MovieChat Forums > Elle (2016) Discussion > So what's the through-line here?

So what's the through-line here?

posted 8 years ago by kirkmusic
7 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS!!!

Did something happen in the resolution of this film that was supposed to let me not feel gross about it? I think I'm missing something. Here are the pieces I have:

As far as I can tell this could be a story of overcoming a life of shame. Shame gets mentioned a couple of times in reference to what happened when Michele was 10.

She's happy that her planned visit to her father prompts his suicide, maybe taking some of her power back from the event.

There seemed to be a turning point when she told her friend (Anna?) that she had been having sex with her husband. It was a conscious choice to stop lying.

The film starts with an assault, after which she takes no action, perhaps because she somehow feels she deserves it, although she does imagine bashing his head in. By the end she seems to orchestrate his downfall.

Two things make me feel gross about the end. The wife being grateful to Michele for being able to give her husband what he needed for a time. F-ing twisted. And then when she's talking to Anna about Robert at the end, she has no regrets about sleeping with her friend's husband! I mean, it's good to get over shame to the point of feeling you don't deserve to be abused, but losing your shame to the point of amorality seems excessive.

I don't think this film would be the critics favorite it is unless I were missing something. Thoughts? Interpretations?

[–] DC-Tiki 8 years ago

I enjoyed the film but also was struggling to grasp if there was any lesson or theme to have gleaned from the story when all was said and done - apart from everyone has weird secrets.

One thing I noticed was that it ends with yet another LeBlanc murder, albeit an accidental one, whereby the mother, Michele, is complicit in some guilt since she enabled the rape fantasy to play out that led to a man's death. The son is innocent of any wrong-doing since he thought he was protecting his mother when he attacked (and killed) the neighbour. Is this supposed to contrast with and mirror the fact that this same family, a father and daughter, were involved in murder in the past as well? Whereby the father was guilty in this instance and the daughter, Michele, was completely innocent? Is there something there to read into, guilty parents and innocent children, or it's just entirely co-incidental

[–] 8 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dxben99 8 years ago

"Two things make me feel gross about the end. The wife being grateful to Michele for being able to give her husband what he needed for a time. F-ing twisted. And then when she's talking to Anna about Robert at the end, she has no regrets about sleeping with her friend's husband! I mean, it's good to get over shame to the point of feeling you don't deserve to be abused, but losing your shame to the point of amorality seems excessive. "

That was certainly twisted but, to me, had a great impact. I did not expect Patrick's wife (the devoted christian) to have known all about the two and what they did together, at all. I was like "What the f-ck??"

The other thing: Well, I think it all comes down to what she said at the party when she initially told her friend the truth: She's done lying and by that point, we know that she does not have any shame regarding her sexual ways. So, that was just the truth: She does not see it as such a big a deal and by the end of the movie, the relationship was over anyway. She did not want to continue the lies, probably in order not to lose her good friend (and maybe to kick off the lesbian relationship I know we were all thinking about when the movie ended. ;))

[–] workbumpf 8 years ago

Michele was ultimately a user, somebody who exploited people close to her. The more I think about it, the more I'm sure she's a sociopath. Which also leads me to doubt she didn't participate in the crimes her father committed.

The symmetry of her son killing the rapist (who at the end wasn't a rapist as much as someone Michele pulled into her 'cosplay') and her possibly taking part in her father's murder spree (or was it HER murder spree and her father covered for her?) is striking.

Also, Michele pushed the game developers into making the rape in the game more brutal, wanting to see the woman being raped enjoying it.

Sick, fascinating movie.

[–] dxben99 8 years ago

"(or was it HER murder spree and her father covered for her?)"

I think that's pretty unlikely. I mean she was a little girl back then and it was said that the murderer went from door to door and pretty much annihilated whole families. I doubt she could have pulled that of, even if she was already sick in the head back then.

I rather think that that event led to her becoming the sociopath/psychopath she is in the movie.

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 8 years ago

I rather think that that event led to her becoming the sociopath/psychopath she is in the movie.

Agreed. I think she was a victim as much as anyone else back then, but the events led to her becoming a sociopath/psychopath herself later on.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried

[–] PopperTheKungFu-Dragon 8 years ago

There seemed to be a turning point when she told her friend (Anna?) that she had been having sex with her husband. It was a conscious choice to stop lying.

Somehow I don't get that it was about stopping lying at all. I got the feeling she was jealous at seeing Robert happy with Anna and so she purposely wanted to ruin him by revealing their relationship.

Poorly Lived and Poorly Died, Poorly Buried and No One Cried