Anne Andreu: Isabelle Huppert
Normally documentaries about actors are built around anecdotes, told by the actor in question him/herself or by people with whom the actor has been working.
With Isabelle Huppert it is different. She says herself in this tv documentary that she is not an anecdote teller – and apart from some great clips with Jean-Luc Godard and Maurice Pialat, the documentary is built around her profession and her reflection and commitment to her profession, being an actor. Respect for that decision that also includes that we get no disturbing gossip about her private life. It’s all about acting.
In many ways the documentary is one long monologue (sometimes exciting, sometimes a bit boring) by Isabelle Huppert, with film clips in between, from ”La dentellière” (The Lacemaker) by Claude Goretta from 1977, over several films she made with Claude Chabrol and Pialat, including gorgeous clips with Haneke from ”Le Pianiste”, to the shootings in Cambodia where she is making a film with Rithy Panh, ”Un barrage contre le Pacifique”, based on a novel by Marguerite Duras and to be released in 2009.
Saw the documentary on svt (Swedish television) at K Special.
France, 2008, 50 mins. Still: Haneke: “Le pianiste”.
