By the New York Film Festival's final weekend, it felt like a French takeover: Isabelle Huppert was everywhere. Starring in two films, Mia Hansen-Love's Things to Come, and Paul Verhoeven's Elle, the actress went from press conference to dinner at Bar Boulud, her husband and son in tow. Elle is the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar, and it is safe to say, it is out of the box. For a precursor out of Isabelle Huppert's hundred or so films, think of Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher, and Huppert's frank portrayal of a woman's sexuality. Elle opens with the unmistakable sounds of excessive breathing and violent wallops, in fact a rape as seen through the eyes of a cat.
At dinner, producer Said Ben Said recounted the film's fascinating history. From a novel by Philippe Dijian, the author of Betty Blue memorably made into a film by Jean-Jacques Beineix, the Dutch Verhoeven wanted to make Elle in English. David Birke wrote the screenplay in English. But no American actress wanted to be attached to this edgy character. And so the screenplay went to French. Verhoeven found that Huppert was already interested in the project. Elle suggests the prototype of the new woman, however stylized. Is it too French?
This is not the realistic Twentieth Century Women, Mike Mills' excellent film--and another NYFF hit-- with a wonderful Annette Bening in a role based on his mother, and other great performances by Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning. Two questions: why aren't Americans brave enough to make Elle? And will the academy members choose this film for Oscar contender? Perhaps auguring things to come, Isabelle Huppert was nominated for a Gotham Best Actress Award.
A version of this post also appears on Gossip Central.