the movie is on the way.

“Elle” has the coldest a våldtäktskomedi. I garvar not a single time. Well, maybe one, by the way: When her mother’s new young guy has thrown his maggördel over a sofa.

the Film is strangely easy told. Almost as if director Paul Verhoeven played with thrillergenrens stereotypes and with diligence, lined up schablonbilder of women – legs, big ass, tits – so hard that they eventually are emptied of charge and the whole thing becomes farcical. And towards the end really been screwed.

Questions afterwards are many. What was it we just saw? Was this a misogyn soup? Or a kind of feminist hämnarrulle? What was it Michelle wanted?

the Questions afterwards are many. What was it we just saw? Was this a misogyn soup? Or a kind of feminist hämnarrulle? What was it Michelle wanted?

But grubbleriet, Isabelle Hupperts great skådespelarinsats and they occasionally entertaining scenes, is not enough to get me to excuse the habitual dusty kvinnoschablonerna.

And it makes me so tired to even have to say it I’ll say now:

To y’all, dear directors.

Repeat after me:

There are no sexy rapes.

Lisa.Bergstrom@Sverigesradio.se
Lisa Bergström