Agency V.M.A. 20, rue ave Rapp 75007 Paris France Agent Isabelle de La Patellière Agent Assistant Delphine Leprêstre 33 (0)1 43 17 37 06 http://www.vma.fr Link: Thierre Rouault's Portrait on Isabelle @huppert.free.fr (in French) at TedStrong Isabelle Huppert @tedstrong.com

Isabelle was born on March 16 in Paris, a liberal carefree bourgeoisie family - father is a safety manufacturer (Raymond), mother (Annick) is an English teacher. Isabelle is the youngest of their five children - four girls (Jacqueline, Elisabeth, Caroline, Isabelle ) and one boy (Rémi).

Isabelle spent her childhood in Ville d'Avray (Hauts-de-Seine) and high school in Saint-Cloud (the southwestern suburb of Paris) and Versailles Conservatory. She studied Russian at Faculté de Clichy, taking drama courses at the school de le rue Blanche and the National Conservatoire d'Art Dramatique.

"Like everyone, I read children's books. I surely dreamed of being Snow White, Cendrillon or, why not, the Little Thumb. I would like to be Orlando some day, and I would want to be Sylvia Scarlet. Not long before, I realized that in my childhood, I was very very impressed by two recites: two tales of Andersen, «The Little Mermaid» and «The Little Match Girl», one dies of love, one dies of cold. I'm surely identified tightly with these two small girls who are a bit like the ancestors of THE LACEMAKER. In this direction, yes, one can say that I had predisposition. Or at least that I let myself fascinate very easily by the characters of fiction. And my attraction towards some of these characters goes very far" - (from Comediennes Aujourd'hui, June, 1980, ISBN:2-86244-020-5)

Recalling of their childhood, her sister Caroline said "We're very alike, but we're also quite different. When we were little girls, we were always together. Isabelle was very nervous and afraid of everything. I wasn't like that, so I could speak to her and tell her, 'Don't be afraid.' I was like a mother to her." (from Give a Direction Sincerely, LA Times, Aug. 6, 1986).

Isabelle has three children: Lolita (born in 10/1983), Lorenzo (born in 1/1988) and Angelo (born in 9/1997), living in Paris with an invisible man, whose name is Ronald (Ronnie) Chammah - rather called by Isabelle: "the (only) father of my children".

Tous ces mots qui sont dans trops de films, de chansons et de livres
Je voudrais vous les dire et je voudrais les vivre......

Are you very feminist?
Ah, this is a "tough" question, which is very very difficult to answer in three sentences! While approximately: of course, yes, very. And in detail: I do not feel myself a fighter, a promoter, a commander. But I really believe, as the song says, that woman is the future of man, in a very fundamental direction. I think there is a sort of war, a sort of boycott of feminism that must be exceeded now. One must consider the things with more smoothness, subtlety. But it was inevitable to exchange with a certain oversimplicity. At beginning of a revolt, un awakening, there are always excesses, and it was not me who will blame them. This is surely the best way to make being heard. And then, when one is an actress, she is likely in the heart of contradiction. What she makes, she thinks or she says, she is nevertheless an object of desire and finally symbol of femininity, such as she is dreamed by men (even if the guns of this femininity change). Jane Fonda becomes a good feminist and remains a good actress as well, I am not sure. In end, all that is to be handled with precaution... - from Comediennes Aujourd'hui, June, 1980, ISBN:2-86244-020-5

Questionnaire de Proust - Première N°62, May, 1982
What do you think the depth of misery?
Misery.
Waht is your dream of happiness?
Happiness.
What is the principal feature of your character?
Perseverance.
What is your principal defect?
Unsatisfaction.
What is the quality you prefer for a man?
Femininity.
What is the quality you prefer for a woman?
The mystery.
For which faults do you have the most indulgence?
Those my faults.
What genius would you like to have?
Dancing, without effort.
Whom would you have liked to be?
Simone de Beauvoir.
Who are your favorite heroes and heroines in cinema or literature?
Scarlett O' Hara, Lulu, the Blue Angel, Solal in "Belle du Seigneur" and all heroines of Henry James.
Who are your preferred heroes and heroines in real life?
Gandhi and Zelda Fitzgerald.
Which director do you prefer?
Who prefers me.
Who are the actors you prefer?
Raimu, Gabin, Vanessa Redgrave and Meryl Streep.
What do you hate most?
Draughts.
How would you like to die?
While sleeping.

"I'm an energic lazy woman" - Psychologies, January, 1999
What would you like to change into you?
Nothing.
Which additional talent would you like to have?
The art of the dissimulation.
With which tangible property you are attached?
With my teeth brush.
What would you like to transmit to your children?
Taste of happiness.
What amuses you in the life?
To observe people.
Which feature of character attracts you more?
Softness.
Does it sometimes happen to you to lie?
Most of the time.
Are you egoistic?
No. I am egocentric person. One can be centered on oneself and to take the others in account... was this to bring back them towards oneself!
Do you regret?
Alas, yes, almost all animals, completely unimportant things.
Your favorite quotation?
"Clearness is the wound nearest to the sun" (Rene Char).

Catherine Breillat (scriptwriter/director, a close friend)

"The Mystery Huppert", Elle N°2806, 1999

I seldom see such upset tenderness on her face as I scan her in intimacy. If Isabelle carries out her career of an iron and can do everything for directors, she holds her brittleness within her personal relations. She is a delicious friend, very gifted for daily life, a mother who deals marvelously with her three children.

Claude Goretta (director of The Lacemaker)
"Vue par the Masters", Le Templs, November 30, 2002
"I wanted a comedienne naturally quiet. I found Isabelle, almost unknown then, in Dupont la Joie of Yves Boisset. I invited her to spend one week at my home in Geneva and I looked much at her walking. I was struck by the fragility of her walk, by her capacity of listening and I said myself if I held her in my Dentellière, this very sensitive girl is not to lose her mind."

"I wondered during the shooting of Dentellière if she would surmount her fragility, this form of awkwardness also made the beauty of her presence. She approached that point magnificently. Because she had the intelligence to escape the character from Pomme, of going towards other universes of oftenly privilegiant unrecognised cineastes. The quality of Isabelle, is always to take the risk of the skid. And to understand that if one does not offer dizziness to the witness, nothing great can occur."

Claude Chabrol (her director, mentor)
"I'm an energic lazy woman", Psychologies, N°11, December, 1998
"She belongs to people whom I adore with their defects. Her strong will of being the best is a quality but sometimes a power for an excessive perfectionism: for other one else, that would exasperate me but she does it so well.... she is not wicked for a penny but would be formidable in a black, cruel wickedness. I dream to offer her such a role. Her capacity of analysis and synthesis at the same time is sole. A word describes her well: 'finaude'."