MovieChat Forums > Elle (2016) Discussion > A black comedy about a woman being raped...

A black comedy about a woman being raped and beaten


Disgusting. Paul Verhoeven hasn't changed after all these years. Mind you, Basic Instinct was great, with the woman in control. You could say Michèle is in control here too - if you were a very sick person.


"But I have infinite tenderness for you. I always will. My whole life."

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But she is in control. And not in that way idiots use to rationalize bdsm relationships and weak women like the character from that awful 50 shades crap. Michelle was a dominant person and everyone in her life was her toy. She did later allow the rapist to play it out again, this time under her permission, before getting rid of him.

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Its a drama. Its a comedy. Its a masterpiece.



My Top TV Series Of All Time: http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000012/flat/259033940

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I wouldn't go so far as calling it a masterpiece but I enjoyed it very much. Isabelle Huppert is incredible.

And I'm once again baffled by these forums....seems like many people actually do not know what black comedy is ("But....but....rape isn't funny!!"). Mind you, I am not saying that the movie should be labelled as black comedy because it is very much a drama, but it most definitely has a lot of bits in it that contain very dark humour. Like the mentioned Christmas dinner scene. Also the scene at the hospital with her dying mother. And when the mother actually crashes after Michele berates her (while she is in a coma), Michele is busy bitching about the TV reception. I laughed my ass off at that scene, especially because it is so true that the news station always works. xD

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I'm European as well and I also took this film as a comedy. Not laugh-out-loud funny, but still. It was very amusing. (Except for the first ten minutes.)

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The issue I had was her lack of "caring". At the dinner scene where she told her three friends about being raped, she had a "pay no mind, it's not a big deal" attitude toward it. But she was also a sex crazed woman who didn't like being raped, but was also in the mood to have sex with anyone without it being as the result of her rape.

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