A picture worth a thousand words

By Liu Wei (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-23 09:26

"It is very contemporary, like a painting. I like her idea," says Huppert. "This is what the exhibition is really about. The important thing is not which side of me they capture, but what I can help them to capture."

In her 30-plus years of acting, the star of The Piano Teacher and 8 Women, and muse for Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godard, has met many top photographers from around the world.

Four years ago, the P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York gathered about 100 selected works of these photographers and put up an exhibition. The show has toured around the world as a tribute to her glorious career.

The latest Beijing exhibition is part of the Croisements Festival 2009, a cultural-exchange event between China and France, which marks Huppert's first visit to China.

"The most creative films in film festivals over the past 15 years have come from the East," she says. "The more Chinese films I see, the more I want to see."

At the recently-concluded Cannes festival, Huppert, leading the jury, gave the best screenplay award to mainland director Lou Ye, whose Spring Fever (Chunfeng Chenzui De Yewan) focuses on a homosexual relationship.

"I like the film very much," she says. "I see a present-day China and its reality in a direct way. I never thought a Chinese director's film language could be so direct and audacious."

For the same reason, Jia Zhangke, known for his sympathetic depiction of ordinary, small-town Chinese, is one of Huppert's favorite Chinese directors.

"Seeing their films is an opportunity for me to know a strange country or at least a strange side of the country," she says. "Although I do not see a lot of Chinese films, when I do see them I feel connected to the people. The important thing is not who I like the most, but to come here and make a film with a local director."

The exhibition ends on July 19. A picture album of the displayed photos is also available.

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