Eva press conference with Isabelle Huppert, director Benoît Jacquot and co-stars

Does an acclaimed performer ever become weary of being acclaimed all the time? This cannot be confirmed when it comes to French cinematic legend Isabelle Huppert, though she did raise a quizzical eyebrow at the thunderous applause that greeted her at the 2018 Berlin Film Festival press conference for her new film, the erotic thriller Eva. Huppert plays the title character, a prostitute who becomes the muse (and obsession) of a young writer (Gaspard Ulliel) whose success has come from stealing the work of a dead playwright.

Director Benoît Jacquot touched upon the fact that he has been wanting to film Eva for a very long time, having read the original source novel (1945’s Eve by James Hadley Chase) in his youth. It was a pledge to himself at the time it became evident that making films was to be his sole, driving passion in life that he would one day make the movie. The novel had already been adapted for the screen in 1965, albeit in a much different style, with Jeanne Moreau playing the role of Eva. Jacquot continued, “I’d forgotten it from time to time, but it always came back into my mind’s eye. The chance really came up with the benefit of the actors sitting to my left”.

When Huppert was asked about how she prepares for a role, she said, “I think acting is about thinking. You just think about it, and that’s a kind of preparation. It’s more about how you do it, and I knew that in doing it, something was going to take shape”.

Unsurprisingly, Huppert was quizzed on her opinion about #MeToo. The actress stated: “Everything that has happened with this movement, I have looked on it with a lot of sympathy and hope. It’s so long that this should have been said, and it has finally been said in the last months. This is one of the reasons why I do cinema, to speak of women in a certain way. Personally speaking, I’m very happy that some things have finally been brought out into the open. Definitively, I hope.”

Oliver Johnston

Eva does not have a UK release date yet. Read our review here.

Read more reviews and interviews from our Berlin Film Festival 2018 coverage here.

For further information about the event visit the Berlin Film Festival 2018.