Also a prolific stage actress, Huppert is the most nominated actress for theMolière Award, with nine nominations; she received an honorary award in 2017. In the same year, she was awarded theEurope Theatre Prize.[2] She made her London stage debut in the title role of the playMary Stuart in 1996, and her New York stage debut in a 2005 production of4.48 Psychosis. Huppert's recent credits include inHeiner Müller'sQuartett (2009) in New York,Sydney Theater Company'sThe Maids (2014), andFlorian Zeller'sThe Mother (2019) in New York City.
Her international breakthrough came with her performance inClaude Goretta'sLa Dentelliere (1977),[15] for which she won aBAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles. CriticRoger Ebert praised her performance writing, "The movie’s performances are wonderfully subtle. Huppert, as Pomme, is good at the very difficult task of projecting the inner feelings of a character whose whole personality is based on the concealment of feeling".[16] The following year she won acclaim playingthe title roleClaude Chabrol's crime dramaViolette Nozière (1978) winning theCannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress. It was the first of seven collaborations she would have with director Chabrol. Ebert wrote, "Huppert's performance, which is so assured, so complex it's hard to believe she worked this transformation in character afterThe Lacemaker.[17]
After a five-year absence from American films, Huppert starred inMichael Cimino'sHeaven's Gate (1980), which opened to poor reviews and was a box office failure; decades later, the film has been reassessed, with some critics considering it an overlooked masterpiece.[18] Also that year she starred inMaurice Pialat'sLoulou (1980) where she reunited with Gérard Depardieu.Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times praised her performance writing, "Miss Huppert does a fine job of seeming exotic, vague, dazzling and also, somehow, unremarkable - all of this at the same time. The performances are much sharper than the film is as a whole."[19] Also in 1980 she acted inJean-Luc Godard'sSauve qui peut (la vie) (1980).
In 1994, Huppert collaborated with American directorHal Hartley onAmateur, one of her few English-language performances sinceHeaven's Gate. She won acclaim for her role inLa Séparation (1994) with David Parkinson ofBritish Film Institute writing, "Her distinctive talent for suppressing suffering is readily evident in Christian Vincent’s excruciating study of her slowly disintegrating relationship with Daniel Auteuil, as Huppert imparts chilling intimacy to a withdrawn hand, an unanswering gaze, a treacherous silence and a careless word in conveying the pain of falling out of love."[21] She portrayed a manic and homicidal post-office worker inClaude Chabrol'sLa Cérémonie (1995) for which she won theCésar Award for Best Actress and theVolpi Cup for Best Actress. Huppert continued her cinematic relationship with Chabrol inRien ne va plus (1997) andMerci pour le Chocolat (2000).
Huppert's first collaboration with Austrian directorMichael Haneke was inThe Piano Teacher (2001), based on the titular novel (Die Klavierspielerin) byElfriede Jelinek, who was named aNobel Laureate in Literature in 2004. In the film, she played a piano teacher who becomes involved with a young and charming pianist. Regarded as one of her most impressive turns, the performance won her the 2001Best Actress Award at Cannes.David Denby ofThe New Yorker praised her work in the film, writing: "Much of her best acting is no more than a flicker of consciousness, barely visible around the edges of the mask. Yet she gives a classic account of repression and sexual hypocrisy, unleashing the kind of rage that the greatBette Davis might have expressed".[22]
Huppert is also an acclaimed stage actress, receiving sevenMolière Award nominations, including for the lead in a 2001 Paris production ofMedea directed by Jacques Lassalle;[24] and in 2005 in the title role ofIbsen'sHedda Gabler at theOdéon-Théâtre de l'Europe in Paris.[25] Later that year, she toured the United States in aRoyal Court Theatre production ofSarah Kane's theatrical piece4.48 Psychosis. This production was directed byClaude Régy [fr] and performed in French.[26] Huppert returned to the New York stage in 2009 to perform inHeiner Müller'sQuartett.[27] In 2009 she also starred in the filmWhite Material; Sura Wood ofThe Associated Press declared that its director,Claire Denis, was "helped immeasurably by an astringent, fully committed performance from her leading lady, a gaunt, impossibly resolute Isabelle Huppert".[28]
Huppert served as president of the jury at the2009 Cannes Film Festival.[29] She had been a Member of the Jury and Master of Ceremony in previous years, as well as winning the Best Actress Award twice. As president in 2009, she and her jury awarded thePalme d'Or toThe White Ribbon by Michael Haneke,[30] her director onThe Piano Teacher andTime of the Wolf.[31]
In 2016, Huppert starred inKrzysztof Warlikowski's stage production ofPhèdre(s), which toured Europe as well asBAM in New York.[40] Katie Baker ofThe Daily Beast wrote, "Huppert inhabits Phaedra—or Phèdre, for the play is in French with subtitles—for the full 3½ hours with such magnetic force that whatever faults the show has pale next to her raw vitality."[41] In 2017, she was awarded theEurope Theatre Prize. On that occasion she performed withJeremy IronsCorrespondence 1944–1959 Readings from the epistles betweenAlbert Camus andMaria Casares, and a special creation ofHarold Pinter'sAshes to Ashes, at theTeatro Argentina in Rome.[42] In 2019 she played the title role inFlorian Zeller's playThe Mother acting oppositeChris Noth at theAtlantic Theatre Company in New York.The Guardian praised Huppert's performance but criticized the production.[43] Marilyn Stasio ofVariety, "In the end, this turns out to be an upsetting play rather than an engaging one, and if it weren’t for Huppert’s mesmerizing performance, it might send you out of the theater and screaming into the night."[44] In 2018 she acted as herself in the French comedy seriesCall My Agent! and as Jacqueline inMatthew Weiner'sAmazon Prime seriesThe Romanoffs. During this time she acted in Michael Haneke'sHappy End (2017),Neil Jordan'sGreta (2018) andIra Sachs'Frankie (2019).
On stage, Huppert has starred in the following playsThe Glass Menagerie as Amanda Wingfield, directed byIvo van Hove (2022),The Cherry Orchard as Lyubov, directed by Tiago Rodrigues (2023).[47] Both productions have garnered Huppert nominations for Best Actress in a Play at theMolière Awards. Her other stage credits include a reinterpretation ofJean Racine'sBérénice (2024), directed by Romeo Castelluci at theThéâtre de la Ville in Paris; and asMary, Queen of Scots in the experimental playMary Said What She Said (2019-) directed byRobert Wilson which have toured in many select European cities.
Huppert is also a global ambassador of luxury fashion lineBalenciaga. In 2024, Huppert presided as the Jury President for the main competition of the81st edition ofVenice Film Festival.[48]
In 2025, Huppert has starred inLUZ as Sabine, directed by Flora Lau. The film debuted at theSundance Film Festival on the festival's opening day of January 23, 2025 in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition category.
Huppert has never married. She has been in a relationship with French writer, producer and directorRonald Chammah since about 1982.[49] Before that, she lived with producerDaniel Toscan du Plantier for several years.[4][50][51]
She has three children with Chammah, including the actressLolita Chammah, with whom she acted in five films, includingCopacabana (2010) andBarrage (2017).[52][53]
From her beginnings as a stage actress, Isabelle Huppert has moved between cinema and theatre with an extraordinary productivity, and with results which have made her perhaps the most garlanded performer in the two spheres. Her name, directly linked with French and European auteur cinema, is a guarantee of quality for the productions in which she takes part: she is an artist who chooses her scripts, her roles and the directors with whom she works with the greatest care, always able to make her mark on the films in which she appears. Isabelle Huppert, a world icon in contemporary cinema, has never abandoned the theatre, an art which she continues to practise with passion, deep interest and admirable playing skills. The reasons for her passionate love of theatre, which she herself gave in her message for this year'sWorld Theatre Day, are completely in accord with the motivation for the 16th Europe Theatre Prize, which we award to her this year with real pleasure: «Theatre for me represents the other; it is dialogue, and it is the absence of hatred. "Friendship between peoples" – now, I do not know too much about what this means, but I believe in community, in friendship between spectators and actors, in the lasting union between all the people theatre brings together – translators, educators, costume designers, stage artists, academics, practitioners and audiences. Theatre protects us; it shelters us…I believe that theatre loves us…as much as we love it… I remember an old-fashioned stage director I worked for, who, before the nightly raising of the curtain would yell, with full-throated firmness "Make way for theatre!"»[67]
Huppert photo by Georges Biard at the 2017 Cannes Film Festival
Huppert holds the record for being the actress with the most films entered in the official competition of theCannes Film Festival.[68] As of 2022, she has had 22 films in the main competition and a total of 29 films screened at the festival.[69] Huppert's frequent Cannes' appearances have led her to be dubbed "the queen of Cannes" by journalists.[70][71][72][73]
David Thomson onClaude Chabrol'sMadame Bovary: "[Huppert] has to rate as one of the most accomplished actresses in the world today, even if she seems short of the passion or agony of her contemporary,Isabelle Adjani." Stuart Jeffries ofThe Observer onThe Piano Teacher: "This is surely one of the greatest performances of Huppert's already illustrious acting career, though it is one that is very hard to watch." Director,Michael Haneke: "[Huppert] has such professionalism, the way she is able to represent suffering. At one end you have the extreme of her suffering and then you have her icy intellectualism. No other actor can combine the two."[3] Of her performance in 2007'sHidden Love,Roger Ebert said "Isabelle Huppert makes one good film after another.... she is fearless. Directors often depend on her gift for conveying depression, compulsion, egotism and despair. She can be funny and charming, but then so can a lot of actors. She is in complete command of a face that regards the void with blankness."[74] In 2010, S.T. VanAirsdale described her as "arguably the world's greatest screen actress."[75]
Huppert's work inElle andThings to Come toppedThe Playlist's ranking of "The 25 Best Performances Of 2016", stating: "She runs the emotional gamut from one film to the next, carnal, savage, shattered, listless, invulnerable but exposed, a woman on the verge of collapse who refuses to succumb to her instabilities. Huppert's career spans four decades and change, plus a heap of awards and accolades, but withElle andThings To Come, she could well be having her best year yet."[76]
^Huppert formerly gave her date of birth as 16 March 1955, shaving two years off her age.[3] Asked about the discrepancy, she told an interviewer "Don't go thinking that I'll help you out with that one."[4]
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