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While it would be difficult to imagine Catherine Deneuve browsing a Manhattan coffee cart’s baked goods, it’s actually the first matter of business for fellow French screen icon Isabelle Huppert whenever she has time to squander in New York City.
“I love bretzel,” she says charmingly. “It’s an experience, just eating a bretzel when you get to New York. That’s New York for me.”
Between her visits to MoMA and strolls through Bushwick’s Maria Hernandez Park with her son (more on that later), Huppert, 70, is in the city to introduce select opening-weekend screenings of Jean-Paul Salomé’s La Syndicaliste (English title: The Sitting Duck), in which she plays the whistleblowing Irish trade unionist Maureen Keany. She also recently made an appearance at Film Forum, where she introduced a new restoration of her 1981 crime-comedy Coup de Torchon, directed by the late Bertrand Tavernier.
Christmas Day brings yet another opening: The Crime Is Mine, helmed by Huppert’s frequent collaborator François Ozon. As a kooky, Gloria Swanson–esque screen siren, Huppert is the comic foil to costars Nadia Tereszkiewicz and Rebecca Marder, who play a younger actor and her unrequited-in-love lawyer friend embroiled in the murder of Huppert’s ex-flame, a film producer.
Sporting flaming red hair à la Sarah Bernhardt—or, in New Yorker lingo, Grace Coddington—Huppert channels the fast-talking screen heroines of 1930s and ’40s screwball comedies for what may be her vampiest performance yet. “Instinctively, I decided [my character] had to talk very quickly, like a machine gun, killing words,” she explains.
In discussing her trifecta of premieres, I wondered if there were any other films of Huppert’s—a peerless symbol of the crossover potential for international independent cinema—that hadn’t yet been released in New York. “It’s getting difficult, to be honest, for French films right now,” she replies. “There was a time when French films were more exposed. Having said that, I have to admit that I was lucky enough, because at least some of my French films are regularly being released here.” It’s true: Of the four or so new films of Huppert’s released per year, about three of them find their way to New York. Still, there is one film from Huppert’s past that she’d like to see revived here: Gabrielle, the 2005 costume drama from revered Metropolitan Opera director Patrice Chéreau.
Surprisingly, only three roles in a career of over 150 filmed performances have actually brought the venerated actor to New York to shoot: her campy nun turned pornographer in Hal Hartley’s 1994 crime-comedy Amateur; the terrifying titular widow in Neil Jordan’s 2015 psychological thriller Greta; and an unusual guest spot as a grieving mother for a 2010 episode of Law Order: SVU.
But Brooklynites may occasionally see her out and about. The Oscar-nominated actor adores Bushwick, where she stops to visit her son Angelo when she’s in town. “I love Bushwick,” she says. “As we say, it’s one of those gentrified places. It’s always interesting to see the part of town like this changing but still different from the rest of the city. And that’s why you like it. Yes, I like it very much.”
On her most recent trip to the city, Huppert made time to chat with Vogue about her itinerary. Follow along below.
Isabelle Huppert: I’m glad you asked because my youngest son lives in New York, and he took me to this wonderful new restaurant. I don’t know if it’s new, but it was new for me. It’s a Persian restaurant in Bushwick. I can even give you the address. It’s 25 Bogart Street. I remember because [Humphrey] Bogart…. You don’t find a street like this. The atmosphere is very nice. It’s not noisy. There’s no music. I hate music in restaurants. And the food is just great. So that was my big discovery.
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I went back to the Atlantic Theater Company. I haven’t returned since I did The Mother, the Florian Zeller play, in 2019. And so I returned for the first time, and I saw a wonderful musical, Buena Vista Social Club. I warmly recommend it. It’s full of fun. It’s the story of that band that finally was also revealed by Wim Wenders’s film [1999’s Buena Vista Social Club]. The performers are amazing. It’s really wonderful. Oh, another place I discovered was this new space in Wall Street, the Perelman [Performing] Arts Center. I was very curious to discover this new place for plays and concerts and dance and everything. And maybe also exhibitions. And it’s a really great place.
The Metrograph and Film Forum. I was at the Film Forum two weeks ago. Bruce Goldstein is doing a wonderful job there. And they had a big retrospective of my movies two years ago. Yeah, it’s a really great place. So I usually go there, to The Metrograph, and even The Quad. You can also get to see really good movies there. It’s a wonderful cinema.
Oh, no, no, no. I’m sorry, I’m claustrophobic. I did take the subway a couple of times going from Brooklyn to Manhattan. It’s not a wonderful experience for me, just the idea of being under the water for some time. Once I am in it, I have to admit, it’s quick. But I don’t take it often, especially by myself. I think the subway is wonderful because it takes you so quickly from one place to the other. But I don’t…. London is the worst because it’s only one way and you get trapped between two walls.
I was just staying at the Bowery. I’ve been there before but for a shorter period of time. I was there for quite a few days, and I enjoyed it very much. And I like the Crosby [Street Hotel] also. I like many hotels.
I went to the Museum of Modern Art. I saw this wonderful exhibition about Ed Ruscha and [one on] An-My Lê, a great photographer, on the floor below. She’s fantastic. So I bought books and catalogs for the two exhibitions.
This conversation has been edited and condensed.