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Two Women presents a modern take on a French-Canadian sex comedy that reinterprets familiar themes through a feminist outlook. Rooted in a film from 1970, the story undergoes a re-imagining that connects with today’s audience. The narrative follows two married women whose lives are marked by everyday discontent and a desire to rediscover lost parts of themselves.

Violette, facing the challenges of early motherhood, experiences the isolation that comes with a routine marriage, while Florence sets out on a quest to revive a passion that has long lain dormant. Their unexpected encounter within the confines of a shared living environment sparks a chain of events that gently questions traditional roles.

Directed by Chloé Robichaud and scripted by Catherine Léger, the film crafts a tale that intermingles humor with moments of quiet introspection. Everyday situations become the backdrop against which personal reinvention unfolds, drawing a subtle connection to the spirit of classic French New Wave cinema.

Useful as it may be for facts and stats, an actor’s Wikipedia page isn’t ever the go-to place for a complete, nuanced description of their thespian essence, and so it proves for Isabelle Huppert. “Known for her portrayals of cold, austere women devoid of morality, she is considered one of the greatest actresses of her generation,” states the introduction, in a strikingly selective encapsulation of over half a century on screen. Huppert can certainly do froideur and severity with flair — she’s imposing beyond the bounds of her diminutive frame in such rigorous, chill-carrying films as Claude Chabrol’s “La Cérémonie,” Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” and of course Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle,” though whether these complex, conflicted women are “devoid of morality” isn’t a call for any one web editor to make.

But it does Huppert an injustice to paint her, however admiringly, as some...

Iconic French actress Isabelle Huppert will be honored at this year’s Lumière Festival in Lyon with the prestigious Lumière Award for her contribution to cinema.

“Her career encompasses an immense part of the history of contemporary cinema,” the Institut Lumière, which oversees the festival, said of the French star of Elle, 8 Women and The Piano Teacher.

The institute gave just a sampling of Huppert’s more than 155 acting credits, which include collaborations with such French directing legends as Claude Chabrol, Claire Denis, François Ozon and Bertrand Tavernier, as well as international filmmakers including Michael Haneke, Paul Verhoeven and Hong Sang-soo. Her few U.S. films include Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate (1980), David O. Russell’s I Heart Huckabees (2004) and Frankie (2019) by Ira Sachs.

Huppert’s Lumière Award will take its place alongside a trophy case of other honors, including two Cannes best actress prizes — for Violette Noziere (1978) and...

Isabelle Huppert has been announced as this year’s recipient of the Lumière Award at the 16th edition of the classic film-focused Lumière Festival in Lyon this fall.

“Her career encompasses an immense part of the history of contemporary cinema,” the Institut Lumière, which oversees the festival, declared of the French actress.

The institute cited some of the top directors she has worked with across her more than 155 acting credits including French directors Claude Chabrol, with whom she made seven features early on in her, as well as Jean-Luc Godard, Claire Denis, Bertrand Tavernier, Diane Kurys, Maurice Pialat, Catherine Breillat, Michel Deville, François Ozon and André Téchiné.

Internationally, Huppert has also collaborated with Joseph Losey, Marco Ferreri and Michael Haneke, Michael Cimino’s Brillante Mendoza, Hong Sang-soo and Paul Verhoeven, with whom she clinched a Best Actress Oscar nomination for her performance in his 2017 thriller Elle.

The actress has also...

Beloved French actor Isabelle Huppert will receive the Lumière Award in the city of Lyon in October.

Created by Cannes chief Thierry Frémaux, the Lumière Film Festival celebrates classic and contemporary cinema each fall. The Lumière Award honors a leading figure in the world of cinema and their entire body of work.

Huppert succeeds German director Wim Wenders who was awarded the prize in 2023. Former recipients include Tim Burton, Jane Campion, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Francis Ford Coppola, Ken Loach, Catherine Deneuve, Jane Fonda, Pedro Almodóvar, Miloš Forman, the Dardenne brothers and Wong Kar-wai, among others.

“It’s a great honor for me to receive the Lumière Award. It’s a magnificent prize, and so is its festival. It’s an award that bears the name of the inventors of cinema! Receiving it fills me with joy and pride,” said Huppert.

A prolific actor who shoots an average...

Isabelle Huppert will receive the 16th annual Lumiere Award at Lyon’s classic film-focused Lumiere Festival set to run October 12-20.

The prolific French actress will be honoured for her career during the week-long celebration of heritage film complete with a parallel classic film market run by Cannes’ Thierry Fremaux that typically draws a host of acclaimed talent from across the globe.

Huppert has earned two best actress prizes at Cannes for Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher and Claude Chabrol’s Violette, plus 16 Cesar nominations and two wins. She earned an Academy Award nomination and won the Golden Globe...

The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.Since the early 1970s, Isabelle Huppert has amassed a staggering body of work. Relentlessly prolific and uncompromisingly daring, she has embodied an eclectic range of characters, often delving into the enigmatic recesses of individuals who are by turns destructive, tormented, and obsessed, and yet can be audaciously empowered, sexually complex, and passionately reflective. Huppert “surprises and unsettles us,” notes David Parkinson, writing for the British Film Institute, doing so by “relaxing her tightly coiled control and channeling her strength and energy into doing something shockingly impulsive.” But that control and impulsiveness was not instantaneous, nor was it effortless. Huppert’s abilities have been steadily honed over the course of more than 140 appearances in film and television. And if there is a darkness lingering over some of her more disturbing characterizations, there...

Academy-Award nominated writer/director Paul Mazursky makes his first entry into the Criterion canon with his sixth feature, the seminal (first-wave) feminist landmark An Unmarried Woman, one of a handful of New Hollywood alums to place a woman’s agency as the crux of the film. Notably, it is the signature role of Jill Clayburgh, who like Gena Rowlands, Ellen Burstyn, Jane Fonda, Sigourney Weaver, Meryl Streep and Faye Dunaway, ascended to prominence in the 1970s on a crest of female empowerment heretofore rarely glimpsed in American cinema.

Winning Best Actress at the Cannes Film Festival, and scoring one of her two Academy Award nominations, it would cement Clayburgh (wife of playwright David Rabe and mother of actress Lily Rabe) as a permanent iconoclast.…...

French actress Isabelle Huppert will be conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming International Film Festival of India, which is set to run Wednesday-Nov. 28 and take place in Goa. Organized by the Indian government, Iffi marks its 50th anniversary this year.

Huppert has appeared in over 120 films, winning numerous awards including two Cannes best actress trophies (for Violette and The Piano Teacher) while her performance in Elle won her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. The Iffi lifetime honor carries a cash prize of 1 million rupees ($14,285). Huppert will also address a master class at the ...

French actress Isabelle Huppert will be conferred the Lifetime Achievement Award at the upcoming International Film Festival of India, which is set to run Wednesday-Nov. 28 and take place in Goa. Organized by the Indian government, Iffi marks its 50th anniversary this year.

Huppert has appeared in over 120 films, winning numerous awards including two Cannes best actress trophies (for Violette and The Piano Teacher) while her performance in Elle won her a Golden Globe and an Oscar nomination. The Iffi lifetime honor carries a cash prize of 1 million rupees ($14,285). Huppert will also address a master class at the ...

French actress Isabelle Huppert will receive the Honorary Heart of Sarajevo Award at the 25th Sarajevo Film Festival, in recognition of her “exceptional contribution to the art of film.”

Huppert will receive the award on Aug. 18, at the Raiffeisen Open Air Cinema, ahead of the screening of “Les Misérables.” Huppert will hold a masterclass on Aug. 18 her latest film “Frankie,” directed by Ira Sachs, will screen on Aug. 17.

During her career Huppert has worked with celebrated directors such as Michael Haneke, Claude Chabrol, Jean-Luc Godard, Otto Preminger, Bertrand Tavernier, Bertrand Blier and Claire Denis. Among her memorable roles were those in “The Piano Teacher,” “White Material,” “Elle” and “Greta.”

Awards that Huppert won include a BAFTA for most promising newcomer for “The Lacemaker,” two Venice Film Festival best actress awards for “Story of Women” and “The Ceremony,” Venice’s special jury Lion d’Or for “Gabrielle” and for her entire...

Huppert joins Alejandro González Iñárritu in receiving the award this year.

French actress Isabelle Huppert will receive the honourary Heart of Sarajevo award at this year’s Sarajevo Film Festival (August 16-23), which recognises exceptional contribution to film.

Huppert will accept the award on August 18 at the Open Air cinema, ahead of a screening of Ladj Ly’s Cannes 2019 Competition title Les Misérables.

She will also give a masterclass about her career in the industry earlier in the day.

In a screen career of almost 50 years, Huppert has previously received two Cannes best actress awards for Violette (1978) and The Piano Teacher...

Daniel Talbot, a distributor and exhibitor of enormous influence over specialized exhibition and distribution as well as the international film world, died Friday in Manhattan. He was 91. A memorial was held Sunday, December 31 at the Riverside Memorial Chapel with a capacity audience including many leading New York specialized players. Talbot’s wife and business partner, Toby Talbot, as well as daughters Nina, Emily and Sara attended the memorial, where the family spoke fondly about Talbot’s love for the comedian W.C. Fields.

Another more public post-holiday event marking the closing of the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas is scheduled on January 28 in New York. The last few weeks have seen Talbot’s legacy celebrated with reaction to the unexpected announcement that the six-screen Upper West Side theater would close at the end of January, at the expiration of its lease. Milstein Properties, who have been the Talbots’ co-partners in the theater since...

“Isabelle who…?” It’s a question I’ve gotten more times than I’d care to count this Oscar season, as audiences discover the fearless star of Paul Verhoeven’s subversive French thriller “Elle” — who just added an Independent Spirit Award to the collection of accolades the role has earned. Still, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, if you count yourself among the cinephiles who are only now learning Mme Huppert’s name (pronounced “Hoo-pair”).

Just yesterday, the French film academy honored Huppert with her second César award — but even her compatriots are late to the party. She’s been nominated 16 times, but France takes the provocative — and extremely prolific — actress for granted. After all, she’s never not acting, whether it’s on stage (from “Medea” to “The Maids”) or screen (at a rate of two or three movies a year). When French audiences see “Elle,” in which...

Being called the French Hitchcock does Claude Chabrol a disservice, as his dark thrillers approach mystery and suspense almost completely through character, not cinematics. These three very good 1990s productions are completely different in tone and approach, and each showcases a stunning French actress.

Betty, Torment (L’enfer), The Swindle (Rien ne vas plus)

Blu-ray

3 Classic Films by Claude Chabrol

Cohen Film Collection

1992,1994,1997 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 103, 102, 105 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 49.99

Starring Marie Trintignant, Stéphane Audran, Jean-François Garreaud, Yves Lambrecht; Emmanuelle Béart, François Cluzet, Nathalie Cardone, Dora Doll; Isabelle Huppert, Michel Serrault, François Cluzet, Jean-François Balmer.

Cinematography: Bernard Zitermann; Bernard Zitermann, Eduardo Serra

Film Editor: Monique Fardoulis (x3)

Original Music: Matthieu Chabrol (x3)

Written by Claude Chabrol from a novel by Georges Simenon; Claude Chabrol from a script by Henri-Georges Clouzot; Claude Chabrol

Produced by Marin Karmitz (x3)

Directed by Claude Chabrol (x3)

Not all Claude Chabrol films are equal, but...

Isabelle Huppert (Courtesy: Tristan Fewings/Getty Images)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

The best actress Oscar race might seem like a showdown between La La Land’s Emma Stone and Jackie’s Natalie Portman, but Elle’s Isabelle Huppert is proving to be quite the upset. Should Huppert actually snag an Oscar nomination this year, shockingly it would be a first for the French thespian. If Huppert has flown under the Academy’s radar, who else out there is considered the best of the best and hasn’t had a chance to win Hollywood’s biggest award?

Our latest indication of Huppert’s surprise domination this awards season was at the Golden Globes when the 63-year-old won for best actress in a drama and bested Portman — Stone was nominated for best actress in a musical or comedy. Further catapulting Huppert in the best actress Oscar standings was Elle being named best foreign-language film,...

Isabelle Huppert has had a stellar year, making a splash in two critically acclaimed films this year: Mia Hansen-Løve’s “Things to Come” and Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle,” which could earn her an Oscar nomination.

With a career spanning over four decades and with over 100 credits to her name, the French actress has earned 15 César nominations, winning the coveted Best Actress award in 1995 for her role in “La cérémonie.” She also has a BAFTA Award, won two Best Actress titles at the Cannes Film Festival and most recently won Best Actress at the 2016 Gotham Awards. To pay tribute to her remarkable career, filmmaker Candice Drouet created the video essay, “Isabelle Huppert: 100 Faces.”

The clip includes scenes from “Every Man for Himself,” “Copacabana,” “Violette Nozière,” “8 Women” and many others. The video looks at Huppert’s previous work and adds tidbits about her roles, like the fact that she portrayed a...

Isabelle Huppert in ‘Elle’ (Courtesy: Guy Ferrandis/Sbs Productions/Sony Pictures Classics)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

One potential surprise in the current best actress race would be the first-ever nomination and/or win of Isabelle Huppert. The leading lady has turned in yet another stellar performance — this time for Elle, France’s submission for best foreign language film this year — and there are is speculation that the Academy might finally give Huppert the recognition she so deserves.

The Paul Verhoeven-directed Elle — which should make the shortlist for best foreign language film, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg — derives from the French word for “she” or “her” and is based on the novel Oh… by Philippe Djian. In the film, Huppert plays Michèle LeBlanc, a successful businesswoman, who is raped and begins a game of cat and mouse to track down the unknown assailant. Elle was nominated...

I first met Isabelle Huppert while she was promoting her roller-skating role in the movie that was supposed to be her entree into Hollywood: Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate.”

That was not to be. But since then, Huppert has turned out consistently great performances and has become nothing less than the Meryl Streep of France.

She’s earned 15 César nominations (winning for Claude Chabrol’s “La Ceremonie”), all while being fearless in her choice of roles — look at her two Cannes Best Actress winners, Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” and Claude Chabrol’s “Violette Nozière.”

This is a woman who has put in her 10,000 hours. She knows from sex and violence, how to make things real, and how to retain an ironic distance. The Academy has seen fit to reward the likes of fellow Frenchwomen Emmanuelle Riva (her “Amour” costar), Juliette Binoche, and Marion Cotillard; Huppert is more than due.

I first met Isabelle Huppert while she was promoting her roller-skating role in the movie that was supposed to be her entree into Hollywood: Michael Cimino’s “Heaven’s Gate.”

That was not to be. But since then, Huppert has turned out consistently great performances and has become nothing less than the Meryl Streep of France.

She’s earned 15 César nominations (winning for Claude Chabrol’s “La Ceremonie”), all while being fearless in her choice of roles — look at her two Cannes Best Actress winners, Michael Haneke’s “The Piano Teacher” and Claude Chabrol’s “Violette Nozière.”

This is a woman who has put in her 10,000 hours. She knows from sex and violence, how to make things real, and how to retain an ironic distance. The Academy has seen fit to reward the likes of fellow Frenchwomen Emmanuelle Riva (her “Amour” costar), Juliette Binoche, and Marion Cotillard; Huppert is more than due.

The French star delivered one of the performances of the year in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle.

Isabelle Huppert will be the subject of a tribute and gala screening of Elle on November 13. She plays a successful businesswoman who tracks down her rapist.

Sony Pictures Classics acquired North America and select territories prior to the world premiere in Cannes and will release in the Us on November 11.

“Isabelle Huppert is a masterful actress,” said AFI Fest director Jacqueline Lyanga. “Her fearlessness and precision shine in Elle, and we are thrilled to honour her illustrious career at the 30th edition of AFI Fest, as she exemplifies the best of world cinema.”

Huppert has earned a record 15 César Award nominations for an actress and won in 1995 for La Cérémonie.

She won the Cannes best actress prize for The Piano Teacher in 2001 and Violette in 1978 in a tie with Jill Clayburgh for An Unmarried Woman.

In 2002 she...

Talking with Tiff CEO Piers Handling, Huppert discussed her career, which includes over 100 film credits.

Isabelle Huppert is in focus at the 2016 Toronto Film Festival (Tiff), with the French actress starring in three films in this year’s programme: Elle, Souvenir and Things To Come.

Speaking to festival director and CEO Piers Handling in a masterclass on Saturday (Sept 10), Huppert – whose resume includes over 100 films, television and theatre productions, peppered with a bevy of awards recognition including 15 Cesar nominations – spoke candidly about the highs and lows of her career.

Michael Haneke, Michael Cimino, Claude Chabrol and Claire Denis were among the list of directors she gave credit for helping her to grow as an actress. French New Wave director Chabrol, she said, gave her little direction, in turn granting her almost complete artistic license.

“Working with a director is like building a strong friendship. There is desire, there is love – and for me, reality and truthfulness...

Huppert’s warm, wry performance as an academic facing a crisis at home powers Mia Hansen-Løve’s intimate, intellectual film

Is there a more commanding screen presence than Isabelle Huppert? From the spiralling American madness of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate to the diverse demands of Claire Denis’s African-set colonial parable White Material and Brillante Mendoza’s Philippines hostage drama Captive, Huppert has proved ready to rise to any challenge. Claude Chabrol famously cast her as a teenage murderer in 1978’s Violette Nozière and a covert poisoner in 2000’s Merci pour le chocolat, while Chris Honoré called upon her to tackle the taboo subject of incest in Ma mère. Most famously, in Michael Haneke’s unflinching The Piano Teacher, she took cinemagoers to the very edge of a masochistic abyss, with harrowing results.

Hansen-Løve serves up unapologetic discussions of Rousseau, radicalism and revolution

Continue reading...

The Toronto International Film Festival has added 5 Galas and 19 Special Presentations to its huge and highly anticipated international lineup including the Closing Night Film, Paco Cabezas’s Mr. Right.

In July, it was announced that Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition will open the 2015 Festival. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper and Judah Lewis, Demolition will have its world premiere on September 10 at Roy Thomson Hall.

Toronto audiences will be among the first to screen films by directors Ridley Scott, Deepa Mehta, Lenny Abrahamson, Brian Helgeland, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, Jason Bateman, Cary Fukunaga, Catherine Corsini, Stephen Frears, Tom Hooper, Hany Abu-Assad, Meghna Gulzar, Terence Davies, Jonás Cuarón, Julie Delpy, Rebecca Miller, Rob Reiner, Catherine Hardwicke, Pan Nalin, Lorene Scafaria, David Gordon Green, Matthew Cullen, Gaby Dellal, James Vanderbilt and Marc Abraham.

The various films listed below star Kate Winslet, Helen Mirren, Susan Sarandon, Gary Oldman, Toni Collette, Drew Barrymore,...

The 40th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival now has something of a slate. Festival toppers Cameron Bailey and Piers Handling presided over a press conference Tuesday morning where more than 34 films were announced including the world premieres of "The Martian," "The Family Fang" and "Demolition." It's an intriguing initial lineup for the venerable Canadian institution and something of a steadying the ship after losing some major debuts to Venice, Telluride and the New York Film Festival over the past few years. Well, maybe. The most impressive world premieres include the aforementioned "Demolition" with Jake Gyllenhaal (officially the best opening night film in recent memory), "The Family Fang" with Nicole Kidman, "Legend" with Tom Hardy, "Trumbo" with Bryan Cranston, "The Martian" with Matt Damon and Lance Armstrong doc "The Program" with Ben Foster and Michael Moore's latest documentary, "Where to Invade Next." Notable films that will have premiered...

1,2, Bughuul's coming for you. Last weekend Sinister 2 took over Comic-Con and will continue to spread terror nationwide in theaters on August 21st. Also: an excerpt from Freda Warrington's The Dark Arts of Blood and a trailer for Nerdist Presents: The Hive.

Sinister 2: "We hope you managed to escape the terror of Bughuul at this year’s Comic-Con haunted by Sinister 2!

If you were at Comic-Con this weekend you weren’t far from gruesome #SinisterSightings lurking around any corner.

Terrifying twins took over San Diego’s Gaslamp Quarter frightening unsuspecting Comic-Con attendees with a slew of sinister projections of homemade inspired kill films starting Thursday, July 9th until Saturday, July 11th from the time the sun went down until well after midnight.

Sinister 2 opens nationwide from Gramercy Pictures on August 21st, 2015.

Story: The sequel to the 2012 sleeper hit horror movie. In the aftermath of the shocking events in “Sinister,...

Catherine Deneuve: César Award Besst Actress Record-Tier (photo: Catherine Deneuve in 'In the Courtyard / Dans la cour') (See previous post: "Kristen Stewart and Catherine Deneuve Make César Award History.") Catherine Deneuve has received 12 Best Actress César nominations to date. Deneuve's nods were for the following movies (year of film's release): Pierre Salvadori's In the Courtyard / Dans la Cour (2014). Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way / Elle s'en va (2013). François Ozon's Potiche (2010). Nicole Garcia's Place Vendôme (1998). André Téchiné's Thieves / Les voleurs (1996). André Téchiné's My Favorite Season / Ma saison préférée (1993). Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). François Dupeyron's Strange Place for an Encounter / Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). Jean-Pierre Mocky's Agent trouble (1987). André Téchiné's Hotel America / Hôtel des Amériques (1981). François Truffaut's The Last Metro / Le dernier métro (1980). Jean-Paul Rappeneau's Le sauvage (1975). Additionally, Catherine Deneuve was nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category...

French actress known for roles in The Piano Teacher and Amour to preside over festival jury.

Isabelle Huppert is to head the competition jury at the 14th International Film Festival of Marrakech (Dec 5-13).

The French actress said: “I will take great pleasure in meeting the Moroccan audiences, and sharing their curiosity, enthusiasm and thirst to discover films from around the world - the way the festival has in its previous selections.”

Huppert’s breakthrough came in 1977 with her performance in Claude Goretta’s The Lacemaker. The following year, she won the Best Actress award in Cannes for her lead role in Claude Chabrol’s Violette.

The actress has since worked with French filmmakers such as Jean-Luc Godard, Maurice Pialat and Benoit Jacquot, as well as international directors such as Michael Cimino, Andrzej Wajda, Marco Ferreri and Joseph Losey.

She also has a special relationship with Michael Haneke, whose film The Piano Teacher won her a second...

Bloodsucking creatures of the night take a bite out of the professional dancing world with dire consequences when vampire Charlotte Neville gets a taste of ballerina Violette Lenoir in Freda Warrington’s The Dark Blood of Poppies, her follow-up to A Dance in Blood Velvet. Titan Books has provided us with an exclusive excerpt that sees Sebastian Pierse facing sinister seductions in 1700’s Ireland.

“The ballerina Violette Lenoir has fallen victim to the bite of the vampire Charlotte. Her fire and energy have fuelled a terrifying change and a dreadful realisation; that Violette has become Lilith, the demon mother of all vampires. Haunted both by what she has done and by Violette’s dark sensuality, Charlotte and her immortal lover Karl are drawn towards the dancer and the terrible destiny that has fallen on her shoulders. But other, far more dangerous shadows are gathering around Violette. To the vampire Sebastian...

In October we treated you to an excerpt from Freda Warrington's A Taste of Blood Wine, and now in April we're showering you with an exclusive look at its follow-up, A Dance in Blood Velvet.

A Dance in Blood Velvet, out Today (4/8/2014) from Titan Books, is the second installment in Warrington's "Blood Wine" series of novels.

Click Here to download a Pdf of our exclusive A Dance in Blood Velvet excerpt.

Synopsis:

For the love of her vampire suitor, Karl, Charlotte has forsaken her human life. Now her only contact with humans is when she hunts them down to feed. Her thirst for blood repulses her, but its fulfilment brings ecstasy.

The one light in the shadows is the passion that burns between her and Karl. A love that it seems will last for eternity - until Karl's former lover, the seductively beautiful Katerina, is rescued from the Crystal Ring.

With each passing year, Tiff is becoming more and more prominent on the film festival circuit, with more and more Oscar-primed films making their debut out in Canada. And with the initial line-up announced for the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the trend is definitely continuing.

Amongst the many, many films making their presence felt out in Toronto will be Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated 12 Years a Slave, which launched a powerful first trailer earlier in the month. The film sees Chiwetel Ejiofor lead a fantastic cast, with Michael Fassbender returning to work for his Hunger / Shame director, alongside the likes of Brad Pitt, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sarah Paulson, Paul Giamatti, and many more.

Opening the festival will be Bill Condon’s The Fifth Estate, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, alongside Daniel Brühl, Laura Linney, Anthony Mackie, and Stanley Tucci.

And closing it will be Daniel Schechter’s Life of Crime,...

Toronto Film Festival Movie Lineup (photo: Chiwetel Ejiofor in Steve McQueen’s ’12 Years a Slave’) (See previous post: “Toronto Film Festival 2013 Dates and Movies.”) Among the Toronto Film Festival’s World and North American premieres are director Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, with Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Fassbender, Paul Dano, Sarah Paulson, and Paul Giamatti; Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club, with Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Steve Zahn, and Griffin Dunne; Atom Egoyan’s Devil’s Knot, with Reese Witherspoon, Mireille Enos, Kevin Durand, Stephen Moyer, Dane DeHaan, Colin Firth, Elias Koteas, Alessandro Nivola, Bruce Greenwood, Amy Ryan, and Martin Henderson; and Sylvain Chomet’s Attila Marcel, which is supposed to be an homage to Jacques Tati and Buster Keaton, featuring Guillaume Gouix, Anne Le Ny, Bernadette Lafont, and Hélène Vincent. See Toronto Film Festival 2013 lineup below. Toronto Film Festival: World premieres 12 Years a Slave, Dir: Steve McQueen,...

Cinema is a kind of uber-art form that’s made up of a multitude of other forms of art including writing, directing, acting, drawing, design, photography and fashion. As such, film is, as all cinema aficionados know, a highly collaborative venture.

One of the most consistently fascinating collaborations in cinema is that of the director and actor.

This article will examine some of the great director & actor teams. It’s important to note that this piece is not intended as a film history survey detailing all the generally revered collaborations.

There is a wealth of information and study available on such duos as John Ford & John Wayne, Howard Hawks & John Wayne, Elia Kazan & Marlon Brando, Akira Kurosawa & Toshiro Mifune, Alfred Hitchcock & James Stewart, Ingmar Bergman & Max Von Sydow, Federico Fellini & Giulietta Masina/Marcello Mastroianni, Billy Wilder & Jack Lemmon, Francis Ford Coppola & Al Pacino, Woody Allen & Diane Keaton, Martin Scorsese & Robert DeNiro...

Because, looking forward, 2013 promises to be such a fruitful cornucopia of cinema, we were excited to be able to easily list an additional 100 titles we are eagerly looking forward to catching in the new year. From these 200-101 titles, we’re happy to list several projects featuring the extremely busy Isabelle Huppert, include two English language projects, Ned Benson’s split film project The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby His/Hers and the Niels Arden Oplev film, Dead Man Down (and don’t forget her French projects, a starring turn in Serge Bozon’s followup, Tip Top as well as Guillaume Nicloux’s The Religious).

Additionally, the horror genre should be extremely noteworthy in the coming year, with new projects from Neil Marshall (The Descent), Alexandre Aja (High Tension), Fabrice Du Welz (Calvaire), Lucky McKee (May) and directing team Alexandre Bustillo & Julien Maury (Inside). We’ve got two Australian beauties playing...

Our guide to the ultimate Cannes 2012 insiders

Lars von Trier: the outcast

Nine-time competition nominee and Palme d'Or winner for 2000's Dancer in the Dark, Von Trier was slung out last year for saying he had sympathy for Hitler at an ill-judged press conference for Melancholia. No film from Von Trier this year – but will he be back next year for Nymphomaniac?

Charlotte Gainsbourg: the golden girl

Combining catwalk poise and dynastic lineage, Gainsbourg gained significant artistic credibility via her Von Trier hookup: Antichrist got her the best actress prize in 2009. This year, she's in the Un Certain Regard section (along with Pete Doherty) with Confession of a Child of the Century.

Ken Loach: the shop steward

The veteran firebrand represents the British cinema the French would like to see: The Angels' Share is his 11th film in competition. He won the Palme for 2006's The Wind That Shakes the Barley,...

French actress Isabelle Huppert has been a force in the film world for quite a while now, winning Best Actress awards at Cannes for her work in Violette and The Piano Teacher, and a César for her role in La Cérémonie. Though she’s really only appeared in I Heart Huckabees and episodes of Law & Order: Svu in English-speaking roles (as far as I know?), she’s been a top international actress long enough that most everyone interested in acting and such Stateside should have an idea of who she is. Niels Arden Oplev hasn’t been around the scene for quite as long, but after he took the world by storm directing the Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, he solidified his place on the list of filmmakers that everyone is keeping their eyeballs on. His success launching that franchise has led to his latest project, Dead Man Down...

Well, we've taken a look at the leading men, now it's time to look at the actresses who have also fallen outside of the Academy Award radar. While there is no Gary Oldman-esque story of recognition this year at the Oscars for the ladies, these five names will hopefully be a reminder that there are more women out there other than Meryl Streep who deserve to put that funny gold statue on their mantle. The names here include international stars, undersung character actresses and bonafide legends. Their time will hopefully soon come, but until then, here's what they've done so far that deserves attention. Isabelle Huppert Nomination-Worthy Roles: Pomme in "The Lacemaker"; Violette Noziere in "Violette Noziere"; Marie in "A Story Of Women"; Jeanne in "La Ceremonie"; Marie-Claire Muller in "Merci pour le chocolat"; Erika Kohut in "The Piano Teacher"; Anne Laurent in "The Time Of The Wolf";...

After three separate announcements (here, here and here), the Toronto International Film Festival has announced the final line-up for their Galas and Special Presentations, as well as a few other categories. Most notable is Andrea Arnold‘s Fish Tank follow-up Wuthering Heights, the next film from Timecrimes director Nacho Vigalondo, as well as Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Alps.

We also get Whit Stillman‘s Damsels in Distress starring Greta Gerwig and Geoffrey Fletcher’s Violet & Daisy starring Saoirse Ronan and James Gandolfini. In what should be a little fun we have Gary McKendry‘s Killer Elite starring Robert De Niro, Clive Owen and Jason Statham. We also get Owen’s horror flick Intruders and Joel Schumacher‘s Trespass starring Nicole Kidman and Nicolas Cage. Check out the full line-ups below.

Galas

Closing Night Film

Page Eight David Hare, United Kingdom

International Premiere

Johnny Worricker (Bill Nighy) is a long-serving M15 officer.

It seems strange that it's taken this long for Claire Denis and Isabelle Huppert to work together on a film, but whatever the reason, it was worth the wait. Denis's "White Material," featuring the legendary actress as a white African farmer who insists on staying in her home even though her war-torn country is descending into madness and bloodshed, offers the director yet another opportunity to display her beguiling style, with its patented mix of intense physicality and ethereal stylization. And who better than the amazing Huppert, the thinking man's goddess of the arthouse corporeal, to help bring this vision to fruition? It's a performance that relies more on movement and gesture than it does on dialogue and story. Huppert brings an intangible humanity to this character - despite the film's elliptical style, we're riveted by this woman's onscreen ordeal. The result is one of the actress's greatest parts - saying quite a bit,...

Two time Oscar nominated actress Jill Clayburgh died yesterday after a long long struggle with leukemia. She was 66 years old.

Clayburgh in Starting Over (1979) and  Running With Scissors (2006)Younger moviegoers may remember her as the rundown matriarch of that chaotic impossibly neurotic brood in Running With Scissors (2006) or the well heeled matriarch in television's Dirty Sexy Money. (2007-2009). Those were both part of a mini Clayburgh revival in the Aughts which was kicked off by two Broadway runs in Naked Girl on the Appalachian Way (2005) and the revival of Barefoot in the Park (2006).

But Clayburgh's heyday was unquestionably in the late 1970s, when she became something like the screen embodiment of Modern Liberated Woman. Clayburgh will always be connected in cultural history to her zeitgeist moment in 1978 when she starred in Paul Mazurky's frisky Best Picture nominee An Unmarried Woman. In the film her husband suddenly leaves her for a...

Claude Chabrol is the kind of figure who could be reclaimed after death – there are some films that might look much better years later

Nearly 50 years ago, Claude Chabrol – who died last weekend – wrote an essay, Big Subjects, Little Subjects, in which he set out an attitude to movies and a guide to his own career (which had only just begun). "You can make a film about the French Revolution, or a squabble with the next-door neighbour, the apocalypse of our time or how the barmaid became pregnant, the last hours of a hero of the Resistance, or the inquest on a murdered prostitute. It's all a question of personality."

If you wanted to demonstrate this theory in defence of modesty, you could point to Madame Bovary (1991), where despite the presence of Isabelle Huppert in the title role, Chabrol seems a little overawed or diffident with the material. If only...

In her ongoing Toronto journal, day five, Meredith Brody starts off remembering Claude Chabrol: So I realized trudging home from the subway last night that the reason I hadn’t remembered that the Toronto subway doesn’t begin running until 9 a.m. on Sunday was that I never had been obliged to use the subway on the way to an early-morning screening before. I don’t know why it had taken all day for this revelation to hit me. I hadn’t heard about the death of Claude Chabrol until I got back, either, and read an email from Allan Arkush, off filming a new television series called Hellcats in Vancouver, that began “R.I.P. Claude Chabrol. Let’s raise a glass of vin rouge to you for Violette, Le Boucher, The ...

Prolific French director of films with murder at their heart

The film director Claude Chabrol, who has died aged 80, created the first ripple of the French new wave with his first feature, Le Beau Serge (1958). Unlike some of his other critic colleagues on the influential journal Cahiers du Cinéma, who also became film-makers, Chabrol was perfectly happy in the mainstream. Along with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, he paid serious attention to Hollywood studio contract directors who retained their artistic personalities through good and bad films, thus formulating what came to be known as the "auteur theory".

In 1957, he and Rohmer wrote a short book on Alfred Hitchcock, whom they saw as a Catholic moralist. Hitchcock's black humour and fascination with guilt pervades the majority of Chabrol's films, most of which have murder at their heart. However, although Chabrol's thematic allegiance to Hitchcock remained intact, his...

It’s always sad to write about anybody who dies in the film business, but today’s loss is a big one. Claude Chabrol, a fellow critic and one of the founders of the French New Wave, which is a very big part of the Criterion Collection, has died at the age of 80. And like most filmmakers, he was working right until the end which is what all artists do when they love the medium as much as they do. So I wanted to take a few minutes out of your time to showcase a top 10 of his films. Sadly he isn’t featured within the Collection, but he is one of many directors that deserves a place within its walls. So without further adieu, let’s get into the wonders of Claude Chabrol.

10. Le Beau Serge (1958)

Why not start this list with Chabrol’s first film? It was an...

Chabrol went behind the beautiful landscapes and homes of the bourgeoisie to lay bare the travails and turpitudes of the French

Exit Antonioni, exit Rohmer and now exit Chabrol. With Louis Malle and François Truffaut's untimely deaths in 1995 and 1984, there are now only three left: Jacques Rivette, Alain Resnais and Jean-Luc Godard. Who am I talking about? The New Wave's young Turks turned masters; in other words, some of cinema's most important authors.

Claude Chabrol's death took everyone by surprise. Fit as a fiddle, he was as active at 80 as he was 50 years ago, making a film almost every year. In 2007, the Turin film festival programmed a retrospective of his films, there were so many of them, they had to stage their homage over two years. I religiously went to Turin, as in pilgrimage, and got hooked on Chabrol. There, I also met him and asked about his...

Claude Chabrol, one of France's most well known directors, has died at the age of 80.

The filmmaker is most famous for his work in the 1960s and 70s, including The Unfaithful Wife, The Butcher and This Man Must Die. During his career, in which he made over 50 films, Chabrol was nominated for the Cannes Film Festival’s Golden Palm award twice, once in 1978 for Violette Noziere and for a second time in 1985 for Poulet au vinaigre.

Chabrol’s death has seen tributes pour in from across the industry, as well as key French political figures. "With the death of Claude Chabrol, French cinema has lost one of its maestros," said French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in a statement.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy also acknowledged Chabrol’s life’s work, describing the director as a "great author and great film-maker".

Thierry Fremaux, who runs the Cannes Film Festival, told French press...

One of the leading pioneers of the French New Wave movement, Claude Chabrol, died yesterday in Paris at the age of 80. Over the course of his 50 year career, Chabrol made over 80 films, his last being Bellamy starring Gérard Depardieu, released only last year.

Like many of his New Wave counterparts, Chabrol started his film career first as a critic, after initially studying to be a pharmocologist. He wrote for the legendary Cahiers du Cinema along with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and Alain Resnais before going on to write and direct his first film, Handsome Serge in 1958,widely considered to be the first New Wave film.

From that point he continued to make fim after film, and his thrillers, uncovering the darkness in bourgeois society and exposing class tensions, are what many people remember most about him. He averaged one film a year though on many occasions made two or three a year untill his death.

By Ali Naderzad - September 12, 2010

The man with the pipe is dead. Claude Chabrol, the director of "Violette" and "Le beau Serge" and the author of noirish tightly-wrapped thrillers that had movie-goers on the edge of their seat, has passed on. One of the founding fathers of New Wave Chabrol was, like his contemporaries of that time, a film critic for the Cahiers du Cinéma in the 1970s and frequented the Cinémathèque Française. He first became involved in cinema as a boy, however, operating a movie projector in the village he grew up in. Like his hero Alfred Hitchcock, about whom he wrote a book, Chabrol often made cameo appearances in his films. The themes he drew on throughout his fifty-year career were repetitive, but subtly so. He'd cast an amused glance at provincial bourgeois, decipher women with an ironic empathy, meddle with small-time crime and market prodigiously well the ever-recurring theme of inanity,...

The French New Wave veteran has died aged 80. We look back over his career with a selection of clips from his films

Along with François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol ushered in the New Wave that washed over French cinema at the end of the 1950s. Like them a critic turned filmmaker, Chabrol shared their appreciation of classical genre form – to some, he appreciated it too much, exploring rather than subverting its strictures. But his prodigious output and technical mastery assure his place as one of the great figures of cinema's first century.

Born in 1930 to a middle-class family, Chabrol studied law before joining Godard, Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette in making Cahiers du Cinema, the epicentre of auteurist celebration of 'low' Hollywood. In 1957, he and Rohmer published their influential study of Hitchcock – a director who would have an enduring influence on Chabrol's work behind the camera – and,...

Claude Chabrol, known as the founding father of the French New Wave movement and one of the most influential French filmmakers, has died at the age of 80.

Chabrol began his impeccable career as a critic for the notebook of cinema, Les Cahiers du Cinema, then went on to make more than 50 films, helping to launch the New Wave movement in the 50s with his directorial debut, 1958's "Le beau Serge." Some of his notable films are "Les Biches (1968)," and "Le Boucher" (1970). Isabelle Huppert was considered Chabrol's muse and favorite actress. The director and his muse worked in "Merci pur le chocolat," "Violette Noiziere," and "Une affaire de femme." To read more of Chabrol's great achievements, click here.

*** French New Wave was a term coined by critics for a group of French filmmakers of the late 1950s and 1960s who shunned classical cinematic narrative form and invented a new, fresh way...