Isabelle Huppert Reflects on Storied Career at Thessaloniki Film Festival

Acclaimed French actress Isabelle Huppert was recently honored at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece, where she reflected on her storied career spanning over four decades. Huppert, who has received an Oscar nomination and two César Awards, downplayed the notion of taking artistic risks, stating that working with renowned directors like Paul Verhoeven and Michael Haneke was "very safe" and not about taking chances.

The 72-year-old actress praised her many collaborators, emphasizing the importance of trust in the relationship between an actor and a director. Huppert also discussed the belated critical reappraisal of the troubled Western epic "Heaven's Gate", in which she had one of her earliest roles. The 1980 film, which was a notorious flop upon its release, is now seen as a personal, auteur work by director Michael Cimino.

Looking back on her prolific career, Huppert expressed few regrets about her acting choices, though she joked that she would have loved to work with the legendary Alfred Hitchcock, who had passed away before she started acting. The French screen icon also fielded questions about the progress of women in European cinema and the ongoing war in Gaza, underscoring her commitment to using her platform to address important social and political issues.