Whitby Film Society presents

"Elle"

In French with English subtitles. Certificate 18

Isabelle Huppert plays the divorced and wonderfully elegant Michelle, who is the co-founder and co-director of an adult, and highly successful, video games company in Paris, who has no problem with her violent games objectifying women.  One afternoon, Michelle is raped in her house by a masked attacker who has broken in through the french windows.

She is reluctant to call the police  because she happens to be the daughter of a notorious, imprisoned serial killer, for whose crimes the tabloids still imply she bears some complicit guilt. She is shouted at in the street and is used to casual hatred, but realises that a publicised rape case will only reawaken the abuse. However, she has her suspicions as to who the culprit is, and there may still be a chance of luring her attacker into the open with an ambiguous cat-and-mouse game, hinting that this unspeakable ordeal was for her a darkly pleasurable role-play. Perhaps her finest film, Huppert’s magnificent performance glazes everything with mystery and is an  essential flavour for its dark and sulphurous absurdity.