- Title: Verhoeven presents rape drama at Cannes festival
- Date: 21st May 2016
- Summary: CANNES, FRANCE (MAY 21, 2016) (REUTERS) (OFF SCREEN) JOURNALIST ASKING IF VERHOEVEN AND HUPPERT ARE CONCERNED THAT THE FILM MIGHT OFFEND PEOPLE, BOTH SAYING 'No'
- Embargoed: 5th June 2016 14:52
- Keywords: Cannes Film Festival Elle Paul Verhoeven Isabelle Huppert
- Location: CANNES, FRANCE / VARIOUS UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- City: CANNES, FRANCE / VARIOUS UNKNOWN FILMING LOCATIONS
- Country: France
- Topics: Film
- Reuters ID: LVA0034IR29N1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS PLEASE NOTE: EDIT CONTAINS NUDITY IN THE FILM TRAILER (SHOT 13)
Dutch director Paul Verhoeven, who had not directed a feature film in the last 10 years, presented in Cannes on Saturday (May 21) his first feature film in French, a rape drama starring Isabelle Huppert.
"I felt that this movie, more than any movie I have made, leaves things opened for the audience to fill in. And not reveal and not say this is this and it is connected with that and I took that from the novel, basically, David and I. That kind of narrative that Philippe invented for his novel, I felt it was extremely interesting for me," he told a news conference.
The film is focused on Michele (Isabelle Huppert) who is trying to overcome the trauma of having been raped by a masked man in her apartment.
"She's just someone who is trying not to obey to all the codes in place in normal society. Each time she has a problem or she tries to think about something specific, she tries to be free. And I think it's her freedom that scares and bothers the reader or the viewer. And even more as she is a woman, we don't want women to be really free and say what they want or think," said French author Philippe Dijan, who wrote the book the film is adapted from.
As the Cannes Film Festival is coming to an end, the director of 'Basic Instinct' said he had first thought about making the film in Hollywood but that all the actresses he contacted turned down the role of Michele, so he then decided to shoot it in Paris, bringing with him U.S. scriptwriter David Birke.
"I think what I brought from the United States to France is a little bit what he did with the novel. We had conversations about that but ultimately the screenplay is certainly not my work but I think by bringing in an American scriptwriter and following that path of a little bit more structural and compact way of visualising and saying things, that I think I learnt in the United States," he said.
Verhoeven is famous for violent science-fiction films such as 'Robocop', 'Total Recall' or 'Starship Troopers', but said he was no longer very positive about the future of science-fiction and more interested in real stories. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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