10th edition CIFF – 10-14 April 2024

Elle (2017 Feature Film)

Paul Verhoeven | France, Germany, Belgium | 2016 | color | DCP | 130 min | French | e.s.

High-powered business woman Michèle, head of leading video game company, seems indestructible. Being attacked in her home by an unknown assailant changes Michèle’s life forever. When she resolutely tracks the man down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game, a game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.

The high-powered business woman Michèle Leblanc seems indestructible. Head of a leading video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. Michèle has a lot going on: a slacker son who has an abusive pregnant girlfriend, an ex-husband now dating a young yoga teacher, a bored sex fling with a married man, an elderly Botox-ed mother carrying on an affair with a gigolo, a pressing project at work, a handsome married neighbor, and a complex backstory that not revealed until far into the film.

After being attacked in her own home, Michele takes measures into her own hands. When she resolutely tracks the unknown assailant down, they are both drawn into a curious and thrilling game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control. The psychological thriller Elle (French for ‘she’ or ‘her’) is based on the novel Oh… by Philippe Dijan.

Place: CINEMA 1

Date: 6 April 2017

Time: 21:30

Duration: 1:40

Place: CINEMA 1

Date: 7 April 2017

Time: 21:15

Duration: 1:38

Place: CINEMA 1

Date: 8 April 2017

Time: 15:15

Duration: 1:39

Year in
Festival

2017

Director

Paul Verhoeven

Camera

Stéphane Fontaine

Cast

Isabelle Huppert
Laurent Lafitte
Anne Consigny
Charles Berling
Virginie Efira
Judith Magre
Christian Berkel

Country

France
Germany
Belgium

Editor

Job ter Burg

Language

French

Length

130 min

Music

Anne Dudley

Producer

Saïd Ben Saïd
Michel Merkt

Production Company

SBS Productions
Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion
France 2 Cinéma

Production Design

Laurent Ott

Sales

SBS International

Scenario

David Birke
based on the novel Oh… by Philippe Djian

Sound Design

Alexis Place

Year of Production

2016

Paul VERHOEVEN (1938, Netherlands), is one of Hollands leading film makers, with an impressive international career. He rose to fame in the late sixties with the TV series Floris and put himself firmly on the map with successful films like Turkish Delight (1973) and Soldier of Orange (1977). In the late eighties he took the leap to Hollywood, where he directed sci-fi classics like Robocop (1987) and Total Recall (1990) and more controversial films like the Hitchcockian Basic Instinct (1992) and the  – now cult film – Showgirls (1995). Black Book (2006) was his first Dutch film in twenty years. His most recent film, the Franco-German Elle (2016), was selected for the main competition of the Cannes Film Festival and won two Golden Globes for best foreign film and best actress (Isabelle Huppert).

 

Filmography

Een hagedis teveel (1960, short), Niets bijzonders/Nothing Special (1961, short), De lifters (short), Feest! (short), Het korps mariniers (1965, short doc), Floris (1969, TV series), Portret van Anton Adriaan Mussert (1970, doc, TV), De worstelaar (1971, short), Wat zien ik/Business Is Business (1971), Turks Fruit/Turkish Delight (1973), Keetje Tippel/Katie Tippel (1975), Soldaat van Oranje /Soldier of Orange (1977), Spetters (1980), Voorbij, voorbij (1981, TV), De vierde man/The 4th Man (1983), Flesh+Blood (1985), Robocop (1987), Total Recall (1990), Basic Instinct (1992), Showgirls (1995), Starship Troopers (1997), Hollow Man (2000), Zwartboek/Black Book (2006), Steekspel/Tricked (2012), Elle (2016)