Berlinale
Behind the bourgeois facade – honorary bear for Isabelle Huppert
The French actress Isabelle Huppert receives the honorary bear at the Berlinale. Photo: Georg Wendt/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
Isabelle Huppert is one of the most famous faces in French cinema. There are often emotional abysses behind the bourgeois mask of their roles. Now she gets an award from the Berlinale.
There is always something mysterious about her. Isabelle Huppert hides emotional abysses, longings and desires behind the cool facade of the French bourgeoisie.
From one film scene to the next, she very convincingly lets her characters mutate into tough drug dealers or experience wild sexual excesses. In decades in front of the camera, Huppert has become one of the most famous faces in French cinema. She is also a regular guest at the Berlinale. The film festival in Berlin is honoring the 68-year-old with an Honorary Golden Bear this Tuesday (February 15). After a positive test for the corona virus, she should be connected via video from Paris.
Subtle characters are more important to her than commercial success. Your archive includes about 150 movies, TV productions, series. She is repeatedly awarded for this. She received the French César twice (for “Beasts” and “Elle”), received the Silver Bear at the Berlinale (“8 Women”), the Silver Palm in Cannes (“Violette Nozière”, “The Piano Player”), several European film awards , the Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination for «Elle».
Often dramatic roles
In this country, her roles in “The lace lacemaker”, “The pigsty”, “Madame Bovary”, “The piano player”, “8 women”, “Elle”, “L’Avenir” or “Greta” are among the most well-known performances. Her name is often associated with dramatic roles, most recently she showed her cheerful side again with “A woman with intoxicating talents”.
According to Huppert’s own assessment, he draws on identical resources for these very different characters. “I basically use the same powers when I’m playing a comedy or a dramatic role. There is no difference for me at all, »said the actress of the German Press Agency in Berlin in front of one of her most recent films.
Isabelle Anne Huppert is a child of the French capital. Born in Paris, the mother of three children still lives there. At the age of 14 she took acting lessons. Filmmakers noticed them early on.
roles for big names
Her artistic path touches on an impressive array of big names: she shoots for Jean-Luc Godard, Bertrand Tavernier, François Ozon, Otto Preminger, Claude Chabrol, Michael Cimino, Michael Hanecke, Anne Fontaine, Patrice Chéreau, Paul Verhoeven and Luc Bondy. Huppert is in front of the camera with Yves Montand, Romy Schneider, Michel Piccoli, Hanna Schygulla, Peter O’Toole, Catherine Deneuve, Richard Attenborough, Philippe Noiret and Isabelle Adjani. On the theater stage she works with Peter Zadek, Bob Wilson, Yasmina Reza and Krzysztof Warlikowski.
The Berlinale has already honored a number of filmmakers for their life’s work, most recently the actresses Helen Mirren and Charlotte Rampling. From the perspective of the film festival, Huppert is an inimitable artist “who does not hesitate to take risks or to oppose the mainstream”. In addition to the Honorary Golden Bear, there is a homage with some older films with Huppert, such as “8 Women” by Ozon, “Everything that comes” by Mia Hansen-Løve and Verhoeven’s thriller “Elle”. Her most recent film “À propos de Joan” can also be seen, in which actor Lars Eidinger also plays.