| Isabelle Huppert |

Huppert at the 2009 Venice Film Festival |
| Born |
Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert
16 March 1955 (1955-03-16) (age 54)
Paris, France |
| Years active |
1972—present |
| Spouse(s) |
Ronald Chammah (1982–present), 3 children |
Isabelle Anne Madeleine Huppert (French pronunciation: [izabɛl yˈpɛʀ]; born 16 March 1955)12 is a French actress, who has appeared in about 80 films including a few Hollywood movies. She is, by far, the actress who has had the most films (16) in the Cannes's official competition, and one of the four who have won the Best Interpretation Awards twice - for Violette Nozière in 1978 and La pianiste in 2001. She is also the most nominated actress for the Cesar Award. She has been nominated 13 times and she won a César Award for Best Actress in 1996 for her performance in La Cérémonie.
Early life and career
Huppert was born in Paris, the daughter of Annick Beau, a teacher of English, and Raymond Huppert, a safe manufacturer.34 She was raised in Ville d'Avray, a western suburb of the city. Huppert was encouraged by her mother to begin acting at a young age, and became a teenage star in Paris. She later attended Versailles Conservatoire, where she won a prize for her acting. She is also an alumna of Europe's most prestigious National Conservatory of Dramatic Art of Paris, CNSAD. After a successful stage career, she began making films, debuting in 1972 with Faustine et le bel été (her television debut was a year earlier). However it was her appearance in the controversial Les Valseuses (1974) that made her increasingly recognised to the wider public. Her international breakthrough, finally, came with La Dentelliere (1977), in which her now signature acting style - quiet and nuanced, yet intense - was displayed to great effect. She made her American debut in Michael Cimino's 1980 film Heaven's Gate, which was a notorious flop at the U.S. box office, but has since been re-released in the director's full version. In the '80s, Huppert continued to explore enigmatic and emotionally distant characters, most notably in Maurice Pialat's 'Loulou' (1980), Godard's 'Sauve qui peut (la vie)' (1980), Diane Kurys' 'Coup de foudre' (1983), and Claude Chabrol's 'Une Affaire de Femmes' (1988).
Later career and recent credits
Huppert played a manic and homicidal post-office worker in Claude Chabrol's La Cérémonie (1995), with Sandrine Bonnaire, and continued her cinematic relationship with that director in 'Rien ne va plus' (1997), and 'Merci pour le Chocolat' (2000). She also appeared in Michael Haneke's La Pianiste (2001), which is based on a novel of the same name (Die Klavierspielerin) by Austrian author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2004, Elfriede Jelinek. In this film, she played a piano teacher named Erika Kohut, who becomes involved with a young pianist and ladies' man, Walter Klemmer. Regarded as one of her most impressive turns, her performance netted the 2001 acting prize in Cannes. In 2004, she starred in Christophe Honoré's Ma mère as Hélène with Louis Garrel. Here, Huppert plays an attractive middle-aged mother who has an incestuous relationship with her teenaged son. Ma mère was also based on a novel, by George Bataille.
Huppert most recently appeared on the Paris stage as the suicidal Hedda Gabler, in Henrik Ibsen's realist play, to international acclaim.
In 2005, she toured the United States in a Royal Court Theatre production of Sarah Kane's theatrical piece, 4.48 Psychosis. This production was directed by Claude Regy and performed in French. She chose to remain still throughout the entire performance, moving only her hands and face, much of the time with tears streaming down her cheeks.
Isabelle Huppert was the President of the Jury at the 62nd Cannes Film Festival, from 13 May to 24 May 2009.5 She has been Member of the Jury and Master of Ceremony in previous years, as well as winning the Best Actress Award twice. As president, she gave the Palme d'Or to The White Ribbon by the Austrian director Michael Haneke6 who has directed her in The Piano Teacher and Time of the Wolf.7
Awards
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). Both films were directed by Claude Chabrol. Additionally, she received a Special Lion in 2005 for her role in Gabrielle.
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 (directed by François Ozon). With the same cast, she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival. She won the Best Actress award at the Montréal World Film Festival (in 2002 for Merci pour le chocolat), at the Moscow Film Festival (in 1991 for Madame Bovary), at the Deutscher Filmpreis (in 1991 for Malina) and twice at the David di Donatello (in 1978 for La Dentellière and in 2001 for The Piano Teacher).
In 2008 she received the Stanislavsky Award for outstanding achievement in acting, and devotion to the principles of the Stanislavsky method.
She was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Ordre national du Mérite on 8 December 19948 and was promoted to Officier (Officer) in 2005.8
She was made Chevalier (Knight) of the Légion d'honneur on 29 September 19999 and was promoted to Officier (Officer) in 2009.9
Reviews
David Thomson on Claude Chabrol's Madame Bovary: "[Huppert] has to rate as one of the most accomplished actresses in the world today, even if she seems short of the passion or agony of her contemporary, Isabelle Adjani". Stuart Jeffries of The Observer on The Piano Teacher: "This is surely one of the greatest performances of Huppert's already illustrious acting career, though it is one that is very hard to watch." Director, Michael Haneke: "[Huppert] has such professionalism, the way she is able to represent suffering. At one end you have the extreme of her suffering and then you have her icy intellectualism. No other actor can combine the two."10
Filmography
Discography
Awards and nominations
César Awards
Cannes Film Festival
Molière Awards
References
External links
| Persondata |
| NAME |
Huppert, Isabelle |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES |
Huppert, Isabelle Anne |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION |
Actress |
| DATE OF BIRTH |
1955-03-16 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH |
Paris, France |
| DATE OF DEATH |
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| PLACE OF DEATH |
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