Festivals

Not counting the experimental crowd-sourced Entertainment Experience (2012), 78 year-old Dutch iconoclast Paul Verhoeven hadn’t directed a film since Black Book ten years ago. He’s back to his old tricks with Elle in which Isabelle Huppert plays a French businesswoman, who after being brutally raped in her home stalks her assailant.

Venice is over but the jury’s decisions could well have positive reverberations for Hollywood and its award season. Although it remains to be seen if the Golden Lion winner The Woman Who Left (from the Philippines) will get a box office boost – the almost four hours in length kept even lots of journalists away – but the other prizes bode well for their recipients.