ELLE ***

A woman is raped in her home by a masked intruder. She doesn't report it to the police but decides to deal with it in her own way. She also happens to be the daughter of a psychopath now in prison for slaughtering 27 people. The director is Paul Verhoeven, now 78 but just as keen to court controversy as he ever was and "Elle" may be his masterpiece.

It's also as far from your conventional rape revenge fantasy as you can imagine. For starters, it's often very funny albeit in the blackest possible way while working as a genuinely thrilling whodunit; the initial attack is only the beginning. It's also a disturbingly frank study of a warped psychology; in the end are the victim and the perpetrator that much different?

It helps, of course, that the woman is Isabelle Huppert, perhaps the only actress fearless enough to take on the role. She's magnificent but then when isn't she magnificent. I don't think there is anyone working in mainstream cinema today who can touch her. And with Huppert in the lead you may be reminded of Michael Haneke's "The Piano Teacher", another classic study of a dysfunctional sexual relationship. Will it win her the Oscar? Almost certainly not; the Academy seldom embraces anything this dark but when they do pass her over the loss will be as much theirs as it is Huppert's.