The 63rd Best Actress of All-Time: Isabelle Huppert

best film:  Isabelle Huppert’s best film may surprise some or act as fuel for a good trivia question. Her best film is Michael Cimino’s much maligned but splendidly ambitious 1980 film Heaven’s Gate. The film helped sink United Artists studio and it largely killed the career of Cimino (Huppert, John Hurt, Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges and many others involved clearly survived ok).  It is Gone with the Wind large (the dance to Blue Danube on the lawns at Harvard, the railroad set piece, the dance roller rink set piece with whirling Steadicam).  It shares bloodlines with Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller (both in story and look – both films shot by Vilos Zsigmond). Huppert has a ton of screen time as well so though although this is not her best work by a long stretch, one cannot just write this off as some bit part (Willem Dafoe has a true bit part here where if you blink you miss him) or cameo. When debating Huppert’s best film,  The Piano Teacher demands to be considered here, too. Huppert is obviously more at the center of Michael Haneke’s haunting 2001 film.

Neither were her debut, but Huppert’s breakout year was 1980 with both Every Man for Himself with Godard and Heaven’s Gate (here) with Cimino. In Heaven’s Gate, Huppert plays Ella Watson – sort of the Julie Christie in McCabe & Mrs. Miller role opposite of Kris Kristofferson.

best performance:  The Piano Teacher is the easy answer here for Huppert. The film is undoubtedly one of Haneke’s best works as well.  It is an unflinching portrait of a complicated and icy woman. Haneke, like in many of his works, is incredibly brutal here – he means to flatten the viewer.  Haneke, wisely, spends a lot of time holding the frame (past the point of comfort for most viewers) on Huppert’s icy stare – any actor would love not only the duration of the shots held on them – but the close proximity of the camera distance. Huppert’s character, Erika Kohut, has twin obsessions: music and sex— repression, self-mutilation. She is clearly cracking up and deteriorating as the film progresses. This singular character study by Haneke is like a PTA film (Punch-Drunk Love, There Will Be Blood, The Master) without the cinematic visual flair (Haneke would be proud of that distinction- but artistically, it just puts it a notch below). This is an isolated world. Kohut is in lonely person (many of the scenes show her captured or behind bars) – she sneaks off to the adult movie rental store and as her worlds are colliding – she is unable to control herself. She cannot love – the “you’re sick” line – the whole scene is devastating. Huppert’s eyes during that scene displays extremely powerful acting. The finale is perfect –  the self-abuse scene and then the gorgeous exterior concert hall which serves as a big, beautiful prison – it actually mirrors the medium-long shot school ending in Cache.

Haneke, wisely, spends a lot of time holding the frame (past the point of comfort for most viewers) on Huppert’s icy stare – any actor would love not only the duration of the shots held on them – but the close proximity of the camera distance.

stylistic innovations/traits:   Huppert makes bold choices in her roles and auteur collaborators. She often works with provocateurs – so much so that it is sort of surprising she has not collaborated with Lars von Trier at this point (though she has worked with Joachim Trier). Huppert excels at playing seemingly emotionless, icy characters (four films with Haneke seems like a perfect match).  Huppert has a whopping sixteen (16) films in the archives at this point and that is a strength. She also has a strong number one best performance – which makes up for not having that second or third best performance that really knock you down. The Paris-born redhead has succeeded on both sides of the pond working over a long, distinguished career – she is bound to have an archiveable film in the 2020s making it five straight decades with an archiveable film.

Huppert opposite Sandrine Bonnaire in Claude Chabrol’s La Cérémonie – just one of the many films Huppert worked on through the decades to stir up a bit of controversy.

directors worked with:   Michael Haneke (4), Claude Chabrol (2), Jean-Luc Godard (2), Michael Cimino (1), David O. Russell (1), Claire Denis (1), Paul Verhoeven (1)

top five performances:

1. The Piano Teacher
2. La Ceremonie
3. Elle
4. White Material
5. Things to Come

archiveable films