Elle Press Conference, Paul Verhoeven Isabelle Huppert, NYFF54

Director Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert spoke at a press conference for Elle before its U. S. Premiere at the 54th New York Film Festival. Paul Verhoevens first feature in a decadeand his first in Frenchranks among his most incendiary, improbable concoctions: a wry, almostscrewball comedy of manners about a woman who responds to a rape by refusing the mantle of victimhood. As the film opens, Parisian heroine Michèle (a brilliant Isabelle Huppert) is brutally violated in her kitchen by a hooded in