Actress Isabelle Huppert turns 70

Isabelle Huppert has masterfully embodied a wide variety of characters in her films – and she is still drawn to the set. The French loves challenging roles and is one of the best actresses in the world.

< img src="https://static.dw.com/image/41623978_303.jpg" /> Great films with Isabelle Huppert

“The Lace Maker” (1977)

Isabelle Huppert had her international breakthrough at the age of 25 with the leading role in Claude Goretta's “The Lace Maker”. She won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portrayal of a humble girl who hooks up with a college student. Too reserved for his intellectual circle, the student leaves her – and she ends up in psychiatry.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Save yourself, who can (life)” (1980)

After twelve years of experimental projects, Nouvelle Vague director Jean-Luc Godard returned with “Save yourself, who can (life)” return to working with French film stars. As one of the three main characters, Isabelle Huppert plays a sex worker who teaches her sister about prostitution. And like her own pimp, she collects 50 percent of her sister's income.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Beasts” (1995)

< p>Huppert received her first “César”, the highest French film award, for her role in the film “Biester” from director Claude Chabrol, with whom she worked regularly. She received a second “César” for her role in “Elle” (2016). She is also one of the few to have won Best Actress twice at the Cannes Film Festival.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“The Piano Player” (2001)

She received one of Huppert's Cannes awards for her role in Michael Haneke's “The Piano Player”, which is based on the novel of the same name by the Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek. In this psychosexual drama, she portrays a piano teacher who has a sadomasochistic relationship with her student. The self-mutilation and rape scenes are disturbing.
Strong movies with Isabelle Huppert

“8 Women” (2002)

Eight women gathered in a snowy cabin for Christmas become murder suspects when the family patriarch is found dead with a knife in his back. In François Ozon's dark musical comedy, Isabelle Huppert played the uptight aunt Augustine alongside top-class co-stars such as Catherine Deneuve and Fanny Ardant, which earned her several awards.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Elle” (2016)

In Paul Verhoeven's thriller, Isabelle Huppert plays the role of a successful businesswoman who is raped but does not go to the police. In one of the best performances of her career, Huppert portrays a woman engaged in mysterious power games and growing distrust of the men around her. For this role, she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Everything is coming” (2016)

Huppert has acted in seven competition films at the Berlinale, including “Everything that comes” by Mia Hansen-Løve. In the Silver Bear-winning film, she plays a philosophy teacher who suddenly experiences a sense of freedom when her mother dies and her husband leaves her. Here, too, Huppert received several nominations and awards for her work.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“The time we share” (2022)

The drama “The Time We Share” tells the story of the Parisian publisher Joan Verra (Isabelle Huppert), who after many years meets her first great love again and then looks back on her life. German actor Lars Eidinger stars alongside the celebrated French actress in Laurent Larivière's Franco-German-Irish co-production.

Author: Elizabeth Grenier

Great films with Isabelle Huppert

“The Lace Maker” (1977)

Isabelle had her international breakthrough Huppert at the age of 25 with the leading role in Claude Goretta's “The lace lacemaker”. She won a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer for her portrayal of a humble girl who hooks up with a college student. Because he is too reserved for his intellectual circle, the student leaves her – and she ends up in a psychiatric ward.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Save yourself, who can (life)” ( 1980)

After twelve years of experimental projects, Nouvelle Vague director Jean-Luc Godard returned to collaborating with French film stars with “Save Yourself, Who Can (Life)”. As one of the three main characters, Isabelle Huppert plays a sex worker who teaches her sister about prostitution. And like her own pimp, she collects 50 percent of her sister's earnings.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Beasts” (1995)

Huppert received her first “César”, the highest French film award, for her role in the film “Biester” from director Claude Chabrol, with whom she worked regularly. She received a second “César” for her role in “Elle” (2016). She is also one of the few to have won Best Actress twice at the Cannes Film Festival.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“The Piano Player” (2001)

She received one of Huppert's Cannes awards for her role in Michael Haneke's “The Piano Player”, which is based on the novel of the same name by the Austrian author Elfriede Jelinek. In this psychosexual drama, she portrays a piano teacher who has a sadomasochistic relationship with her student. The self-mutilation and rape scenes are disturbing.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“8 Women” (2002)

Eight women gathered in a snowy cabin for Christmas become murder suspects when the family patriarch is found dead with a knife in his back. In François Ozon's dark musical comedy, Isabelle Huppert played the uptight aunt Augustine alongside top-class co-stars such as Catherine Deneuve and Fanny Ardant, which earned her several awards.
< img src="https://static.dw.com/image/42887118_303.jpg" /> Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Elle” (2016)

In Paul Verhoeven's thriller, Isabelle Huppert plays the role of a successful businesswoman who is raped but does not go to the police. In one of the best performances of her career, Huppert portrays a woman engaged in mysterious power games and growing distrust of the men around her. For this role, she won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“Everything that comes ” (2016)

Huppert has acted in seven competition films at the Berlinale, including “Everything that comes” by Mia Hansen-Løve. In the Silver Bear-winning film, she plays a philosophy teacher who suddenly experiences a sense of freedom when her mother dies and her husband leaves her. Here, too, Huppert received several nominations and awards for her work.
Strong films with Isabelle Huppert

“The time we share” (2022)

The drama “The Time We Share” tells the story of the Parisian publisher Joan Verra (Isabelle Huppert), who after many years meets her first great love again and then looks back on her life. German actor Lars Eidinger stars alongside the celebrated French actress in Laurent Larivière's Franco-German-Irish co-production.

Author: Elizabeth Grenier

She has acted in around 150 films and TV productions and effortlessly slips into a wide variety of characters. Although Isabelle Huppert was also seen in comedies, she became best known in the roles of self-confident, cold women – who don't always do what is expected of them.

In her long career she has acted for many of the great masters of cinema. Some critics have hailed her as “one of the best actresses in the world”. At the 72nd Berlin Film Festival in 2022, her performance was appropriately acknowledged: she received the Honorary Golden Bear for her life's work. Now she's 70 and still happily making films. Her latest film “Mon Crime”, a tragic comedy by filmmaker François Ozon, is currently showing in French cinemas.

Growing up with the fine arts

Born on March 16, 1953 in Paris, Isabelle Huppert seems to have had success in her cradle: Her parents, the mother an English teacher and the father a Jewish entrepreneur, are well off. Isabelle and her four older siblings are brought up as Catholics, and the fine arts have a natural place in the Huppert household. Acting courses during high school and admission to the Paris Conservatoire National d'Art Dramatique – all of this was somehow obvious given Isabelle's background. Still, she wouldn't claim to have been “lucky”. “Happiness doesn't just magically fall from the sky.” Rather, everyone can create the conditions for their own happiness, she said in a 2017 interview with the women's magazine “Brigitte”. />

Regular guest at film festivals: Isabelle Huppert 2022 in Rome

Isabelle Huppert: reputation as an intellectual actress

At least she did and still does that all the time, one gets the impression. Isabelle Huppert is considered restless. For decades she has put in a considerable workload, shooting two to three films a year. In 2018, four appeared with her, including the psychological thriller “Eva” (Benoît Jacquot), which ran in competition at the 68th Berlinale, and in which Huppert, as a noble prostitute, drives a fraudulent writer into bondage and ultimately into catastrophe.

Isabelle Huppert has been a star for more than 50 years

Extraordinary women who are shaped by tragedy and are surrounded by mysteries – these are Huppert's prime roles. Their selection and collaboration with the most renowned directors in the world such as Michael Haneke (including “The Piano Player”) or Claude Chabrol (including “Violette Nozière”) earned her a reputation as an “intellectual actress”. Wrongly, as she says, because her films – even if they could sometimes be described as intellectual – said nothing about her, Huppert told “Zeit Magazin”. She sees herself more as a “tool” of the director , follows his instructions exactly, hardly improvises.

Strong expression thanks to reduced facial expressions

She conveys the emotional states and mental constitution of her characters precisely and with a great deal of sensitivity: with her seemingly expressionless face and sparse facial expressions, which have always been Huppert's trademarks. Fiction has a tendency to inflate things, she explained in an interview with the Financial Times in July 2017. “But when I look at people on the street, I see that most of them have pretty blank stares. That means I have to do less.” Watching taught her to reduce instead of add.

Her disturbing play in Die Pianist” earned her a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001

But their reduced style of play meant that viewers and critics classified them as unapproachable and cool. An image that, on closer inspection, does not do justice to the 1.50 meter small French woman: She has been married to film director Ronald Chammah since 1982, and the couple has four children. Art and photography are among Huppert's passions. She piles photos and books in her home – “I want to capture the good memories in my life” – and gets anxious when she has to move into tight spaces. Pages that show that even Isabelle Huppert has her weaknesses.

Women on the fringes of society are given a voice

Huppert likes to play extreme characters, “survivors who can be victims and rebels at the same time,” says the actress. “Monsters with a human face. My films give these women a voice. Because even if they live on the fringes of our society, they are there: women who lead a brutal life. A brutality that they didn't choose themselves”, said Huppert to “Zeit Magazin”.

In “Elle” Huppert plays a woman who repeatedly being raped and dealing with it in a special way

Her interpretations of those challenging female roles have already brought the Frenchwoman numerous prizes, including the most important awards in the film industry: César, European Film Prize, Honorary Golden Bear, Palme d'Or and the Golden Globe – they are all at Huppert's home, sometimes several times. The only thing missing is the Oscar, for which she was nominated at least once in 2017 with “Elle” (by director Paul Verhoeven).

Confidently into the future

She is self-confident and sure of herself. She has never doubted her ability. “I'm absolutely not afraid.” Things are different in other areas, she told the Financial Times. For example, when she crosses the street or meets people. “Whenever something is essential in life.” But nothing can scare her when she's acting. “I do it without thinking about it. It's like eating or drinking.”

12 “Grande Dames” of French cinema

Catherine Deneuve – THE “Grande Dame”

She is one of the most important contemporary French film actresses. Born in Paris in 1943, she became famous at the age of 21 through the film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”. The woman with the flawless appearance and cool facial expressions has starred in films by renowned directors such as Roman Polánski, François Truffaut and Luis Buñuel.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Isabelle Huppert – the unapproachable

She is considered cold and unapproachable. Is it all just a facade? One who should know is director Michael Haneke (left in the picture). Huppert is his favorite actress, most recently she stood in front of the camera for him for the drama “Happy End”. Huppert became famous with films like “Madame Bovary” or “The Piano Player”.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Jeanne Moreau – Star of the Nouvelle Wave

She shot many famous European directors. This resulted in formative works such as “Elevator to the Scaffold”, “Jules et Jim” or “The Lovers”. In 1965 her striptease with Brigitte Bardot in the revolutionary comedy “Viva Maria!” out a scandal. Jeanne Moreau died in July 2017 at the age of 89.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Sophie Marceau – the changeable

At 51, Sophie Marceau, seen here as the Bond girl, can look back on a long career in cinema. As a 14-year-old, she made the hearts of many teenage boys beat faster in “La Boum”. She later advanced to become a character actress in French films with films such as the revealing erotic drama “Descent to Hell”.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Brigitte Bardot – the erotic icon

Of course, “BB” should not be missing from our list. As an actress, singer and model, she became an erotic icon in the 1960s. She wrote film history, among other things, in “Le Mépris” (“The Contempt”) by Jean-Luc Godard from 1963. Here she lolls on the bed with Maurice Ronet in “Oh, These Women”.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Fanny Ardant – the muse

Fanny Ardant, François Truffaut's last muse and partner, is one of the most popular actresses on screen and on stage in her homeland. Director Truffaut discovered Fanny Ardant in a television series and was keen to get to know her. A lunch with him and Gérard Dépardieu followed. And finally, in 1981, the breakthrough into the “woman from next door” (“La femme d'à côté”).
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Isabelle Adjani – femme fatale with humor

Your first She celebrated great success at the Comédie Française, first Truffaut's “The Story of Adèle H.” made her known as a film actress. Working with many renowned directors, she soon became one of the best-known actresses in Europe. And her image also changed from comedian to “femme fatale”.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Juliette Binoche – the picky one

The daughter of a theater director and an actress was already on stage as a child and celebrated her film debut at 18. Before long, Hollywood was on the mat. In 1996 she even won the Oscar for best supporting actress in “The English Patient”. Binoche is considered to be very idiosyncratic: she often turned down offers for roles in Hollywood blockbusters.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Audrey Tautou – the fabulous

She is one of the divas of the new generation: Audrey Tautou. She couldn't quite shake off the image of the whimsical but lovable Amélie Poulain. After the film “The Fabulous World of Amélie”, with which she achieved her breakthrough, she acted in several other successful films. Internationally, she made a name for herself alongside Tom Hanks in “The Da Vinci Code”.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Charlotte Gainsbourg – the daring

The daughter of Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg caused a sensation in Lars von Triers' “Nymphomaniac”. The two-part work shows a woman trying out her sexuality in almost every area. It's not the first appearance with which Charlotte doesn't create a feel-good atmosphere in the cinema. The “Antichrist” (picture), also by von Trier, gained the reputation of a scandalous film.
12 “grandes dames” of French cinema

Marion Cotillard – La vie en rose

The beautiful Marion Cotillard has been on everyone's lips not just since her death scene in “Batman – The Dark Knight Rises”, which was hotly debated online. In 2011 she was named the highest paid French actress. She showed how versatile and changeable she is as Edith Piaf in “La vie en rose”. There was even an Oscar for best actress for this in 2008.
12 “Grandes Dames” of French cinema

Léa Seydoux – the indie star

And another one who made it to Bond Girl (here with Christoph Waltz in “Spectre”). Léa Seydoux became known with “Blue is a Warm Color”, which fascinated and shocked critics and viewers – especially with a seven-minute lesbian sex scene. Together with co-star Adèle Exarchopoulos and director Abdellatif Kechiche, Seydoux received the Palme d'Or in 2013.

Author: Annabelle Steffes-Halmer