Critical response 's performance garnered critical acclaim and she received an
Academy Award nomination for
Best Actress. She also won her first
Golden Globe award for her performance in the film.
Elle received widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise for Huppert's performance and Verhoeven's direction. On review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 91% based on 247 reviews, with an average rating of 8.00/10. The website's critical consensus says, "
Elle finds director Paul Verhoeven operating at peak power—and benefiting from a typically outstanding performance from Isabelle Huppert in the central role." At
Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating to reviews, the film received an average score of 89 out of 100, based on 36 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". The film received a seven-minute
standing ovation at its Cannes Film Festival international premiere. Leslie Felperin of
The Hollywood Reporter called it "the most empowering 'Rape Movie' ever made," and wrote, "Paul Verhoeven's film about a woman's complicated response to being raped will draw ire from feminists and others, but it's one of the bravest, most honest and inspiring examinations of the subject ever put onscreen." Stéphane Delorme of
Cahiers du cinéma wrote the film was "a striking return for the Dutchman. We didn't dare dream of such an audacious, generous film." Guy Lodge of
Variety said, "Isabelle Huppert might be our best living actor, and
Elle might be Paul Verhoeven's best film." Eric Kohn of
IndieWire described it as a "lighthearted rape-revenge story." Jordan Mintzer of
The Hollywood Reporter called the film a "tastefully twisted mid-to-late-life crisis thriller that's both lasciviously dark and rebelliously light on its feet" and added that Verhoeven and Huppert "combine their talents to make a film that hardly skimps on the sex, violence and sadism, yet ultimately tells a story about how one woman uses them all to set herself free."
Jason Gorber of
Twitch Film thought the film was "a masterwork by a master filmmaker, while Huppert's performance reminds the world once again what a treasure she is." Ben Croll of
TheWrap believed the film was "riotously funny, and Isabelle Huppert has never been better." Christopher Hooton of
The Independent said it was "Cannes' only real high point." Xan Brooks of
The Guardian found the film "utterly gripping and endlessly disturbing" and wrote, "Isabelle Huppert delivers a standout performance as a woman turning the tables on her attacker in the controversial director's electrifying and provocative comeback." Lisa Nesselson of
Screen Daily found that Huppert's "self-assured-and-aloof register is a perfect fit with Verhoeven's taste for far-fetched human behaviour presented as plausible," and described the film as "suspenseful and unsettling from first frame to last." David Sexton of
The Evening Standard labeled the film as "outrageous, funny and shocking, exhilarating and original." Catherine Bray of
Time Out wrote the film "might just be the most Paul Verhoeven film yet, due to its willingness to push buttons, explore transgressive territory and take constant delight in venturing where the vast majority of filmmakers would fear to tread" and predicted, "It's a film that will inspire debate for decades to come."
Richard Brody of
The New Yorker wrote, "
Elle is no exploration of a woman's life or psyche but a macho fantasy adorned with the trappings of liberation."
Bidisha, writing in
The Guardian, rounded on the film's racist humour and for perpetuating misogynistic stereotypes about domestic abuse and rape fantasies: "In a vicious insult to all survivors of men's sexual violence, the filmmakers have recast the perpetrator and his victim as being in some kind of relationship or affair driven by her masochism, in which his abusiveness is simply a necessary fuel... It's a classic, malicious lie: that rape awakens women's sexuality."
Top ten lists Elle was listed on numerous critics' top ten lists. • 1st –
Ignatiy Vishnevetsky,
The A.V. Club • 1st – Brian Formo,
Collider • 1st – Sean Axmaker,
Parallax View • 1st – Michael Snydel,
RogerEbert.com • 1st – Lisa Nesselson,
Screen Daily • 2nd –
Cahiers du cinéma • 2nd –
The Film Stage • 2nd – Nicholas Bell,
Ioncinema.com • 2nd – Dennis Dermody,
Paper • 2nd –
Screen Anarchy • 2nd – Lee Marshall,
Screen Daily • 2nd – Simon Abrams,
RogerEbert.com • 2nd – Danny Bowes,
RogerEbert.com • 2nd – Seongyong Cho,
RogerEbert.com • 2nd – Peter Sobczynski,
RogerEbert.com • 3rd – Aubrey Page,
Collider.com • 3rd –
The Guardian • 3rd – Sheila O'Malley,
RogerEbert.com • 3rd – Fionnuala Halligan,
Screen Daily • 3rd – Calvin Wilson,
St. Louis Post-Dispatch • 4th – Marjorie Baumgarten,
The Austin Chronicle • 4th – Matt Prigge,
Metro US • 4th – Andrew Wright,
Salt Lake City Weekly • 4th –
Stephanie Zacharek,
Time • 4th –
Screen Daily • 5th –
Mick LaSalle,
San Francisco Chronicle • 5th – Gregory Ellwood,
The Playlist • 5th – Ben Kenigsberg,
RogerEbert.com • 5th –
Slant Magazine • 6th – Peter Debruge,
Variety • 6th –
Todd McCarthy,
The Hollywood Reporter • 6th –
John Waters,
Artforum • 6th – Alison Willmore,
BuzzFeed • 6th – Nick Schager,
Esquire • 6th – David Hudson,
Fandor • 6th –
Movie Mezzanine • 6th – Tina Hassannia,
RogerEbert.com • 7th – Mark Olsen,
Los Angeles Times • 7th – Steven Erickson,
RogerEbert.com • 8th – Katie Rife,
The A.V. Club • 8th –
Stephen Holden,
The New York Times • 8th – Patrick McGavin,
RogerEbert.com • 8th – Erin Whitney,
ScreenCrush • 9th – Melissa Anderson,
Artforum • 9th –
Consequence of Sound • 9th – Ben Barna,
Nylon • 10th –
A. O. Scott,
The New York Times (tied with
Things to Come) • 10th – Bill Stamets,
RogerEbert.com • Top 10 (listed alphabetically, not ranked) – Walter Addiego,
San Francisco Chronicle Accolades On 26 September 2016, the French
National Center of Cinematography and the Moving Image selected
Elle as the French entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film at the
89th Academy Awards. When the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a shortlist of nine pictures competing for the category on 15 December 2016 that did not include
Elle, many media, including
The Hollywood Reporter,
The New York Times,
Entertainment Weekly,
The Independent and
The Guardian, slammed
Elle's omission as a "snub." Gregory Ellwood of
The Playlist wrote that the film became "one of [the] greatest Oscar Foreign Language Film Snubs of all-time." ==Notes==