SummaryMichèle seems indestructible. Head of a successful video game company, she brings the same ruthless attitude to her love life as to business. 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 mome... Read More
Directed By:Paul Verhoeven
Written By:Philippe Djian, David Birke
Elle
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
89
User score
Generally Favorable
7.3
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Metascore
Universal Acclaim
92% Positive
33 Reviews
33 Reviews
8% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Mar 6, 2017
100
A complex film that sidesteps every cliché. Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert are at the top of their game.
Nov 14, 2016
100
That stance of hers will outrage many viewers, as Verhoeven intends it to, but the question of whether Elle is pernicious nonsense or an excruciating black comedy is brushed aside in Huppert’s demonstration of sangfroid. This, she shows us, is how to stand up for yourself in style. She’s the best.
User score
Generally Favorable
73% Positive
198 Ratings
198 Ratings
18% Mixed
50 Ratings
50 Ratings
8% Negative
23 Ratings
23 Ratings
May 26, 2017
10
This is not a normal movie, this movie will keep you thinking even when it ends. Elle proves that not all movies have to complete a formulary, sometimes a movie can be so unexpected and so out of the rules and be really a masterpiece, this is teh case of Elle. With a really Oscar performance from Isabelle Huppert, Elle is a must see experience. The director don´t go on directions that one could expect, in this movie you would think that the movie is over at the 3/4 of it, but then you realized that are more minutes of the movie, and that´s when you´re lost and the movie is not gonna help you find it, you must find it. There are so little movies that are really mind-breaking without presenting a new topic, however Elle does break your mind in a way that you couldn´t expected. There are some people that because of this may not like the movie, but everybody has their reasons to like or not like this movie
Apr 7, 2017
10
Elle is a fine film that owes its greatness to Isabelle Huppert's masterful performance and Paul Verhoeven's impressive ability to surprise the audience at every turn.
May 21, 2016
100
Knowingly incendiary but remarkably cool-headed, and built around yet another of Isabelle Huppert’s staggering psychological dissections, Paul Verhoeven’s long-awaited return to notional genre filmmaking pulls off a breathtaking bait-and-switch: Audiences arriving for a lurid slab of arthouse exploitation will be taken off-guard by the complex, compassionate, often corrosively funny examination of unconventional desires that awaits them.
May 21, 2016
90
It’s all quite perverse for sure, which of course is no surprise coming from either the actress or the director, though what’s welcome about Elle is the way they combine their talents to make a film that hardly skimps on the sex, violence and sadism, yet ultimately tells a story about how one woman uses them all to set herself free.
May 21, 2016
83
The list of the film’s transgressions against the culturally acceptable is almost gratuitously long. But the spine of self-aware intelligence that runs through even its most grotesque, exploitative, and offensive twists, and the basically incredible, irreplaceable central performance from Isabelle Huppert, make this queasily hilarious mass of contradictions just about cohere.
Nov 10, 2016
75
We get to watch another unforgettable and incomparable Huppert performance.
May 21, 2016
40
There is much to like about Elle, first and foremost a witty and bold performance from Huppert and the generally seasoned ensemble.
Jan 9, 2017
10
O filme mais cru e intenso do ano. Huppert provando o porquê de ser a melhor atriz de cinema atualmente com sua capacidade de imergir completamente no personagem. A direção de Paul Verhoeven é impecável!
Sep 6, 2025
6
Intriguing drama/thriller with a very talented cast and solid direction from verhoeven. In such an overcrowded genre its tough to stand out here and this film rarely does. The plot is as intriguing as it is boiling with malaise under the surface at all times.
Apr 8, 2017
6
Just calling this a movie about **** revenge is a gross oversimplification as the situations and characters are complex. Typical of French movies, this film has every permutation and combination of sexual relationships. Overall, this isn't a bad movie but there are better ones out there to spend your time on.
Feb 13, 2018
3
From one viewpoint, this is a film about such a highly dysfunctional group of individuals (to the point of being truly warped), that you wonder how they can get through life and even hold a job at all. As a viewer, if you can accept this incredulity as the baseline of the film, then you can get more involved with the twisted fantasy and the mystery-unraveling-solving part that is built around it. It doesn't pan out, in the end, and just adds to repository of disbelief we already have about the French and their very bizarre and unique ways of living life, as it apparently straddles the line between actual truth and fiction.
May 15, 2017
3
Ce vieux pervers de Verhoeven a la vue qui baisse : le voilà qui s'est découvert une nouvelle passion pour les cougars ! la Huppert et sa copine là, environ une centaine d'heures de vol à elles deux au compteur (à moins que ce ne soit des années ?) et pourtant, toujours en piste les desperate housewives... surtout pour Isabelle qui donne beaucoup de sa personne dans son inédite relation sado-maso à l'insu de son ignorance. Le Hollandais volant sait encore en quelques scènes ici et là sans fard et sans fioritures nous estomaquer par la brutalité et l'agression (sexuelles bien sûr) ; il sait en extraire le côté scabreux le long d'une histoire qui s'y prête forcément. Cette même "histoire" qui multiplie les situations et les personnages si aberrants que cela confine à une sorte de surréalisme. Il détaille le passé et la psychologie d'Isabelle (qui s'en tire bien) ainsi que son environnement tourmenté (le père psychopathe, le fiston complètement con, sans oublier évidemment ses ex et ses coucheries à droite et à gauche) et c'est pas facile tous les jours ! c'en serait presque risible si ce n'était aussi absurde... et abrutissant. Non, on est très loin de Basic Instinct sans parler de La chair et le sang, ni même de l'étonnant Black book... Papy a perdu la main sur ce coup. Premièrement parce qu'on y croit pas, on y croit plus au bout d'une petite heure : trop aberrant et invraisemblable ; secondement parce que le film est une limace neurasthénique sous neuroleptiques : si on avait sabré au bas mot 40 minutes inutiles, le film aurait pu peut-être s'en sortir. Mais avec des "si"... La fin retombe à peu près sur ses pieds, comme une dernière tentative -quoique convenue- pour extirper le film de la mélasse dans laquelle il s'est enfoncé jusqu'à la garde. Mais il est déjà trop ****.
Production Company:
- SBS Productions
- Twenty Twenty Vision Filmproduktion GmbH
- France 2 Cinéma
- Entre Chien et Loup
- Canal+
- France Télévisions
- Orange Cinéma Séries (OCS)
- Casa Kafka Pictures
- Casa Kafka Pictures Movie Tax Shelter Empowered by Belfius
- Proximus
- Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée (CNC)
- Filmförderungsanstalt (FFA)
- Tax Shelter du Gouvernement Fédéral Belge
Release Date:Nov 11, 2016
Duration:2 h 10 m
Rating:R
Tagline:Electrifying... Utterly Gripping!
Website:
Awards
Golden Globes, USA
• 2 Wins & 2 Nominations
Academy Awards, USA
• 1 Nomination
César Awards, France
• 2 Wins & 11 Nominations



























