Elle

La similar Caché (Escondido) de Haneke era más misteriosa y de suspense. Pero resulta refrescante el regreso de Verhoeven (que suele apoyarse mucho en la forma) a un drama visualmente crudo y psicológicamente íntimo, apoyado solo en los actores. Pocas personas son normales aquí, y la protagonista es la reina de los muertos. No nos compadecemos de ella por lo que le ha ocurrido, pero nos preguntamos cómo afrontará el inesperado demonio con su actitud distante hacia todos y todo. Y cómo será su próxima interacción. Yo obviaría los tintes humorísticos que aligeran el tema serio y la exploración del complejo personaje principal. Pero es el estilo único del director lo que hace que la película sea única. Lo que es importante. Le doy una cuarta estrella por su dirección perfectamente cohesionada. No menciono a Haneke aquí por casualidad, y el nombre de Polanski también pertenece a esta lista. Y eso es más que una buena compañía para un creador de superproducciones de Hollywood. (29.11.2016)

As hard as it was to watch Benedetta, where I struggled to keep my attention through the grueling pace, this is doubly true with Elle. In short, I guess we're not meant to relate to Paul Verhoeven's work, so I'll leave it further without unnecessary biased commentary, but it's really dragging in places. (04.12.2021)

Verhoeven's spectacular return to the top league - and at the same time a slap in the face to all childish provocateurs who think that the more perverse the scenes they put on the screen, the deeper they go. Paul made a black, scathing and extremely cynical variation on a rape-revenge movie, which is also a brutal comedy about an incredibly manipulative lady and one very specific therapy. Isabelle Hupert's magnetizing performance, precise directing (the amount of positions that this film deftly connects is a rather unprecedented thing), an extremely precise depiction of perversion and ordinary violence of interpersonal relationships. Were it not for the slightly naive and jerky gaming plane, which refers to the cause of gamersgate and sexism, it would be top notch. But even so, this one of the most inspiring films of the year and best films of this year's Cannes. [Cannes 2016] (21.05.2016)

In this one, Isabelle Huppert portrays a very arrogant woman for whom nothing is sacred and who is literally willing to walk over dead bodies to get what she wants. And since there is really nobody to root for in this film, I as the viewer was left at least to enjoy the psycho thriller atmosphere that the movie really had. But on top of that, the movie lasted for more than two hours, which definitely isn’t a plus in this case. (21.02.2017)

Running time is excessively long (especially the third quarter is a bit short of breath), but otherwise it's a good old psycho and perverted ambivalent "Verhoeven movie" based on the suffocating erotic tension of the pathological relationship and (not cheap!) controversy touching several genres, which traditionally uses seemingly incompatible topics. Although it is not for everyone, I would still recommend it to everyone. If for nothing else, then for the enchanting super-performance of Isabelle. Something like this has been seen a few times in a decade and who knows, maybe even less than that. (15.10.2016)