‘Elle' a study of flawed, fearless rape victim

“Elle,” an almost debilitating act of cinematic provocation starring Isabelle Huppert, opens during a rape. We hear it first while the screen is black, then see the last 15 seconds in a disorienting long shot.

Huppert, 63, is half-naked on the kitchen floor. There are broken dishes everywhere.

Her attacker is in a black jogging outfit and a black ski mask. He has just punched her. He stands up when he’s done, stares at her for a few moments, then runs out.

Huppert, who delivers a breathtaking performance as Michèle Leblanc, a wildly successful, divorced executive, gathers her torn clothes around her. In a comic note that seems wildly incongruous, the camera cuts to Michèle’s cat who has been watching the scene intently.

Later, Michèle will gently chide the feline for not scratching out the man’s eyes.

What universe is this? It’s certainly a comic one, which suggests, as some critics have pointed out, that “Elle” is a “rape comedy.”

Not this critic. Distasteful and grotesque on its face, that term does little justice to the extraordinary complexity of the film’s thematic terrain.

Adapted from the novel by Philippe Djian, “Elle” is the latest offering from Paul Verhoeven, the Dutch director who gained notoriety during his Hollywood career in the 1980s and ’90s with controversial, sometimes twisted, films that dabbled in social satire and traded in extreme violence and extreme sexuality.

Verhoeven, 78, whose films include “Basic Instinct” and “Showgirls” (along with “Total Recall,” “Starship Troopers” and “RoboCop”), was once a favorite target for critics who argued that his female characters didn’t represent feminist independence, but embodied male fantasies.

“Elle” puts forth a different type of character entirely, a strong, self-aware woman who embraces her sexuality and who tries to come to terms with her rape in such a unique, shocking manner that it forces viewers to rethink assumptions. Like its heroine, the film shocks by lunging back and forth between comedy and tragedy.

Strictly speaking, “Elle” is a comedy, a blacker-than-death social satire about bourgeois values, set in contemporary Paris. It’s viciously, demonically funny in parts.

Huppert’s performance as Michèle is daring, gritty and fearless. Her heroine is deeply flawed and filled with contradictions. An aggressive businesswoman who runs a video-game software company with her best friend, Anna (Anne Consigny), she’s a soft touch when it comes to her slacker twentysomething son, Vincent (Jonas Bloquet).