Elle is a psychological thriller that recounts thirty days in the life of its heroine Michèlepowerfully portrayed by Isabelle Huppert in Paul Verhoeven's award-winning filmwhere memory, sex, and death collide on every page.
A few weeks before Christmas, Michèle picks herself up from her living room floor. She has been raped. She has almost no recollection of her attacker but she senses his presencehe is never far awayand this uncanny feeling triggers a whirlwind of events and memories. She begins to fear she is losing her grip on a life already complicated by a demanding job, an ex-husband with a new girlfriend, a jealous lover, and a son trapped in a relationship with his girlfriend pregnant by another man.
Hardened by the consequences of her father's violent past, Michèlenearing fifty, fiercely independent and unsentimentalrefuses to be reduced to a victim. When her rapist begins taunting her with messages, she takes measures to protect herselfuntil she discovers his identity.
Through the bitingly sarcastic and unflinchingly realist voice of its heroine, Elle paints a striking portrait of one woman's experience that challenges our notions of masculinity and femininity, weakness and strength.