h. nazan ışık—

July 16, 2014—

The Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC) will be hosting “An Evening with Isabelle Huppert” moderated by filmmaker John Waters, on Wednesday July 30 at 6:00pm.

© h. nazan ışık, All Rights Reserved

French actress Isabelle Huppert

FSLC announced that the evening will start with a sneak-preview screening of the actress’s film Abuse of Weakness, directed by Catherine Breillat, which was shown at the 51st New York Film Festival. After the screening legendary French actress Hubbert who has starred in over 90 films (Loulou, Story of Women / Une affaire de femmes, A Separation /La Séparation, Home, The Piano Teacher /La Pianiste,White Material, Private Property /Nue propriété, White Material, Amour) and famous American film director John Waters (Pink Flamingos, Cry-Baby, Polyester, Hairspray, Pecker) will have an extended conversation.

Ms. Huppert will then introduce Michael Haneke’s The Piano Teacher/La Pianiste, for which she won the Best Actress prize at the Cannes Film Festival.

FILMS, SCHEDULE & DESCRIPTIONS

Abuse of Weakness
Catherine Breillat, France, 2013, DCP, 105m
French with English subtitles
In 2004, at the age of 56, Catherine Breillat suffered a serious stroke. Her left side was initially paralyzed and after five months in the hospital she worked like a demon to walk again. Not long after, she prepared a screenplay of her novel Bad Love and decided to cast the notorious “swindler of the stars,” Christophe Rocancourt, fresh from a jail term for fraud. Over the next several months, Rocancourt took advantage of Breillat’s condition and stood by her side as she wrote him checks amounting to €650,000. She later took him to court, won her case, and chronicled the experience in a book that she has now adapted into a haunting film, which features a bold, tough performance by Isabelle Huppert as the Breillat figure and French/Portuguese rapper Kool Shen as the con man. A selection at the 51st New York Film Festival. A Strand Releasing release. Abuse of Weakness opens theatrically at the Film Society for an exclusive one-week run on Friday, August 15.
*Wednesday, July 30, 6:00pm. Conversation to follow screening with Isabelle Huppert and moderator John Waters.

The Piano Teacher
Michael Haneke, Austria/France/Germany, 2001, 35mm, 131m
French and German with English subtitles
Isabelle Huppert rushes in where most movie stars fear to tread as Erika, a brilliant, middle-aged instructor at a Viennese music conservatory whose icy domination of her pupils belies desperate, masochistic urges. When she meets Walter (Benoît Magimel), a brash 17-year-old student, his infatuation leads Erika to explore her most dissolute fantasies. Adapted from Elfriede Jelinek’s novel, the film pairs Haneke’s rigorous formalism with Huppert’s singular blend of fire and ice for an unnerving treatise on cruelty, repression, and the kinky underside of elegance. Winner of the Grand Prix and both acting prizes at Cannes, The Piano Teacher was described by Manohla Dargis as “a harrowing story of sex, fascism, and the ties that bind and sometimes throttle.”
*Wednesday, July 30, 9:00pm. Introduction by Isabelle Huppert.

Isabelle Huppert will also appear in the Sydney Theatre Company’s production of The Maids, opposite Cate Blanchett, this August at the Lincoln Center Festival.

“An Evening with Isabelle Huppert” will be held at the Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street on Wednesday, July 30 at 6:00pm. Tickets will go on sale at noon on Thursday, July 17

Abuse of Weakness will open theatrically for an exclusive one-week run at the Film Society on Friday, August 15.

Photo © h. nazan ışık /nkendiken

© h. nazan ışık