Paul Verhoeven reflects on the 2016 Presidential Election and explains why he finds the term “provocation” misleading as applied to his work in this interview from the 54th New York Film Festival. Verhoeven was at the festival with his new film Elle starring Isabelle Huppert and will return for our complete retrospective of his work in November.

NYFF Soft Focus is created by filmmakers Jeff Reichert and Farihah Zaman. The interviews were shot using a 1986 Jupiter-9 85mm, a vintage Russian lens known for its “swirly bokeh,” which gives the videos their distinctive look. Subscribe to our YouTube channel for more.