In the late 1980s/early ‘90s, Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven was everything. "RoboCop," "Total Recall," and "Basic Instinct” is about as perfect a run as you can get, and these films made a huge pop cultural mark that will likely never be erased. But like Joe Eszterhas, the hot screenwriter paid exorbitant sums of money for his scripts, Verhoeven tumbled rather hard with the Eszerhas-penned “Showgirls.” His next film, “Starship Troopers,” was a bit of a critical reclamation, but it didn’t quite light up the box office. From there it was diminishing returns until the filmmaker took a long break from Hollywood.
Verhoeven roared back with the excellent and critically acclaimed “Black Book” in 2006, but his 2012 follow-up, the experimental “Tricked,” which used mobile apps and tied into a user-generated TV show, failed to move the needle outside of the Netherlands (read our review). Now the director is back with “Elle,” a psychological home invasion thriller starring Isabelle Huppert.
The film tells the story of a ruthless businesswoman, Michèle (Huppert), a successful video game company owner who is raped in her home by an unknown assailant, who she then stalks back. This turns into a harrowing game that may, at any moment, spiral out of control.
Shot entirely in French, “Elle” is due in French theaters on Sept 21st. There’s no word if we’ll see it in the U.S., but perhaps at the Toronto International Film Festival just a few weeks before the French premiere? Meanwhile, a non-subtitled French trailer has surfaced via Allocine (posters and new photos hit yesterday). You may not understand what they’re saying if you don’t speak the language, but the trailer gives you an idea of the flavor and tone of this psychological thriller. Watch below. Update: The English subtitled trailer is now available below.
