Was this a dark comedy

I Don't think it was intended to be a comedy at all. What part did you laugh ? I can't think of a funny part except maybe when she bumped her ex-husband car.

In an interview on the blu-ray, Verhoeven states that he mostly wanted to fight against the defining box of "genre". That is why it doesn't go the route of most other movies that open with a rape.

The writing in this, and Isabelle Huppert particularly, WAS funny. Which certainly isn't something you expect from the synopsis or after the opening scene. But I did find myself laughing at a lot of the things she did and way she interacted with people. Her reaction to knocking off the fender of her ex-husband's car, the way she needles her mother and the young boy toy, her reaction at the hospital after Josie delivers the black baby, ha! I thought Isabelle was fantastic in this.