there's something about isabelle
Ma Mère
At 54, Isabelle Huppert is one of France's most celebrated actresses and screen sex symbols with a powerhouse career spanning three decades.
In October 2005 the French Foreign Ministry paid tribute to Huppert's career with a special film retrospective program featuring ten of Huppert's most celebrated films as well as a companion photographic exhibition, Isabelle Huppert: Woman of Many Faces, at the Museum of Modern art in New York.
The exhibition comprises stunning portraits of the actress by 17 renowned international photographers that include Peter Lindbergh and Robert Doisneau.
With the cinema retrospective program, it has since toured the world, with seasons in Paris, Berlin, London, Tokyo, Rome, Madrid, Sao Paolo and Beijing.
Both the Huppert film program and a smaller version of the photographic exhibition will arrive at ACMI in June 2007.
Melbourne is the first of three Australian cities presenting the Huppert tribute as part of the 2007 Sofitel French Rendezvous Festival.
The photographic exhibition will be on display in the ACMI Lounge from June 14, with Focus on Isabelle Huppert opening in the ACMI Cinemas June 29.
Focus on Isabelle Huppert will screen 20 Isabelle Huppert films. Curator Roberta Ciabarra has added another 10 titles to the original tribute season, making the ACMI season the biggest of the Huppert cinema programs screening in the 2007 Sofitel French Rendezvous Festival.
As well as appearing regularly in films from France's leading directors (among them Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godard), Huppert also likes to cross the Atlantic every now and then to appear in English-speaking movies.
She has an affinity with indie American fare, appearing in Hal Hartley's Amateur (as a former nun with a penchant for writing porn), and more recently as a nihilistic poet and philosopher in David O. Russell's I Heart Huckabees (which saw her undertake a mud-rolling sex scene with co-star Jason Schwartzman, 27 years her junior).
Her debut English speaking film was Heaven's Gate - although a box office failure at time of release, this film directed by Michael Cimino has gained considerable critical acclaim and a cult following since the director's cut was released.
Two films, Ma Mere (directed by Christophe Honore) and Comedie de l'innocence (directed by Raoul Ruiz) will have their very first Australian cinema screening in our Huppert season.
With Huppert having appeared in over 70 films in her amazing career, Ciabarra had a tough job deciding which films to include in the season.
"Huppert has a canny ability to choose directors ready to go the distance with her in exploring challenging material," says Ciabarra.
"Chabrol, with whom Huppert has made seven films to date, was of course indispensable to the season. We have included four films they have collaborated on over three decades which run the gamut dramatically: Madame Bovary and Une Affaires des femmes where Huppert plays the stoic victim to La Ceremonie and Merci pour le chocolat where she is more the perverse psychopath."
"Then there's Michael Haneke - Huppert turned down an invitation to appear in his film Funny Games, but later went on to win the Best Actress award at Cannes Film Festival for her startling performance in The Piano Teacher (2001). We have included this film as well as Time of the Wolf (2002)."
Huppert has even been to Australia, to work with Paul Cox on Cactus (1986), which has also been included in the season.
Both the photography exhibition and Focus on Isabelle Huppert close July 10. More details here
Published Tuesday, 12 June 2007
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