Elle

Paul Verhoeven adapted Philippe Djian’s novel Oh... with David Birke, his first feature after Black Book and his first in French. The film says why Michèle does not report the attack: her father is a mass killer whose parole hearing is near, and she learned as a child to avoid police. The story was first set in Boston or Chicago. Verhoeven found the content too difficult to shoot in the United States, and says a turn toward thriller shape would have cost the mystery and left it banal. No major American actress would take it, he adds. Shooting began on 10 January 2015 and ran 10 weeks with two cameras. In the assault scene Isabelle Huppert chose to say a one word refusal, not in the script, and to say it in French. It left the Cannes competition empty handed. At the 74th Golden Globes it won both its nominations, best actress and best foreign language film. At the 42nd Césars it drew 11 nominations, level with Frantz, winning best film and best actress. Huppert took an Oscar nomination; the film, France’s submission, did not. A good fit if you read Michèle running everything on her own terms as character, not inconsistency. Not for anyone who must stay away from the assault; the film returns to it more than once.