Isabelle Huppert to receive Lumière Prize

The favorite actress of Claude Chabrol and Michael Haneke will be the fourth woman to receive the prize at the Lyon festival, dedicated to heritage cinema, during its 16th edition. She succeeds Catherine Deneuve, Jane Campion and Jane Fonda.

We do not yet know the program for the Lumière Festival, the favorite Lyon event for film buffs of all ages, created by Bertrand Tavernier and Thierry Frémaux and dedicated to heritage cinema, which will take place from October 12 to 20. We do know, however, who will succeed Wim Wenders, Tim Burton, Jane Campion, the Dardenne brothers, Francis Ford Coppola, Jane Fonda, Wong Kar-wai, Catherine Deneuve, Martin Scorsese, Pedro Almodóvar, Quentin Tarantino, Ken Loach, Gérard Depardieu, Milos Forman and Clint Eastwood by receiving the Lumière prize for his entire career. The French actress with a capital H, the insatiable Stakhanovite and idol of international auteur cinema: Isabelle Huppert.

One hundred and fifty films since 1972 and his appearance in “César et Rosalie” by Claude Sautet. Huppert is a mystery that reveals itself: few actresses tour as much as her and she always remains elusive. Playing on her apparent coldness and her devious sensitivity to thwart any preconceived idea of ​​the characters she plays. She claims it:

“Good feelings are not my thing. »

Who else but her can make the link between Michael Cimino, Josiane Balasko, Hong Sang-soo, Maurice Pialat, Diane Kurys, Hal Hartley, Yves Boisset, Claire Denis, Anne Fontaine, Jean-Luc Godard and Bertrand Blier?

She owes her greatest public successes to François Ozon (“8 Femmes”, 3.5 million admissions) and Bertrand Tavernier (“Coup de ragon”, 2.1 million) but it is for “Elle” by Paul Verhoeven and “la Cérémonie” by Claude Chabrol that she received her two Césars, and for “Violette Nozière” (again Chabrol) and “la Pianiste” by Michael Haneke that she won two acting awards at Cannes. Her dear Chacha, Chabrol therefore, with whom she filmed seven times and who saw their relationship as that of an uncle and a niece (“I use tutoie, she speaks to me”), said of her: “Isabelle created her own work throughout her filming, which is very rare among actors. I often say that Isabelle reminds me of Raimu. This is not a gratuitous sentence. Raimu has created a body of work from his different roles. Isabelle’s case is even stronger, because her roles are very varied, she has thus composed a very complete vision of women. » Not better. “Isabelle is really “funny””, also affirmed Chabrol. What about a duet with Laurent Gerra, festival faithful, during the award ceremony?

Isabelle Huppert will be showing, this summer, in two films in which she partners Hafsia Herzi: “les Gens d’à beside” by André Téchiné (in theaters July 17) and “la Prisonnière de Bordeaux” by Patricia Mazuy (August 28). The two actresses will be interviewed in “Le Nouvel Obs” on July 11.