French film producer Saïd Ben Saïd sort of resurrected the career of Paul Verhoeven with the release of Elle (2016), and he had been itching to re-team with the filmmaker and that collab gave us the thunderous Benedetta (2021). It looks like (according to Premiere) they’ll be working once again together on the book-to-film adaptation of Sans compter by author Philippe Djian of 37°2, le matin (aka Betty Blue) and …. Oh… (which turned out to be Elle) fame. Verhoeven is tipped to move onto production on The Sinner before moving onto this project (next month in Los Angeles).…...
- 8/23/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
“Sex, Eyes, & Mental Illness”
By Raymond Benson
What made the 1986 French picture, Betty Blue so striking were three things—the explicit sex on display, the mesmerizing eyes of lead actress Béatrice Dalle, and the film’s frank depiction of mental illness and its devastating effect on a relationship.
Director Jean-Jacques Beineix had burst onto the scene with the superb, quirky, and new New Wave crime picture, Diva (1981) that embraced not only the French New Wave of the early 1960s, but the early 1980s pop New Wave of music and visuals that were exploding in all mediums at that time. Diva was a critical and commercial hit with Western audiences, although Beineix’s follow-up, Moon in the Gutter (1983), was not. The filmmaker bounced back, though, with Betty Blue, which received a deserved Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.
Based on a popular French novel by Philippe Djian, the story concerns a...
By Raymond Benson
What made the 1986 French picture, Betty Blue so striking were three things—the explicit sex on display, the mesmerizing eyes of lead actress Béatrice Dalle, and the film’s frank depiction of mental illness and its devastating effect on a relationship.
Director Jean-Jacques Beineix had burst onto the scene with the superb, quirky, and new New Wave crime picture, Diva (1981) that embraced not only the French New Wave of the early 1960s, but the early 1980s pop New Wave of music and visuals that were exploding in all mediums at that time. Diva was a critical and commercial hit with Western audiences, although Beineix’s follow-up, Moon in the Gutter (1983), was not. The filmmaker bounced back, though, with Betty Blue, which received a deserved Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film.
Based on a popular French novel by Philippe Djian, the story concerns a...
- 11/20/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Isabelle Huppert is astonishing as a rape victim who tracks down her assailant in Paul Verhoeven’s provocative psychodrama
You can read the provocative, strangely sardonic and icily arch psychodrama Elle in a number of contradictory ways. On one level, it’s a tonally alarming tale of sexual violence and dangerous roleplay from the director of Basic Instinct and Showgirls, the latter of which was cut by UK censors for potentially eroticising rape. On another, it’s a jaw-dropping showcase for Oscar nominee Isabelle Huppert, cinema’s most fearless screen presence, who describes the film as a “human comedy” about “the empowerment of a woman” with a “post-feminist” heroine. If the definition of intelligence is the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in your head at the same time, then Elle is a movie designed to make its audience feel very smart indeed.
Adapted from Philippe Djian’s novel Oh…...
You can read the provocative, strangely sardonic and icily arch psychodrama Elle in a number of contradictory ways. On one level, it’s a tonally alarming tale of sexual violence and dangerous roleplay from the director of Basic Instinct and Showgirls, the latter of which was cut by UK censors for potentially eroticising rape. On another, it’s a jaw-dropping showcase for Oscar nominee Isabelle Huppert, cinema’s most fearless screen presence, who describes the film as a “human comedy” about “the empowerment of a woman” with a “post-feminist” heroine. If the definition of intelligence is the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts in your head at the same time, then Elle is a movie designed to make its audience feel very smart indeed.
Adapted from Philippe Djian’s novel Oh…...
- 3/12/2017
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
“Shame isn’t a strong enough emotion to stop us from doing anything at all. Believe me.”
The Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and Certified Fresh (89% on Rotten Tomatoes), Sony Pictures Classics’ Elle debuts on Blu-ray, DVD and digital March 14 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Acclaimed international actress Isabelle Huppert also won a Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama) for her role in the film, one of the best of her career. Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct), Elle is the compelling story of Michèle (Huppert), a woman who brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to her business. After an unknown assailant attacks her in her home, Michèle’s life changes forever. Consumed with the need for revenge, she hunts down her assailant drawing both into a curious and thrilling game that may, at any moment,...
The Golden Globe winner for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and Certified Fresh (89% on Rotten Tomatoes), Sony Pictures Classics’ Elle debuts on Blu-ray, DVD and digital March 14 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Acclaimed international actress Isabelle Huppert also won a Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama) for her role in the film, one of the best of her career. Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct), Elle is the compelling story of Michèle (Huppert), a woman who brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to her business. After an unknown assailant attacks her in her home, Michèle’s life changes forever. Consumed with the need for revenge, she hunts down her assailant drawing both into a curious and thrilling game that may, at any moment,...
- 3/9/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Director Paul Verhoeven directs Isabelle Huppert in the disturbing drama-thriller, Elle. Here's our review of a darkly effective movie...
To sum up Paul Verhoeven’s latest film up in one word, it’s toothsome. More nuanced, unpredictable and slow-burning than the Dutch director’s American movies - RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and so on - it’s nevertheless as confrontational and blackly funny as anything he’s ever made.
See related Broadchurch series 3 episode 2 review Broadchurch series 3 episode 1 review Chris Chibnall interview: Broadchurch, Doctor Who, & more...
Not that Elle provides obvious material for a black comedy. In its opening scene, well-to-do Parisian businesswoman Michele (Isabelle Huppert) is violently assaulted in her own house by a man wearing a ski mask. Evidently in shock, Michele picks herself up and carries on as though nothing’s happened; she clears up some broken crockery, calls a locksmith to secure the windows and doors,...
To sum up Paul Verhoeven’s latest film up in one word, it’s toothsome. More nuanced, unpredictable and slow-burning than the Dutch director’s American movies - RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct and so on - it’s nevertheless as confrontational and blackly funny as anything he’s ever made.
See related Broadchurch series 3 episode 2 review Broadchurch series 3 episode 1 review Chris Chibnall interview: Broadchurch, Doctor Who, & more...
Not that Elle provides obvious material for a black comedy. In its opening scene, well-to-do Parisian businesswoman Michele (Isabelle Huppert) is violently assaulted in her own house by a man wearing a ski mask. Evidently in shock, Michele picks herself up and carries on as though nothing’s happened; she clears up some broken crockery, calls a locksmith to secure the windows and doors,...
- 3/9/2017
- Den of Geek
Ryan Lambie Mar 7, 2017
Legendary director Paul Verhoeven talks to us about his unmissable new drama-thriller, Elle, and the relevance of his 80s classic, RoboCop.
For well over 40 years now, director Paul Verhoeven has thrilled and horrified audiences with his bold, confrontational films. Whether they’re war dramas (Soldier Of Orange, Black Book), sci-fi action movies (RoboCop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers) or thrillers (The Fourth Man, Basic Instinct), Verhoeven’s movies are smart, sometimes violent and frequently threaded with a sense of mischief.
See related Taboo: plans afoot for two more series Taboo episode 8 review Taboo episode 7 review Taboo episode 6 review
In Michele, the central character played by Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Verhoeven might have found his fictional muse. A Parisian businesswoman who plays by her own rules, Michele’s fearless, often bewildering approach to life is fascinating to watch. Nominally, Elle’s a thriller, but like Philippe Djian’s source novel,...
Legendary director Paul Verhoeven talks to us about his unmissable new drama-thriller, Elle, and the relevance of his 80s classic, RoboCop.
For well over 40 years now, director Paul Verhoeven has thrilled and horrified audiences with his bold, confrontational films. Whether they’re war dramas (Soldier Of Orange, Black Book), sci-fi action movies (RoboCop, Total Recall, Starship Troopers) or thrillers (The Fourth Man, Basic Instinct), Verhoeven’s movies are smart, sometimes violent and frequently threaded with a sense of mischief.
See related Taboo: plans afoot for two more series Taboo episode 8 review Taboo episode 7 review Taboo episode 6 review
In Michele, the central character played by Isabelle Huppert in Elle, Verhoeven might have found his fictional muse. A Parisian businesswoman who plays by her own rules, Michele’s fearless, often bewildering approach to life is fascinating to watch. Nominally, Elle’s a thriller, but like Philippe Djian’s source novel,...
- 3/6/2017
- Den of Geek
Witness Paul Verhoeven’s (Total Recall, Robocop, Starship Troopers) direction and writing, along with Isabelle Huppert’s Golden Globe-winning performance, for yourself in Elle, set to be released on Blu-ray, DVD, and Digital on March 14th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.
Press Release: Culver City, Calif. (January 31, 2017) – The Golden Globe® winner for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and Certified Fresh (89% on Rotten Tomatoes), Sony Pictures Classics’ Elle debuts on Blu-ray™, DVD and digital March 14 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Acclaimed international actress Isabelle Huppert also won a Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama) for her role in the film, one of the best of her career. Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct), Elle is the compelling story of Michèle (Huppert), a woman who brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to her business. After an unknown assailant attacks her in her home,...
Press Release: Culver City, Calif. (January 31, 2017) – The Golden Globe® winner for Best Motion Picture – Foreign Language and Certified Fresh (89% on Rotten Tomatoes), Sony Pictures Classics’ Elle debuts on Blu-ray™, DVD and digital March 14 from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment. Acclaimed international actress Isabelle Huppert also won a Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama) for her role in the film, one of the best of her career. Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Total Recall, Basic Instinct), Elle is the compelling story of Michèle (Huppert), a woman who brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to her business. After an unknown assailant attacks her in her home,...
- 2/2/2017
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
Isabelle Huppert may be a name some moviegoers haven’t heard of.
But the French actress shocked audiences when she beat out Natalie Portman, Amy Adams, Jessica Chastain and Ruth Negga to win the best actress award in a motion picture, drama at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards.
Her film, Elle, also took home best foreign language film that night.
Here are five things to know about Huppert, 63, and her esteemed international acting career.
1. This isn’t her first best actress win.
The star has already swept this award season’s best actress nods including the New York Film Critics Circle,...
But the French actress shocked audiences when she beat out Natalie Portman, Amy Adams, Jessica Chastain and Ruth Negga to win the best actress award in a motion picture, drama at Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards.
Her film, Elle, also took home best foreign language film that night.
Here are five things to know about Huppert, 63, and her esteemed international acting career.
1. This isn’t her first best actress win.
The star has already swept this award season’s best actress nods including the New York Film Critics Circle,...
- 1/9/2017
- by karenmizoguchi
- PEOPLE.com
And the winners are…
Best Picture: Moonlight
Best Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Director: Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
Best Actor: Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress: Natalie Portman – Jackie
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris – Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay: Hell or High Water – Taylor Sheridan
Best Adapted Screenplay: Arrival – Eric Heisserer, Ted Chiang
Best Editing: La La Land – Tom Cross
Best Cinematography: La La Land – Linus Sandgren
Best Film Not in the English Language: The Handmaiden – South Korea
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America
Previous: 12.28.16:
The Online Film Critics Society — of which I am a member — has announced the nominees for its 2016 awards. Links here go to my reviews, with reviews to come for most if not all those I haven’t yet reviewed. Winners will be announced Tuesday, January 3rd.
And the nominees are:
Best Picture
Arrival
The Handmaiden...
Best Picture: Moonlight
Best Animated Feature: Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Director: Barry Jenkins – Moonlight
Best Actor: Casey Affleck – Manchester by the Sea
Best Actress: Natalie Portman – Jackie
Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
Best Supporting Actress: Naomie Harris – Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay: Hell or High Water – Taylor Sheridan
Best Adapted Screenplay: Arrival – Eric Heisserer, Ted Chiang
Best Editing: La La Land – Tom Cross
Best Cinematography: La La Land – Linus Sandgren
Best Film Not in the English Language: The Handmaiden – South Korea
Best Documentary: O.J.: Made in America
Previous: 12.28.16:
The Online Film Critics Society — of which I am a member — has announced the nominees for its 2016 awards. Links here go to my reviews, with reviews to come for most if not all those I haven’t yet reviewed. Winners will be announced Tuesday, January 3rd.
And the nominees are:
Best Picture
Arrival
The Handmaiden...
- 1/3/2017
- by MaryAnn Johanson
- www.flickfilosopher.com
The first UK trailer for Elle, which stars Isabelle Huppert as the formidable CEO of a video games company who takes curious revenge on a sexual assailant. Based on the novel Oh... by Philippe Djian, the film won considerable acclaim at Cannes before being nominated for numerous awards and named on many best-of-the-year lists (including the Guardian’s)
• Elle opens in the UK on 10 March 2017
Continue reading...
• Elle opens in the UK on 10 March 2017
Continue reading...
- 12/16/2016
- by Guardian Staff
- The Guardian - Film News
Isabelle Huppert in ‘Elle’ (Courtesy: Guy Ferrandis/Sbs Productions/Sony Pictures Classics)
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
One potential surprise in the current best actress race would be the first-ever nomination and/or win of Isabelle Huppert. The leading lady has turned in yet another stellar performance — this time for Elle, France’s submission for best foreign language film this year — and there are is speculation that the Academy might finally give Huppert the recognition she so deserves.
The Paul Verhoeven-directed Elle — which should make the shortlist for best foreign language film, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg — derives from the French word for “she” or “her” and is based on the novel Oh… by Philippe Djian. In the film, Huppert plays Michèle LeBlanc, a successful businesswoman, who is raped and begins a game of cat and mouse to track down the unknown assailant. Elle was nominated...
By: Carson Blackwelder
Managing Editor
One potential surprise in the current best actress race would be the first-ever nomination and/or win of Isabelle Huppert. The leading lady has turned in yet another stellar performance — this time for Elle, France’s submission for best foreign language film this year — and there are is speculation that the Academy might finally give Huppert the recognition she so deserves.
The Paul Verhoeven-directed Elle — which should make the shortlist for best foreign language film, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg — derives from the French word for “she” or “her” and is based on the novel Oh… by Philippe Djian. In the film, Huppert plays Michèle LeBlanc, a successful businesswoman, who is raped and begins a game of cat and mouse to track down the unknown assailant. Elle was nominated...
- 12/1/2016
- by Carson Blackwelder
- Scott Feinberg
There are so many actors that are huge stars in France but whom haven’t really made much of an impact here outside the arthouses. French actress Isabelle Huppert is definitely one who is greatly appreciated by anyone who has had a chance to watch her amazing work with filmmakers like Michael Haneke and others.
Huppert’s exposure is certainly being elevated this year with her starring roles in two very different French films, Elle, a revenge thriller from director Paul Verhoeven based on Phillippe Djian’s book, and Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things To Come, a lighter character drama, both which have been on the festival circuit since February.
In Elle, Huppert plays Michèle Leblanc, the owner of a video game company who is sexually assaulted in her apartment, who proceeds to try to track down her attacker for revenge, while in Things to Come, she plays Nathalie Chazeaux, a philosophy teacher,...
Huppert’s exposure is certainly being elevated this year with her starring roles in two very different French films, Elle, a revenge thriller from director Paul Verhoeven based on Phillippe Djian’s book, and Mia Hansen-Løve’s Things To Come, a lighter character drama, both which have been on the festival circuit since February.
In Elle, Huppert plays Michèle Leblanc, the owner of a video game company who is sexually assaulted in her apartment, who proceeds to try to track down her attacker for revenge, while in Things to Come, she plays Nathalie Chazeaux, a philosophy teacher,...
- 11/29/2016
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
If you were alive in the ‘80s or ‘90s, it was impossible to avoid the ever-presence of Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, whether it was science fiction hits Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers or his erotic thriller Basic Instinct. His 1995 film Showgirls has alternately been cited as a campy classic and one of the worst films ever made.
After 2000’s Hollow Man, Verhoeven turned his back on Hollywood, in a sense, by returning to Holland to make the World War II film Black Book with Carice Van Houten (Game of Thrones), but now Verhoeven is back with Elle, a French revenge thriller starring French femme fatale Isabelle Huppert as a woman raped in her home who decides to get revenge in a rather unconventional way.
Lrm sat down with the veteran filmmaker to talk about his new film—and there’s a mild Spoiler Warning here, since he does allude...
After 2000’s Hollow Man, Verhoeven turned his back on Hollywood, in a sense, by returning to Holland to make the World War II film Black Book with Carice Van Houten (Game of Thrones), but now Verhoeven is back with Elle, a French revenge thriller starring French femme fatale Isabelle Huppert as a woman raped in her home who decides to get revenge in a rather unconventional way.
Lrm sat down with the veteran filmmaker to talk about his new film—and there’s a mild Spoiler Warning here, since he does allude...
- 11/28/2016
- by Edward Douglas
- LRMonline.com
Title: Elle Director: Paul Verhoeven Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Christian Berkel, Anne Consigny, Virginie Efira, Laurent Lafitte, Charles Berling, Alice Isaaz, Judith Magre, Vimala Pons, Jonas Bloquet, Lucas Prisor and Raphaël Lenglet ‘Elle’ is a bizarre psychological thriller that stands on the formidable shoulders of the extraordinary French actress Isabelle Huppert. The movie directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by David Birke, based on the novel ‘Oh…’ by Philippe Djian, premiered in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim, and was subsequently selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language film at the 89th Academy Awards. The story is all [ Read More ]
The post Turin Film Festival 2016 Movie Review: Elle appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Turin Film Festival 2016 Movie Review: Elle appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 11/20/2016
- by Chiara Spagnoli Gabardi
- ShockYa
These are challenging times for any filmmaker who doesn’t want to be told what to do. Chasing a slice of the Hollywood studio pie almost always brings compromise, and many foreign-born directors return to their home countries and assemble independent film and television projects.
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
- 11/18/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
These are challenging times for any filmmaker who doesn’t want to be told what to do. Chasing a slice of the Hollywood studio pie almost always brings compromise, and many foreign-born directors return to their home countries and assemble independent film and television projects.
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
That was the path of Dutch-born Paul Verhoeven, whose career began in his own language with “Soldier of Orange” and the Oscar-nominated “Turkish Delight.” From there he forged an A-list career that included “Basic Instinct” (which played competition in Cannes) “RoboCop,” “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers,” and, yes, “Showgirls.” His last Hollywood movie was “Hollow Man” with Kevin Bacon in 2000.
When Verhoeven could no longer find material that suited him, he went back to Holland. His 2006 Dutch World War II drama “Black Book” (Sony Pictures Classics) starred Carice Van Houten, before she joined “Game of Thrones,” and was shortlisted for the foreign Oscar.
Now he has...
- 11/18/2016
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Isabelle Huppert is a fearless, committed, talented actress who takes genuine risks with many of the projects she selects, and it is for precisely this reason that her stellar track record hardly prevents me from being taken off-guard with what she can do. In Paul Verhoeven’s simply-titled Elle, she plays a rape victim trying to move on with her life. But her entire life is a grotesque cartoon – her father’s in prison for slaughtering his neighborhood decades ago (and for which she is routinely, publicly humiliated), her mother’s trying to live as though she’s in her twenties (with a bank account to buy boyfriends that suit her), her neighbors are a married couple consisting of a Jesus freak and an alluring gentleman, she’s having an affair with her best friend and business partner’s husband, and her video game company is behind schedule and over...
- 11/11/2016
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
As Paul Verhoeven’s controversial Isabelle Huppert-starring “Elle” finally hits theaters this weekend, IndieWire’s Kate Erbland and Anne Thompson traded notes on the bold film and its depiction of rape, female empowerment and the power of humor in the face of unexpected trauma.
Kate Erbland: I confess that I balked a little when I saw our own Eric Kohn’s early review of the film out of Cannes, which calls the film “a lighthearted rape-revenge story,” but having now seen the film at last month’s New York Film Festival, I struggle to find better wording. It’s both of those things, lighthearted and a rape-revenge story, and that’s a nearly impossible combination to make work, no matter who is behind it, and “Elle” has got some serious wattage to recommend it.
The film stars the always-wonderful Isabelle Huppert as the “post-feminist” Michele, a hard-driving career woman...
Kate Erbland: I confess that I balked a little when I saw our own Eric Kohn’s early review of the film out of Cannes, which calls the film “a lighthearted rape-revenge story,” but having now seen the film at last month’s New York Film Festival, I struggle to find better wording. It’s both of those things, lighthearted and a rape-revenge story, and that’s a nearly impossible combination to make work, no matter who is behind it, and “Elle” has got some serious wattage to recommend it.
The film stars the always-wonderful Isabelle Huppert as the “post-feminist” Michele, a hard-driving career woman...
- 11/11/2016
- by Kate Erbland and Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Paul Verhoeven’s roving, varied career has led the Dutch auteur to many unexpected places. He produced biting satire of America’s military fetishization in “Starship Troopers”; he portended a dystopic, police-state country in “RoboCop”; and he created, arguably, the last true mainstream erotic thriller in “Basic Instinct.” Now nearing 80, Verhoeven finds himself entrenched in “Elle,” a lurid, polemical, and deeply engrossing film about a woman (played by Isabelle Huppert) who sets out to find the man who raped her. Working from Philippe Djian’s novel “Oh …,” the film focuses its attention, squarely, on Michèle Leblanc (Huppert), a successful businesswoman who.
- 11/11/2016
- by Sam Fragoso
- The Wrap
It starts loudly and violently, with a masked burglar bounding into a woman’s house, knocking her to the floor and raping her. The scene is brutal but swift; thankfully, it largely happens out of frame. When the same incident is later repeated onscreen a second time, it's more explicit. This time, the woman – her name Michèle Leblanc – retaliates with full force, smashing her attacker's head into a bloody, gooey pulp. Over and over and over again. Shock cut back to the victim, daydreaming serenely with her cat, a small,...
- 11/11/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Equally celebrated as a sly subversive and a master craftsman, the Dutch director Paul Verhoeven has left an indelible mark on film with movies that combined over-the-top entertainment with dark wit, including Soldier Of Orange, RoboCop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers. Elle, a French-language adaptation of Philippe Djian’s novel “Oh…”, qualifies as one of his most corrosive works: a feminist black comedy that kicks off with a wealthy woman (Isabelle Huppert) being raped by an intruder, and then takes a series of unpredictable turns, in the process skewering everything from bourgeois mores to sexual kinks.
Verhoeven spoke briefly with The A.V. Club about the film—his first in nearly a decade—by phone.
The A.V. Club: You first wanted to make this movie in America.
Paul Verhoeven: Yes, I did. I met with the producer, Saïd Ben Saïd. I had read the book, and we decided...
Verhoeven spoke briefly with The A.V. Club about the film—his first in nearly a decade—by phone.
The A.V. Club: You first wanted to make this movie in America.
Paul Verhoeven: Yes, I did. I met with the producer, Saïd Ben Saïd. I had read the book, and we decided...
- 11/10/2016
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
Sneak Peek new footage from "Basic Instinct" director Paul Verhoeven's latest 'psychological thriller' "Elle", based on the novel by author Philippe Djian, starring Isabelle Huppert:
"...'Michèle Leblanc' (Huppert) seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business.
"But being attacked by an unknown assailant changes Michèle's life forever, as she resolutely tracks the man down before events spiral out of control..."
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Elle"...
"...'Michèle Leblanc' (Huppert) seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business.
"But being attacked by an unknown assailant changes Michèle's life forever, as she resolutely tracks the man down before events spiral out of control..."
Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "Elle"...
- 11/9/2016
- by Michael Stevens
- SneakPeek
Director Paul Verhoeven, that eternal Dutch wild child (even though he's 78), delivers a perverse kick whether his films are terrific (Spetters, Robocop, Black Book) or just terrific trash (Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Starship Troopers). His new surprise package, Elle, is a dark comedy about ... rape. Like I said, the dude is a button pusher.
"No American actress would ever take on such an amoral movie," Verhoeven has stated. So the great French actress Isabelle Huppert steps into the role of Michele Leblanc, the divorced CEO of a Paris-based video-game company that...
"No American actress would ever take on such an amoral movie," Verhoeven has stated. So the great French actress Isabelle Huppert steps into the role of Michele Leblanc, the divorced CEO of a Paris-based video-game company that...
- 11/9/2016
- Rollingstone.com
Is Paul Verhoeven cinema’s most successful mimic? When he went to Hollywood for 1987’s RoboCop, the Dutch director integrated himself so well in his host culture that 1995’s showbiz melodrama Showgirls is still taken by many as foolhardy trash rather than a corrosive critique so intimate with its subject as to appear nearly—or in fact be—indistinguishable. After a return to his home country to make Black Book, one of the 2000s best thrillers and most devilishly twisted recreations of World War 2, and an experiment with a crowd-sourced screenplay in the unusual 2012 short feature Tricked, Verhoeven has changed host bodies yet again, this time to French cinema. Therefore, of course, he mimics the most perfect of French films: a thriller focused on sexual politics and starring Isabelle Huppert.The premise of Elle, adapted from from Philippe Djian's book Oh..., has a horrible come-on: from the director of Basic Instinct,...
- 11/8/2016
- MUBI
Elle Sony Pictures Classics Reviewed by: Harvey Karten, Shockya Grade: B+ Director: Paul Verhoeven Written by: David Birke from Philippe Djian’s novel “Oh…” Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling Screened at: Sony, NYC, 11/3/16 Opens: November 10, 2016 There’s a reason that stories with revenge themes are so popular no matter how many times they’re repeated on the page and on the screen. We all harbor memories of people we would like to hurt because they hurt us–today, last year, a few decades ago. When we see a hero getting violent revenge on the bad guys, we cheer, perhaps more readily than we would for any other [ Read More ]
The post Elle Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Elle Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 11/7/2016
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, the controversial French entry for Best Foreign Language Film starring Isabelle Huppert, was largely rebuffed by American actresses, the director said at Deadline’s Contenders event today. Based on the novel Oh by Philippe Djian and starring Huppert as a successful businesswoman who gets caught in a cat and mouse game with her rapist, Elle was lauded by critics when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Palmes…...
- 11/5/2016
- Deadline
“I’ll let myself be surprised, as my good friend Michael Haneke would say,” says French actress about Oscar prospects.
There has been growing buzz in recent weeks around Isabelle Huppert’s chances of clinching Best Actress at the 2017 Oscars for her multi-layered performance as a woman who turns the tables on a rapist in Paul Verhoeven’s French-language thriller Elle.
The French actress – who counts one Bafta, two Palme d’Or, a shared Silver Lion and a slew of life-time achievement tributes among the 60-odd awards she has won over her 40-year career – has never made it to the Academy Award nomination stage before.
But there appears to be a groundswell of feeling at home and in Los Angeles that this should be her year.
A win would come on the back of a high-profile 12 months on the international festival circuit for Huppert, linked to her appearances in Elle as well as French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love...
There has been growing buzz in recent weeks around Isabelle Huppert’s chances of clinching Best Actress at the 2017 Oscars for her multi-layered performance as a woman who turns the tables on a rapist in Paul Verhoeven’s French-language thriller Elle.
The French actress – who counts one Bafta, two Palme d’Or, a shared Silver Lion and a slew of life-time achievement tributes among the 60-odd awards she has won over her 40-year career – has never made it to the Academy Award nomination stage before.
But there appears to be a groundswell of feeling at home and in Los Angeles that this should be her year.
A win would come on the back of a high-profile 12 months on the international festival circuit for Huppert, linked to her appearances in Elle as well as French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love...
- 10/17/2016
- ScreenDaily
It may not be actually impossible to talk about Paul Verhoeven’s Isabelle Huppert-starring film “Elle” without using words like “controversial,” but it sure is tough. The genre- and tone-spanning feature debuted at Cannes earlier this year, where reviews — like our own — flooded in using seemingly disparate words side by side, like “light-hearted” and “revenge” and even “rape” to try to explain the perplexingly entertaining film.
The film, based on a novel by Philippe Djian, follows the wholly unexpected fallout of a brutal rape committed against Michele (Huppert) that unfolds in the film’s shocking opening scenes. Michele’s reactions to the crime — and the way her life unfolds afterwards — are occasionally baffling, strangely amusing and entirely hard to classify. “Elle” is perhaps Verhoeven’s most complex (and, yes, controversial) film to date, and it offers up yet another chance for Huppert to flex her prodigious acting muscles.
Read...
The film, based on a novel by Philippe Djian, follows the wholly unexpected fallout of a brutal rape committed against Michele (Huppert) that unfolds in the film’s shocking opening scenes. Michele’s reactions to the crime — and the way her life unfolds afterwards — are occasionally baffling, strangely amusing and entirely hard to classify. “Elle” is perhaps Verhoeven’s most complex (and, yes, controversial) film to date, and it offers up yet another chance for Huppert to flex her prodigious acting muscles.
Read...
- 10/14/2016
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Paul Verhoeven’s latest film “Elle,” his first in ten years, divided critics after its world premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival due to its provocative subject matter. The film follows Michèle LeBlanc (Isabelle Huppert), head of a successful video game company, who is raped in her home by an unknown assailant and soon stalks and becomes obsessed with her attacker.
IndieWire’s own Eric Kohn describes it as a “lighthearted comedy about rape” and says that “Verhoeven has crafted a defiant tale about the ultimate antidote for fear lying in the ability to turn it into something else.” The film has been making the festival rounds before its U.S. release date in November. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.
Read More: ‘Elle’ Trailer: Isabelle Huppert Prepares For Revenge in Paul Verhoeven’s Psychological Thriller
Based on Philippe Djian’s 2012 novel, “Oh…,” the film also...
IndieWire’s own Eric Kohn describes it as a “lighthearted comedy about rape” and says that “Verhoeven has crafted a defiant tale about the ultimate antidote for fear lying in the ability to turn it into something else.” The film has been making the festival rounds before its U.S. release date in November. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.
Read More: ‘Elle’ Trailer: Isabelle Huppert Prepares For Revenge in Paul Verhoeven’s Psychological Thriller
Based on Philippe Djian’s 2012 novel, “Oh…,” the film also...
- 9/8/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
Paul Verhoeven’s controversial and provocative thriller, “Elle,” premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May to universal acclaim for its leading actress, Isabelle Huppert. Based on Philippe Djian’s novel “Oh…” and adapted by David Birke, the film generated buzz for its gripping and twisted tale about Michèle (Huppert), a high-powered videogame company CEO who suffers a vicious sexual assault.
Arriving in theaters next month, Sony Pictures Classics released a new trailer that takes another look at the leading lady’s life post-rape and how she goes in search of the man who committed the crime, developing an unexpected relationship with her abuser
Read More: ‘Elle’ Director Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert Defend Controversial Rape Thriller
Called Verhoeven’s best film in years, “Elle” could be a potential contender for Best Foreign-Language film. The “Basic Instinct” helmer’s thriller is thought-provoking and will likely ignite heated debates between viewers...
Arriving in theaters next month, Sony Pictures Classics released a new trailer that takes another look at the leading lady’s life post-rape and how she goes in search of the man who committed the crime, developing an unexpected relationship with her abuser
Read More: ‘Elle’ Director Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert Defend Controversial Rape Thriller
Called Verhoeven’s best film in years, “Elle” could be a potential contender for Best Foreign-Language film. The “Basic Instinct” helmer’s thriller is thought-provoking and will likely ignite heated debates between viewers...
- 9/1/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
Isabelle Huppert stars on stage in Phaedra(s) and films - Elle and Things to Come Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Guillaume Nicloux's bewitching Valley Of Love star Isabelle Huppert in 2013 presented Abuse Of Weakness with Catherine Breillat at the New York Film Festival. This year she has two films - Paul Verhoeven's Elle with Laurent Lafitte and Anne Consigny, based on the novel by Philippe Djian with a screenplay by David Birke, and also Mia Hansen-Løve's Things To Come (L’Avenir) with André Marcon and Edith Scob.
Isabelle Huppert in Phaedra(s)
In 2014, Isabelle Huppert performed on stage with Cate Blanchett and Elizabeth Debicki in New York during the Lincoln Center Festival in the Sydney Theater Company production of Jean Genet's The Maids, directed by Benedict Andrews at City Center.
This year she will star in Phaedra(s), directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski with text composed of excerpts...
Guillaume Nicloux's bewitching Valley Of Love star Isabelle Huppert in 2013 presented Abuse Of Weakness with Catherine Breillat at the New York Film Festival. This year she has two films - Paul Verhoeven's Elle with Laurent Lafitte and Anne Consigny, based on the novel by Philippe Djian with a screenplay by David Birke, and also Mia Hansen-Løve's Things To Come (L’Avenir) with André Marcon and Edith Scob.
Isabelle Huppert in Phaedra(s)
In 2014, Isabelle Huppert performed on stage with Cate Blanchett and Elizabeth Debicki in New York during the Lincoln Center Festival in the Sydney Theater Company production of Jean Genet's The Maids, directed by Benedict Andrews at City Center.
This year she will star in Phaedra(s), directed by Krzysztof Warlikowski with text composed of excerpts...
- 8/18/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Exclusive: UK/Ireland release date set for drama starring Isabelle Huppert.
Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK rights to Paul Verhoeven’s psychological noir thriller Elle from Sbs Productions.
In the film, Isabelle Huppert plays a businesswoman who enters a game of cat and mouse as she tracks down the man who raped her. The cast also includes Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira, Judith Magre, Christian Berkel, Jonas Bloquet, Alice Isaaz and Vimala Pons.
Elle received its world premiere at Cannes in May, where it played in Competition. Dutch filmmaker Verhoeven is best known for Us hits Starship Troopers, Robocop and Basic Instinct but has returned to making films in Europe since Black Book in 2006.
Clare Binns, director of programming and acquisition at Picturehouse, described Verhoeven as “a master filmmaker who has always made provocative and exciting work without compromise - Elle is no exception.”
Binns added: “This gripping, multilayered thriller...
Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK rights to Paul Verhoeven’s psychological noir thriller Elle from Sbs Productions.
In the film, Isabelle Huppert plays a businesswoman who enters a game of cat and mouse as she tracks down the man who raped her. The cast also includes Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira, Judith Magre, Christian Berkel, Jonas Bloquet, Alice Isaaz and Vimala Pons.
Elle received its world premiere at Cannes in May, where it played in Competition. Dutch filmmaker Verhoeven is best known for Us hits Starship Troopers, Robocop and Basic Instinct but has returned to making films in Europe since Black Book in 2006.
Clare Binns, director of programming and acquisition at Picturehouse, described Verhoeven as “a master filmmaker who has always made provocative and exciting work without compromise - Elle is no exception.”
Binns added: “This gripping, multilayered thriller...
- 8/12/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
It takes all of zero seconds for the first rape to occur in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle. The film opens on a black screen and to the sounds of breaking glass and stifled struggle. When it then cuts to a cute kitty spectating the off-screen assault, we know we’re in Verhoeven territory. The ensuing countershot reveals Michèle (Isabelle Huppert), her blouse ripped open, pinned to the floor by a black-clad man with his face hidden inside a ski mask. Funny Games-like, this is our warning: run for the door now or keep watching and be implicated. Unlike Haneke, however, Verhoeven renders what follows irresistibly enjoyable, and the resulting implication is all the more severe.
Elle would be unimaginable without Huppert, who delivers a performance of such virtuosity that she turns what is essentially a raving sociopath into one of the most alluring protagonists in recent memory. Beautiful, refined,...
Elle would be unimaginable without Huppert, who delivers a performance of such virtuosity that she turns what is essentially a raving sociopath into one of the most alluring protagonists in recent memory. Beautiful, refined,...
- 5/21/2016
- by Giovanni Marchini Camia
- The Film Stage
This year’s Cannes Film Festival ended with a bang Saturday with the premiere of Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle,” an entertaining and thought-provoking thriller based on Philippe Djian’s novel “Oh…” that features a knockout performance by Isabelle Huppert (here’s our review). The picture marks something of a second comeback for the filmmaker who was a mainstay of Hollywood […]
The post Cannes: Paul Verhoeven Talks ‘Elle,’ Wants Less Superheroes & “A Bit More Normality” At The Movies appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Cannes: Paul Verhoeven Talks ‘Elle,’ Wants Less Superheroes & “A Bit More Normality” At The Movies appeared first on The Playlist.
- 5/21/2016
- by Gregory Ellwood
- The Playlist
Is Paul Verhoeven cinema’s most successful mimic? When he went to Hollywood for 1987’s RoboCop, the Dutch director so well integrated himself into his host culture that 1995’s showbiz melodrama Showgirls is still taken by many audiences as foolhardy trash rather than a corrosive critique so intimate with its subject as to appear nearly—or in fact be—indistinguishable. After a return to his home country to make Black Book, one of the 2000s best thrillers and most devilishly twisted recreations of World War 2, and an experiment with a crowd-sourced screenplay in the unusual 2012 short feature Tricked, Verhoeven has changed host bodies yet again, this time to French cinema. Therefore, of course, he mimics the most perfect of French films, a thriller focused on sexual politics and starring Isabelle Huppert.The premise of Elle, adapted from from Philippe Djian's book Oh..., has a horrible come-on: from the director of Basic Instinct,...
- 5/21/2016
- MUBI
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired rights in North America and other key territories to Paul Verhoeven’s Elle. Written by David Birke and based on Philippe Djian’s novel Oh ..., the film will screen in competition at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival. Sony Pictures Classics also picked up Latin America, Australia, New Zealand, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe (excluding Russia) and Asia (excluding China and Japan) to the film that stars Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Charles Berling, Virginie Efira and Anne Consigny. The Elle deal marks the second significant domestic deal of the festival, following Amazon Studios scooping up North American rights to Mike
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- 5/11/2016
- by Tatiana Siegel
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Carnal Knowledge: The Larrieu Bros.’ Strange Depiction of Summer Lovin’
Directing duo Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu create oddly distinct pieces of bizarre cinema, yet remain relatively unknown outside of France even though they’ve been regularly presenting new features over the past decade. Their latest is a necrophilic inspired sexual awakening comedy, blasting away at the usual sort of conventions we’re accustomed to in similar provincially mannered fare. Reteaming with a few ensemble players who’ve populated their last features, 21 Nights with Pattie is an enigmatic pattern of elements both unpredictable and borderline grotesque. Delightfully strange, and featuring an excellent ensemble of familiar French faces, this is certainly a more inventive take on the sexual awakening portrait—sort of like a romantic comedy version of Georges Bataille with just a dash of Jorg Buttgereit.
Caroline (Isabelle Carre) travels to a small village in the Pyrenees to bury her mother,...
Directing duo Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu create oddly distinct pieces of bizarre cinema, yet remain relatively unknown outside of France even though they’ve been regularly presenting new features over the past decade. Their latest is a necrophilic inspired sexual awakening comedy, blasting away at the usual sort of conventions we’re accustomed to in similar provincially mannered fare. Reteaming with a few ensemble players who’ve populated their last features, 21 Nights with Pattie is an enigmatic pattern of elements both unpredictable and borderline grotesque. Delightfully strange, and featuring an excellent ensemble of familiar French faces, this is certainly a more inventive take on the sexual awakening portrait—sort of like a romantic comedy version of Georges Bataille with just a dash of Jorg Buttgereit.
Caroline (Isabelle Carre) travels to a small village in the Pyrenees to bury her mother,...
- 3/11/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Paul Verhoeven's films can usually be divided into one of two camps: heavy-masculine sci-fi action (Total Recall, Starship Troopers), or heavy-feminine psychosexual thriller (Basic Instinct, Showgirls). He has returned after nearly a decade's absence, and his new film, Elle (based on the novel by Philippe Djian, who also wrote Betty Blue), clearly seems to fit into the latter category. In a bit of a departure, the film is in french, and stars Isabelle Huppert, one of the great ladies of french cinema. The first trailer (in french without subtitles) has landed.Huppert plays Michele, the wealthy owner of a video game company, who is brutally raped in her home by a stranger. After the event, she first becomes paranoid, then starts to seek out her rapist...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 1/16/2016
- Screen Anarchy
Dutch helmer Paul Verhoeven is back in the saddle with Elle, just the fourth directorial effort from the prolific auteur since the turn of the millennium and his first ever in the French language. But while the language may be new for Verhoeven, the director of Basic Instinct and Showgirls attraction to dark, psycho-sexual material appears very much intact.An adaptation of he novel Oh by Philippe Djian, Isabelle Huppert and Laurent Lafitte star in a story summarized as "one month when men get drunk, kill, rape, pair off, acknowledge children who aren't theirs, run away, moan, die... Thirty days of an unrelenting life, where memories, sex and death could short-circuit at any moment."Now five weeks into what is scheduled as a ten week shoot expect...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/24/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Elle
Director: Paul Verhoeven // Writer: David Birke
One cannot overlook the plentiful cinematic contributions of Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven, who made waves back in 1973 with Turkish Delight and helmed a handful of notable collaborations starring Rutger Hauer, though they parted ways indefinitely after Verhoeven’s 1985 English language debut, Flesh+Blood. Of course, Verhoeven’s Us big-budget genre work, such as RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990), both spawning recent lackluster remakes, and pulpy neo-noir Basic Instinct (1992) were overshadowed by the debacle that would come to be Showgirls (1995), now celebrated as one of the best worst films ever made. Twenty years after that, with only a few more features since, including 1997’s Starship Troopers, the maligned Hollow Man (2000) and a welcomed return to his native Holland for Black Book (2006), Verhoeven has been mostly an absent figure. In 2012, a mid-length film graced the lineup at the Rome Film Festival, while his long-gestating Jesus of...
Director: Paul Verhoeven // Writer: David Birke
One cannot overlook the plentiful cinematic contributions of Dutch auteur Paul Verhoeven, who made waves back in 1973 with Turkish Delight and helmed a handful of notable collaborations starring Rutger Hauer, though they parted ways indefinitely after Verhoeven’s 1985 English language debut, Flesh+Blood. Of course, Verhoeven’s Us big-budget genre work, such as RoboCop (1987) and Total Recall (1990), both spawning recent lackluster remakes, and pulpy neo-noir Basic Instinct (1992) were overshadowed by the debacle that would come to be Showgirls (1995), now celebrated as one of the best worst films ever made. Twenty years after that, with only a few more features since, including 1997’s Starship Troopers, the maligned Hollow Man (2000) and a welcomed return to his native Holland for Black Book (2006), Verhoeven has been mostly an absent figure. In 2012, a mid-length film graced the lineup at the Rome Film Festival, while his long-gestating Jesus of...
- 1/9/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Wild Bunch has unveiled its packed slate of films that it will be shopping around Cannes, with new films in store from great European filmmakers like Nicolas Winding Refn ("Drive," "Only God Forgives"), Paul Verhoeven (the original "Robocop" & "Total Recall"), Gaspar Noe ("Irreversible," "Enter the Void"), Abdellatif Kechiche ("Blue is the Warmest Color") and Jean-Francois Richet ("Mesrine").
Maniac Cop
Refn and William Lustig are set to produce a remake of the 1980s cult classic "Maniac Cop" about the hunt for a New York serial killer. Ed Brubaker ("Captain America: The Winter Soldier") penned the script, while the director will be announced at Cannes.
Untitled Paul Verhoeven Project
Paul Verhoeven's next is an adaptation of French writer Philippe Djian's 2012 novel "Oh!". The story revolves around a psychological game of cat-and-mouse between a businesswoman and a stalker who raped her, a crime for which she is seeking revenge.
Wild Bunch...
Maniac Cop
Refn and William Lustig are set to produce a remake of the 1980s cult classic "Maniac Cop" about the hunt for a New York serial killer. Ed Brubaker ("Captain America: The Winter Soldier") penned the script, while the director will be announced at Cannes.
Untitled Paul Verhoeven Project
Paul Verhoeven's next is an adaptation of French writer Philippe Djian's 2012 novel "Oh!". The story revolves around a psychological game of cat-and-mouse between a businesswoman and a stalker who raped her, a crime for which she is seeking revenge.
Wild Bunch...
- 5/6/2014
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Exclusive: Wild Bunch to launch new films from Verhoeven, Noé, Kechiche as well as Spring Breakers 2, Maniac Cop remake and market premiere Welcome to New York.
Paris-based sales and production powerhouse Wild Bunch has unveiled a packed Cannes slate, featuring future films from Paul Verhoeven, Gaspar Noé and Abdellatif Kechiche as well as Spring Breakers 2 and the remake of Maniac Cop.
The untitled Paul Verhoeven project is an adaptation of French writer Philippe Djian’s 2012 novel Oh!, revolving around a psychological game of cat-and-mouse between a businesswoman and a stalker who raped her, a crime for which she is seeking revenge.
“Casting is being finalised. It’s a very intelligent script but it’s also pure Verhoeven, extremely erotic and perverted, so the actress has to be prepared to take that on,” said Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval.
Wild Bunch will also launch Spring Breakers: The Second Coming, in which the Spring Breakers do battle with an...
Paris-based sales and production powerhouse Wild Bunch has unveiled a packed Cannes slate, featuring future films from Paul Verhoeven, Gaspar Noé and Abdellatif Kechiche as well as Spring Breakers 2 and the remake of Maniac Cop.
The untitled Paul Verhoeven project is an adaptation of French writer Philippe Djian’s 2012 novel Oh!, revolving around a psychological game of cat-and-mouse between a businesswoman and a stalker who raped her, a crime for which she is seeking revenge.
“Casting is being finalised. It’s a very intelligent script but it’s also pure Verhoeven, extremely erotic and perverted, so the actress has to be prepared to take that on,” said Wild Bunch co-chief Vincent Maraval.
Wild Bunch will also launch Spring Breakers: The Second Coming, in which the Spring Breakers do battle with an...
- 5/6/2014
- ScreenDaily
L’amour est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime)
Written and directed by Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu
France/Switzerland, 2013
Set in the icy backdrop of the Swiss Alps, L’amour est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime) is a dark thriller that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. With a rich emphasis on the link between man, literature, and landscape, the film takes its audience for a chilling ride.
Marc, played brilliantly by Mathieu Amalric, is a middle-aged literature professor who has an appetite for young female students. When Barbara, one of his brightest, goes mysteriously missing, her attractive stepmother Anna (Maiwenn) starts to hang around the university looking for any clues that might shed light on the girl’s sudden disappearance. Marc quickly becomes captivated with this woman and begins a torrid affair with her, unaware that she may have an ulterior motive.
Written and directed by Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu
France/Switzerland, 2013
Set in the icy backdrop of the Swiss Alps, L’amour est un crime parfait (Love is the Perfect Crime) is a dark thriller that blurs the lines between fantasy and reality. With a rich emphasis on the link between man, literature, and landscape, the film takes its audience for a chilling ride.
Marc, played brilliantly by Mathieu Amalric, is a middle-aged literature professor who has an appetite for young female students. When Barbara, one of his brightest, goes mysteriously missing, her attractive stepmother Anna (Maiwenn) starts to hang around the university looking for any clues that might shed light on the girl’s sudden disappearance. Marc quickly becomes captivated with this woman and begins a torrid affair with her, unaware that she may have an ulterior motive.
- 10/26/2013
- by Trish Ferris
- SoundOnSight
Rather than exhorting the depressed to help themselves, fiction can provide a welcome realisation that we are not alone in despair
The plan to refer people with mild depression and anxiety to books has provoked some fascinating discussions, not least the discussion here of how fiction can be more helpful than non self-help. Having studied philosophy, I still have Elizabeth Anscombe's injunction to stop doing philosophy and start reading novels ringing in my ears, so this is no surprise. What I want to make the case for is those works of fiction that go beyond the positive, beyond stories of survival, works many wouldn't imagine offering help, would even want to keep out of the hands of the mentally fragile.
I made the case for the dangerousness of the blanket prescription of self-help in the comments on other posts here, the guilt when we do not succeed in pulling ourselves from the mire,...
The plan to refer people with mild depression and anxiety to books has provoked some fascinating discussions, not least the discussion here of how fiction can be more helpful than non self-help. Having studied philosophy, I still have Elizabeth Anscombe's injunction to stop doing philosophy and start reading novels ringing in my ears, so this is no surprise. What I want to make the case for is those works of fiction that go beyond the positive, beyond stories of survival, works many wouldn't imagine offering help, would even want to keep out of the hands of the mentally fragile.
I made the case for the dangerousness of the blanket prescription of self-help in the comments on other posts here, the guilt when we do not succeed in pulling ourselves from the mire,...
- 2/4/2013
- by Dan Holloway
- The Guardian - Film News
Title: Unforgivable (Impardonnables) Strand Releasing Reviewed for Shockya by Harvey Karten Director: André Téchiné Writers: André Téchiné, Mehdi Ben Attia, from Philippe Djian’s novel Cast: André Dussolier, Carole Bouquet, Mauro Conte, Adriana Asti, Mélanie Thierry, Andrea Pergolesi Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 6/12/12 Opens: June 29, 2012 You don’t need a degree in psychology or history to realize that the past is always with us. You can’t escape its impact. Its memory will leave with feeling of guilt but also haunting regressions of past loves: familial, platonic and romantic. If you’re a filmmaker, whether in the seat of the director or the writer, you need the skill to bring an [ Read More ]...
- 6/13/2012
- by Brian Corder
- ShockYa
"With the possible exception of 'pretentious,' no adjective is of less critical use than 'boring,' but holy crap was I bored out of my skull by André Téchiné's Unforgivable, screening in the Directors' Fortnight," writes Mike D'Angelo at the Av Club. "So much so, in fact, that I don't have a whole lot to say about it other than: avoid."
"André Dussollier plays a jaded writer who goes to Venice to work on a new book," writes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "He instantly starts a wildly implausible affair with Carole Bouquet, playing the estate agent who rented him his pad. Bouquet used to have a lesbian affair with an alcoholic who is also a private detective. Dusollier hires her to search for his daughter, who has run off with an aristocratic drug dealer. Then he hires the private detective's ex-jailbird son to spy on his wife. It is all utterly bizarre,...
"André Dussollier plays a jaded writer who goes to Venice to work on a new book," writes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "He instantly starts a wildly implausible affair with Carole Bouquet, playing the estate agent who rented him his pad. Bouquet used to have a lesbian affair with an alcoholic who is also a private detective. Dusollier hires her to search for his daughter, who has run off with an aristocratic drug dealer. Then he hires the private detective's ex-jailbird son to spy on his wife. It is all utterly bizarre,...
- 5/21/2011
- MUBI
Programme includes veteran film-maker André Téchiné, plus 14 female directors – but English-language cinema is sidelined
The lineup for the Cannes film festival has been finalised with the announcement of the Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week programmes. The two strands operate independently of the Palme d'Or competition that was announced last week.
Few of the selected film-makers look likely to excite the paparazzi on the Cannes red carpet. The best known name in the Directors' Fortnight selection is probably veteran French film-maker André Téchiné with an adaptation of Philippe Djian's novel Impardonnables, about a writer whose daughter disappears, while the Critics' Week finds room for new films by Shotgun Stories director Jeff Nichols and Jonathan Caouette, maker of Tarnation.
One title that seems likely to spark controversy, however, is the Critics' Week selection Hanotenet (aka The Slut), directed by and starring Israeli Hagar Ben Asher, about a woman compulsively seeking sexual gratification.
The lineup for the Cannes film festival has been finalised with the announcement of the Directors' Fortnight and Critics' Week programmes. The two strands operate independently of the Palme d'Or competition that was announced last week.
Few of the selected film-makers look likely to excite the paparazzi on the Cannes red carpet. The best known name in the Directors' Fortnight selection is probably veteran French film-maker André Téchiné with an adaptation of Philippe Djian's novel Impardonnables, about a writer whose daughter disappears, while the Critics' Week finds room for new films by Shotgun Stories director Jeff Nichols and Jonathan Caouette, maker of Tarnation.
One title that seems likely to spark controversy, however, is the Critics' Week selection Hanotenet (aka The Slut), directed by and starring Israeli Hagar Ben Asher, about a woman compulsively seeking sexual gratification.
- 4/19/2011
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
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