Author: THE HOBBLEDEHOY

Michael Stevenson, aka Dai Bando, Johnny Foreigner, Monsieur Pas De Merde, is a blogger of French and British culture. His blogs "Pas De Merde" and "The Hobbledehoy" have been called "marvelous" by some, and "meh" by others.

Elle: Empowerment in the Darkness

Elle is the sensational new thriller from Paul Verhoeven, and his first major film in a decade. Starring an outstanding Isabelle Huppert, this French film is not an erotic thriller, like the Dutch director’s infamous Basic Instinct. Instead, it’s a gripping film about a businesswoman’s complex response to being raped. From the opening shot of her cat watching the horrific event unfold, you know you’re in for a typically audacious film from a vastly under-appreciated director.

Verhoeven is best known for directing bombastic sci-fi/action classics like Robocop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers. Rather like the work of Douglas Sirk in the Golden Age of Hollywood, Verhoeven’s films were written off as lowbrow trash in their day, only for their artful, cutting satire to be appreciated later. He creates discomfort in his audience by playing with cinematic elements many take for granted. His incredibly glossy films use deliberately gratuitous sex and violence to comment on the dark undercurrent of both American cinema and society.

Even Showgirls, a popular contender for the worst film ever made, has been re-evaluated by critics and is appreciated by arthouse favourites like Jim Jarmusch and Jacques Rivette.While his last American film, Hollow Man, proved to be a hit, Verhoeven felt his films were losing his personal touch, and that Hollow Man could just as easily have been made by some other director. He retreated to Europe to [ . . . ]

Read Full Story: Elle: empowerment in darkness | Arts & Culture | Film | spiked

Charlotte Gainsbourg Does the Opposite of Freeing the Nipple 

This weekend, Richard Gere’s political thriller Norman: The Moderate Rise and Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer premieres wide in theaters. On Wednesday, the cast gathered for an intimate New York screening hosted by the Cinema Society — in addition to the film’s star Gere, actors Lior Ashkenazi, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Hank Azaria, and Steve Buscemi all put in appearances. Actress and consummate French cool girl Gainsbourg plays Alex Green, who NPR recently described as “a New York-based corruption investigator for the Israeli government” who encounters the titular businessman played by Gere.

At the screening, surrounded by her suited male co-stars, Gainsbourg cut a particularly striking figure in an edgy Saint Laurent ensemble, plus t-shirt, minus glitter boots. It’s a look that showed during the Spring 2017 season, the collection that marked Anthony Vaccarello’s Saint Laurent debut. (Gainsbourg herself also sat front-row at the debut.) Originally modeled by Binx Walton, the leather minidress was an especially bold look — its most notable accessory being the rhinestone heart pasty on Walton’s breast, a gesture at modesty for the cutaway design. But for Gainsbourg’s red carpet appearance, she opted for a slightly more demure take on the look, doing whatever you might call the opposite of freeing the nipple [ . . . ]

Reade Full Story at: Charlotte Gainsbourg Does the Opposite of Freeing the Nipple | W Magazine