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”.

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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