Cannes: 'Elle' Director Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert Defend Controversial Rape Thriller

Dutch filmmaker Paul Verhoeven, whose "Basic Instinct" opened the festival in competition 25 years ago, returns to the realm of dark sexual fantasy in the Americanized French thriller "Elle" (Sony Pictures Classics), the last competition film to screen at Cannes. Now Isabelle Huppert has two gigantic performances heading toward the fall awards circuit: Mia Hansen-Love's Berlin hit "Things to Come" (Sundance Selects) and "Elle." Advance buzz promised controversy with the suggestion that the film's videogame entrepreneur (exquisitely played by Huppert), is not only viciously violated in the film's opening scene, but actually falls for...

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