Light Hi-Fi - Elle (French for "she" or "her") is a 2016 internationally co-produced psychological thriller directed...
Light Hi-Fi - Elle (French for "she" or "her") is a 2016 internationally co-produced psychological thriller directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by David Birke, based on the novel Oh... by Philippe Djian. Djian's novel was released in 2012 and received the Prix Interallié (National Literary Award). The film stars Isabelle Huppert and tells the story of a businesswoman, Michèle Leblanc, who is raped in her home by an unknown assailant and stalks him back.
The film is Verhoeven's first feature since 2006's Black Book, and his first in the French language. It premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival where it received critical acclaim.[ Elle was subsequently selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language film at the 89th Academy Awards, but was not nominated. Huppert's performance was widely acclaimed, considered to be one of the finest of her career and won her several nominations and awards, including a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress, Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress, Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actress, and a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress.
Michèle Leblanc is raped in her home by an assailant in a ski mask, then promptly cleans up the mess and resumes her life.
She is the assertive head of a successful video game company, where her male employees are alternately resentful of or infatuated with her. She feels detached from her son Vincent, who submits to Josie, his domineering and unfaithful girlfriend. Michèle has a contentious relationship with her mother, who she resents for her narcissism and habit for younger men. Meanwhile, she carries on an affair with Robert, the husband of her best friend and business partner Anna, and develops an erotic obsession with her new neighbor Patrick, a banker who is married to a devoutly religious woman named Rebecca. Furthermore, Michèle is the daughter of a serial killer whose parole hearing is soon approaching. Haunted by this violent event from her childhood and the subsequent media frenzy, Michèle is wary of law enforcement and does not report the rape to police, despite the pleas of her friends.
Following the rape, Michèle grows increasingly suspicious of the men in her life. She at first suspects Kurt, a particularly resentful employee, when a CGI animation of a monster raping her is emailed to everyone at the company. She pepper-sprays a man lurking outside her house, only to find out it is Richard, her ex-husband, who was checking on her safety. It is later revealed that another employee who has been infatuated with her created the animation, but did not rape her.
Michèle is attacked in her home by the same masked assailant one night, and after stabbing his hand and unmasking him, learns that he is Patrick. Michèle decides to visit her father after his parole application is rejected, only to find that he has hanged himself hours before she arrived, which Michèle thinks is because he could not bear to face her again. On the way home from the prison she gets into a car crash in a secluded area. Refusing to call the police due to lingering paranoia from her childhood, she first calls her friends, who don't answer, and then decides to call Patrick. After Patrick rescues her from the car and bandages her, Michèle develops a morbid fascination with him. She begins staging a dangerously vivid rape fantasy, hinging on his inability to perform with a consenting woman. The two of them walk a delicate line in which Patrick has to feel like he is raping Michèle even though she consents to the roleplay.
In the film's epilogue, Michèle speaks briefly with Rebecca as she is moving out of the neighborhood. Rebecca expresses gratitude to Michèle for being able to temporarily "satisfy Patrick's needs" — implying that she was aware of her husband's inclinations the entire time. Vincent is shown to be a bit more assertive in his relationship and career, while Michèle reconciles with both Josie and Anna, the latter of whom offers to move in with her.
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