Isabelle Huppert

De toutes les actrices contemporaines, Isabelle Huppert est celle qui fait preuve de la plus grande audace dans ses choix et n'hésite pas à aller là où les autres ne vont pas. Sa force de caractère l'oriente toujours vers les pentes les plus risquées. Au travers de reportages tournés au cours de répétition au théâtre à Marseille, de représentation à Paris ou sur le tournage du long-métrage «Un barrage contre le Pacifique» de Rithy Panh, mais aussi d'images d'archives et d'extraits de films de Michael Haneke, de Claude Chabrol ou de Maurice Pialat, portrait de cette actrice qui ne dévoile jamais tout et garde une part de mystère inaccessible.

Screen legend Isabelle Huppert (La Dentellière, Les Soeurs Brontë) headlines acclaimed director Alessandro Capone's gently-spun yet intransigent psychodrama L'Amour caché (2007). Huppert plays Danielle, a middle-aged woman rebounding from the trauma of an unsuccessful suicide attempt, and wrestling resolutely with the inner demons that propelled her into that tragic emotional state. Greta Scacchi (White Mischief) co-stars as Dr. Nielsen, the psychiatrist assigned to guide Danielle through therapy and recovery. Though the patient initially presents herself as unwilling to vocalize, in time she picks up a pen and attempts to write, letting the words flow out of her, cathartically, onto paper…..

In this drama directed and co-written by Claire Denis, Isabelle Huppert plays Maria, a white French expatriate living in an African nation that has fallen into political chaos. Maria owns a coffee plantation, and regards her property as her personal domain; she's not about to give up her land, though her stubborn attitude prevents her from admitting that she's putting those close to her in danger, or even acknowledging the gravity of her situation. Maria has two children with her former husband, André (Christopher Lambert), a young adopted boy and dissatisfied twentysomething Manuel (Nicolas Duvauchelle). André is deeply concerned for the safety of Maria and their sons, and has made plans for her and the boys to flee to Europe, but Maria insists that the military will protect her and the others in the area, a belief that seems to be fueled by arrogance rather than fact. White Material received its North American premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival.

Avant-garde director Werner Schroeter's Deux (Two) is a willfully disjointed film about twin sisters played by Isabelle Huppert. As newborns, the two girls were separated. The film intercuts snippets from their lives. One of the sisters engages in some homosexual experimentation, while the other has ongoing conversations with a man (Jean-François Stévenin) who apparently resides in an opera house (opera being one of the director's career-long obsessions). Bulle Ogier plays a woman who may or may not be related to the two women played by Huppert.

In nineteenth-century France, the romantic daughter of a country squire (Emma Rouault) marries a dull country doctor (Charles Bovary). To escape boredom, she throws herself into love affairs with a suave local landowner (Rodolphe Boulanger) and a law student (Leon Dupuis), and runs up ruinous debts. This film version closely follows Flaubert's novel and includes most of the famous scenes, such as the wedding, the ball, the agricultural fair, the operation on the clubfoot, and the opera in Rouen.

Gustav Flaubert's celebrated novel of obsessive ardour undergoes a dazzling retrofit for the screen, courtesy of French neurosis-master Claude Chabrol. The basic story (a woman's selfish quest for happiness ends up obliterating all she holds dear) may be the same but Chabrol's talent for biting through to the dark marrow of passion makes this a startling experience, even for people familiar with the source material or the numerous other cinematic adaptations. Casting Isabelle Huppert in the title role (she's at least a decade older than the standard conception of this wilfully tragic heroine) was a potentially risky gambit that paid off big; underneath her glorious surface lies a startling foundation of brilliant ice. The same can be said about this stunning film. Viewers intrigued by this potent actress-director pairing may also want to check out The Story of Women and the wonderful La Ceremonie. The film is in French with English subtitles.

An upcoming exhibition celebrating photographer Isabelle Reed(Isabelle Huppert) three years after her untimely death brings her eldest son Jonah (Jesse Eisenberg) back to the family house - forcing him to spend more time with his father Gene (Gabriel Byrne) and withdrawn younger brother Conrad (Devin Druid) than he has in years…