French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert gets epic retrospective at Film Forum
ISABELLE HUPPERT, a three-week festival spotlighting over twenty-five of the iconic French actress’ starring vehicles, will run at Film Forum from October 7 through October 27.
The expansive series features rarely screened work, including Isabelle Huppert’s debut performance in Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker, Claude Chabrol’s Violette Noziere, Joseph Losey’s The Trout, Jean-Luc Godard’s Passion, Olivier Assayas’ Sentimental Destinies, Raúl Ruiz’s Comedy Of Innocence; her early collaborations with Chabrol, Maurice Pialat, Diane Kurys, Michael Cimino; recent roles in films by Claire Denis, Hong Sang-soo, Ursula Meier, Michael Haneke, and more. Many of the prints, some of them rarely screened in the U.S., will be imported from international archives.
Huppert started her film acting career while a teenager. At the age of 24 she won the BAFTA Most Promising Newcomer award for The Lacemaker and one year later she launched a seven-film collaboration with Chabrol. Her first performance as a schoolgirl turned murderess won her the Best Actress prize at Cannes. Thereafter, Huppert became known for taking on roles of enigmatic women in process and thanks to films such as Diane Kurys’ Entre Nous (1983), Chabrol’s Story Of Women (1988), and 8 Women (2002) by François Ozon she gained a solid queer and lesbian following.
Film aficionados are generally in awe of her eagerness to push the boundaries when representing women, taking on characters in high risk emotional, psychological and physical situations: a homicidal post office worker in Chabrol’s La Cérémonie (1995); a sexually-repressed music teacher at breaking point in Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher (2001) which won her Best Actress at Cannes; and a video game CEO who is raped and responds in a most unusual manner in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle (2016), which earned her an Oscar nomination.
Huppert is celebrated as arguably France’s most awarded actress, and a performer who can span multiple genres with conviction, from period film to contemporary thriller, comedy, and drama. She even pokes fun at her workaholic nature and enviable range, appearing as herself in the comedy series Call My Agent. She was also the recipient of Berlin’s 2021 lifetime achievement award for her work as “more than a celebrated actor, but an uncompromising artist who doesn’t hesitate to take risks and flout mainstream trends.”
And while she might be more famous in France and Europe than stateside, she is revered by American actors, directors and critics, ranking #2 on The New York Times’ list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.
Manohla Dargis wrote of her in The New York Times, “Fearless and mesmerizing, sometimes scary, sometimes freakish, Isabelle Huppert has taken on an astonishment of roles over her career, moving effortlessly from tears to shrieks, from the straightest stories to the most gloriously unhinged. She’s acted in more than 50 movies this century alone, industriousness that speaks to her ambition and popularity, but also suggests a ravenous hunger that you can see in her acting… Her characters boil over with life.”
Visit filmforum.org for tickets or 209 West Houston Street, New York, NY 10014. Box Office: 212-727-8110
Films included in series (additional titles to be announced):
THE LACEMAKER
Switzerland, France, West Germany, 1977
Directed by Claude Goretta
Written by Claude Goretta
Based on the Pascal Lainé novel La dentellière
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Yves Beneyton
VIOLETTE NOZIERE
France, 1978
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Stéphane Audran, Jean Carmet
EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF
France, Switzerland, West Germany, Austria, 1980
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Written by Anne-Marie Miéville, Jean-Claude Carrière
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Jacques Dutronc, Nathalie Baye
LOULOU
France, 1980
Directed by Maurice Pialat
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu, Guy Marchand
HEAVEN’S GATE
U.S., 1980
Directed by Michael Cimino
Cinematography by Vilmos Zsigmond
Starring Kris Kristofferson, Christopher Walken, John Hurt, Sam Waterston, Brad Dourif, Isabelle Huppert, Jeff Bridges
THE TROUT
France, 1982
Directed by Joseph Losey
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Jeanne Moreau
PASSION
France, 1982
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Hanna Schygulla, Michel Piccoli, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz
ENTRE NOUS
France, 1983
Directed by Diane Kurys
Starring Miou-Miou, Isabelle Huppert, Guy Marchand, Jean-Pierre Bacri
STORY OF WOMEN
France, 1988
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Written by Colo Tavernier, Claude Chabrol
Based on the Francis Szpiner novel Une affaire de femmes
Starring Isabelle Huppert, François Cluzet, Marie Trintignant
35mm print courtesy Villa Albertine, French Embassy in the U.S
MADAME BOVARY
France, 1991
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Written by Claude Chabrol
Based on the Gustave Flaubert novel Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Jean-François Balmer
AMATEUR
United States, United Kingdom, France, 1994
Directed by Hal Hartley
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Martin Donovan, Elina Löwensohn
LA CÉRÉMONIE
France, Germany, 1995
Directed by Claude Chabrol
Written by Claude Chabrol, Caroline Eliacheff
Based on the Ruth Rendell novel A Judgment in Stone
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Sandrine Bonnaire Jean-Pierre Cassel, Jacqueline Bisset
PAS DE SCANDALE
France, 1999
Directed by Benoît Jacquot
Starring Fabrice Luchini, Isabelle Huppert, Vincent Lindon
SENTIMENTAL DESTINIES
2000
Directed by Olivier Assayas
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Béart, Charles Berling
COMEDY OF INNOCENCE
France, 2000
Directed by Raúl Ruiz
Adapted from the Massimo Bontempelli novel The Child of Two Mothers
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Jeanne Balibar, Charles Berling, Edith Scob
THE PIANO TEACHER
France, Austria, Germany, 2001
Directed by Michael Haneke
Written by Michael Haneke
Based on the Elfriede Jelinek novel The Piano Teacher
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Benoît Magimel, Annie Girardot, Susanne Lothar
ISABELLE HUPPERT, UNE VIE POUR JOUER
France, 2001
Directed by Serge Toubiana
Starring Isabelle Huppert
8 WOMEN
France, 2002
Directed by François Ozon
Written by François Ozon, Marina de Van
Based on the play by Robert Thomas
Starring Virginie Ledoyen, Danielle Darrieux, Firmine Richard, Catherine Deneuve, Emmanuelle Béart, Isabelle Huppert
TIME OF THE WOLF
France, Austria, Germany, 2003
Directed by Michael Haneke
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Béatrice Dalle
HOME
Switzerland, France, Belgium, 2008
Directed by Ursula Meier
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Olivier Gourmet
WHITE MATERIAL
France, 2009
Directed by Claire Denis
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Lambert, Nicolas Duvauchelle, William Nadylam
IN ANOTHER COUNTRY
South Korea, 2012
Directed by Hong Sang-soo
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Joon-Sang Yoo, Yu-mi Jung, Youn Yuh-jung
VALLEY OF LOVE
France, Belgium, 2015
Directed by Guillaume Nicloux
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Gérard Depardieu
THINGS TO COME
France, Germany, 2016
Directed by Mia Hansen-Løve
Starring Isabelle Huppert, André Marcon, Roman Kolinka
ELLE
France, Germany, 2016
Directed by Paul Verhoeven
Based on the Philippe Djian novel Oh…
Screenplay by David Birke
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling
FRANKIE
France, Portugal, 2019
Directed by Ira Sachs
Starring Isabelle Huppert, Sennia Nanua, Ariyon Bakare, Jérémie Renier, Brendan Gleeson, Marisa Tomei,
Greg Kinnear
MORE DETAILS TO COME.
