'Elle' Press Conference | Paul Verhoeven & Isabelle Huppert | NYFF54

Director Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert spoke at a press conference for 'Elle' before its U.S. Premiere at the 54th New York Film Festival.
Paul Verhoeven’s first feature in a decade-and his first in French-ranks among his most incendiary, improbable concoctions: a wry, almost-screwball comedy of manners about a woman who responds to a rape by refusing the mantle of victimhood. As the film opens, Parisian heroine Michèle (a brilliant Isabelle Huppert) is brutally violated in her kitchen by a hooded intruder. Rather than report the crime, Michèle, the CEO of a video game company and daughter of a notorious mass murderer, calmly sweeps up the mess and proceeds to engage her assailant in a dangerous game of domination and submission in which her motivations remain a constant source of mystery, humor, and tension. A Sony Pictures Classics release. An NYFF54 selection.
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[@katjamendez]

Isabelle Huppert is a phenomenon, an absolute original. Her interviews are so intelligent.

[@MonalisaCerrutti]

Isabelle Huppert is the most talented actress of the whole planet!

[@matthewdakota2251]

instaBlaster

[@dirty06maggot]

this movie surprised me. kept me on the edge of my seat.

[@angliase]

Ferociously funny film. Lack of revenge is true! Loved how her character passive-aggressively destroyed the people & relationships around her..

[@Mrchair-bk5ns]

You loved that?

[@flazeda8743]

Are you sure there's no revenge tho?

[@zg-mzga]

I love her. love him too but ya know

[@postmodernpictures]

Verhoeven is brilliant.

[@frederick-nrunkkamara103]

Paul Verhoeven is an amazing director.

[@penarosa3]

She is great. The character she plays is a sad representation of the impact of trauma.

[@nasb2218]

the interviewer is hot

[@DeepScreenAnalysis]

The fact that American actresses turned this down proves to us that they are not about acting, they are about narcissism.

[@Gajdacsi61]

It wasn't that American actresses turned it down. The director gives the following reason" „The third act of the movie in American cinematographic idiom would have been a revenge. At the end of the second act you find out who the rapist was, and then the third act should have been about the revenge, and of course, the novel and the script and the film go in completely the different, opposite direction. I think that kind of lack of revenge and even a certain identification of the main character with the rapist, and she stretching out her hands towards him, is most probably the reason why the Americans didn’t want to do it.”

[@eev14]

Well, also a Dutch actrice (Carice van Houten, who also plays Melissandre on Game of Thrones) declined this role apparently, she missed out on an amazing role but i think the film itself might be better for it. Isabelle Huppert is rather perfect for this role and makes the film.

[@JR-ju3kj]

Well, we already know that, I'm not surprised that he had to make the film as a French film and like Paul said, the movie goes against the grain of the thematic material and model that American movies use. It sounds to me like Hollywood just didn't get the film and the way that the film was going to be made.

[@nasb2218]

the name of the interviewer plz lol

[@nikolassodiant2595]

Great Interview :-)

[@connyx]

I'm so glad it didn't turn out to be an american film. Not just because of the different actors but am pretty sure that we wouldn't see such a special movie. Faith, like Isabelle said in another interview, is perfect word for this project and I'm so so happy it turned out the way it did.

[@markosimic8652]

Amazing

[@EdjeMr1975]

Elle is such a amazing movie ..

[@harrychalcraft6371]

I found the film very strange and hard to understand. There's not much for me that stands out from it, apart from the beginning and the ending. The beginning with the videogame crap and the ending on the steps of a park or something, it was extremely strange, but good!

[@harrychalcraft6371]

She couldn't work out who it was, Huppert comes across very scary in it, despite her beauty she can come across as extremely terrifying as seen in Greta.

[@harrychalcraft6371]

After watching this she's comes across as scary in real-life too!!! Look at all that body language, crossing her arms, then not... Fidgeting etc. Maybe Paul gave her a hard time like he did with Sharon Stone haha.

[@andzwe]

The sequels by other directors of movies that Verhoeven did originally, prove him right: 11:37

[@qqqppp97]

💙💙💙21세기 최고의 감독♥♥♥

[@natalie651]

Why did the Americans say no? Um because the idea of a woman being in charge of violence against her is discouraged in American media and has always been. Duh duh duh.

[@dalyap7491]

How is she in charge? How? She's subjected to the violence in every single instance until her son, a MALE, ultimately saves her. Why the fuck aren't people getting this

[@flazeda8743]

@@dalyap7491 She's in charge after deciding *when* the guy can hurts her ruinning his pleasure since he's not fully the boss anymore. Her son saves her cause she planned it this way, she's in charge there too executing her revenge plan with the main tool of it being her son.

[@christiandoyle7783]

@@flazeda8743 the book confirms that she didn't plan it that way, actually. Michèle expresses regret about it being an accident immediately after. Admittedly, Verhoeven stages it a bit more ambiguously in the film, making it unclear as to whether or not her threat to call the police was genuine or if it was a provocation as part of their role play, but Dijan explicitly states that it's completely accidental and she regrets it at the end.

[@flazeda8743]

@@christiandoyle7783 Are we sure the director didn't change it in the movie to make it ambiguous? Cause in the scene she seems satisfied to me.

[@christiandoyle7783]

@@flazeda8743 I did mention that Verhoeven staged it more ambiguously, but I honestly think Huppert's performance leans into that ambiguity as well. I wouldn't say she looks satisfied, but I wouldn't say she looks horrified either. Given that ambiguity, I don't think it's right to characterize the film as a rape revenge film (especially considering that Verhoeven flatly denies it as a rape revenge film in this interview)

[@harrychalcraft6371]

I just bought Paul's book, should be a good laugh.

[@ggghhjd]

im glad he didn't call it a feminist film because the last film I heard being labelled a feminist film was 'I spit on your grave,' and those of us who saw that know that it was nothing of the sort, as indeed this is also nothing of the sort. How could it be when it was written by a man and scripted by a man and directed by a man? Some clown might say 'oh men can be feminists too,' but not, in my opinion, when we are talking about rape. If a woman had written this novel she would have been accused of being a masochist or a fantasist or both. When a man writes it he is praised for breaking a mould and writing a thought-provoking book. I thought the worst thing about the film was Isabelle's character's response when she discovers who the rapist is. That is where the film lost me. It is one thing for a girl to be kidnapped and raped in a cellar for years and to develop some syndrome towards the captor which ties her to him in some deep psycho-sexual level, but when we are talking about a single horrendous incident, and the woman is then free to respond in some way to it where she has control over the situation, I think the response chosen by the author was a 1 in a billion chance of being realistic or accurate.

[@gi2121]

Really? Asia Argento alledges she was raped by Harvey Weinstein, and then, some time fter the incident, she went to date him. Can you explain THAT to me?

[@flazeda8743]

But she has control over the situation even if many didn't understand that aspect of the movie. And we're told again and again that feminist simply means " pro-equity of the sexes" so a project by men could be a feminist one I guess. Also movies are useful for that, showing rare cases, helping us understanding rare reactions we struggle to get in real life.

[@babyirene3188]

Easily the grossest most revolting woman hating film I've seen in memory. Just vile.

[@Luke56721]

maybe sesame street is more up your alley.

[@dalyap7491]

Completely agree and completely gaping that people are so ferocious to defend it

[@flazeda8743]

@@dalyap7491 Don't you realize how ferociously you attack it yourself lol? How unfair it is to bash a project you obviously didn't understand whatsoever?

[@hansolo2121]

Okay Karen ... whatever you say.

[@dalyap7491]

I can't believe the sick messages we are passing on to the future generation of young women and men

[@gi2121]

I can't believe your lack of intelligence.

[@bertiemarshall3391]

They seem unhappy to be there, being contrary and difficult, Huppert is a great actress but comes over here as annoyed and bored, shouldn’t do interviews etc…