22 Exquisite Old Pictures of Isabelle Huppert, One of France’s Greatest Stars
Isabelle Huppert has been a star for over 40 years, carving out a career of remarkable style and unusual daring. Born in a comfortable Parisian suburb, she made her acting debut as a teenager in the early 1970s, going on to work with the likes of Maurice Pialat, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis, Mia Hansen-Løve, and Paul Verhoeven in France and Márta Mészáros, Aleksandar Petrović, Mauro Bolognini, and Hong Sang-soo abroad.
Now, at 71, she’s due to take on the prestigious role of jury president at the Venice Film Festival. Ahead of opening night, scroll on for some fabulous old photos of one of France’s greatest—and most enduring—talents.
Photo: Getty Images1/221971
In 1971, an 18-year-old Huppert made her television debut in Le Prussien. Her first three films came out the following year: Faustine et le Bel Été, The Bar at the Crossing, and César and Rosalie (with Yves Montand and Romy Schneider).
Photo: Getty Images2/221976
En plein air at Cannes.
Photo: Getty Images3/22c. 1977
With Agnès Varda at New York’s Studio 54.
Photo: Courtesy Everett Collection4/221978
As Pomme in Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker, for which Huppert won the BAFTA for most promising newcomer in 1978. “I had done films before, but this was the film that defined me as a young actress, because it was so much about interiority,” Huppert told the New York Times in 2022. “It was a great role as a career starter—one of these roles that imprints itself on you.”
Photo: Getty Images5/221978
For her performance in Claude Chabrol’s Violette, Huppert shared the best-actress prize at Cannes with Jill Clayburgh, the star of Paul Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman.
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