Huppert: Each Role Is A Part of Me

One of the most eye-catching stars at 12th Shanghai International Film Festival might be the French celebrity Isabelle Huppert, who has experienced the golden time of French films and cooperated with almost every master director in France.  

Isabelle Huppert (born 16 March 1955) is a French actress, who has also appeared in a few Hollywood movies. She won the César Award for Best Actress in 1996 for her performance in La Cérémonie. In Europe and the art house world, Huppert is venerated as an institution. Huppert most recently received an award for her part in The Piano Teacher. Huppert is also an alumna of the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art of Paris, CNSAD. She has been nominated twelve times for a César Award, winning it in 1996 for her work in La Cérémonie. She is one of only four women who have twice won Best Actress at the Cannes film festival: in 1978 for her role in Violette Noziere by Claude Chabrol (tied with Jill Clayburgh) and in 2001 for The Piano Teacher by Michael Haneke. She is also one of only two women who have twice received the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice film festival: in 1988 for her part in Une affaire de femmes (tied with Shirley MacLaine), and in 1995 for La Cérémonie (tied with her partner in the movie, Sandrine Bonnaire). Huppert was twice voted Best Actress at the European Film Awards: in 2001 for playing Erika Kohut in The Piano Teacher, and in 2002 with the entire cast of 8 Women.

Claude Chabrol regards her as his own specially invited actress. Nevertheless, Huppert did not think that she had been acting for so long a time, “I have been acting for just more than 20 years.” When it came to the roles that she had ever played, she pondered for a moment with her cheeks in her hands and eyes looking up, and said: “ Every role that I’ve played is a part of me. It is not necessarily me, but surely a part of me.” A section of review on Huppert’s works is specially set up at 12th SIFF, showing 6 films of hers including Waves. 

Huppert takes great interest in Chinese films: “I like director Zhangke Jia’s works, for example, Platform, which shows the Chinese reality I am unfamiliar with.” She was also deeply impressed by Xiaoshuai Wang’s works Beijing Bicycle for the same reason—a real China is presented in the film. Her carefulness with her comments was well displayed when she said: “It is hard to say whether you like Chinese films or not. After all, I haven’t seen many Chinese films.” Huppert is also looking forward to invitations from Chinese directors: “It would be better to play the role in China than a Chinese director comes to me in France.”