Emmanuelle Riva

Early life

Riva was born Paulette Germaine Riva on 24 February 1927 in Cheniménil, France, the daughter of Jeanne Fernande (née Nourdin), a seamstress, and René Alfred Riva, a sign painter.

Growing up in Remiremont, Riva showed an early passion for acting, performing in plays at her local theatre, but worked for several years as a seamstress. After seeing an advertisement on a local newspaper, Riva applied to an acting school in Paris.

At 26, she moved to Paris to pursue acting despite her family's objections. In 1954, she performed her first role on stage in a Paris production of George Bernard Shaw's Arms and the Man. In 1957, Riva made her onscreen acting debut in the TV series Énigmes de l'histoire.

Career

Film

Riva was cast as one of the leads in Hiroshima mon amour (1959), a film directed by Alain Resnais and written by Marguerite Duras, in which she played a French actress having an affair with a Japanese architect (Eiji Okada) in Hiroshima. Her performance was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress in 1960. She next appeared in Gillo Pontecorvo's Kapò (1960), Jean-Pierre Melville's Léon Morin, Priest (1961) and Georges Franju's Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962), for which she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 23rd Venice International Film Festival. Riva also appeared in Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colors: Blue (1993), Tonie Marshall's Venus Beauty Institute (1999), Julie Delpy's Skylab (2011) and Fiona Gordon & Dominique Abel 's Lost in Paris (2016).

Riva starred in Michael Haneke's film Amour (2012) with Jean-Louis Trintignant, playing an elderly music teacher being cared for by her husband after a series of debilitating strokes. She won the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2013 for her performance, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress. Riva traveled to the 85th Academy Awards ceremony, which was held on her 86th birthday, but Jennifer Lawrence won for Silver Linings Playbook instead. At 85, when she was nominated, Riva was the oldest ever Best Actress nominee and the second-oldest acting nominee after Gloria Stuart, who was 87 when she was nominated for Titanic (1997).

Other works

Riva had an extensive theatre career in Paris. In 2001, she performed in Medea at the Festival d'Avignon. She appeared occasionally on French television. Riva returned to the Paris stage in February 2014, co-starring with Anne Consigny in the Marguerite Duras play Savannah Bay at the Théâtre de l'Atelier.

While filming Hiroshima mon amour, Riva photographed Hiroshima; a half-century later these photographs were exhibited at the Nikon Salon and issued in book form in France and Japan. Riva was a published poet.

Personal life

Riva led a private life, never married and did not have children. She had a partner, who died in 1999. Riva owned a fourth-floor walk-up apartment in the Latin Quarter of Paris, and lived there for more than half a century.

Death

Riva died from cancer on 27 January 2017 in Paris, four weeks before her 90th birthday. A memorial service was held on 4 February 2017 at Saint-Germain de Charonne church in the 20th arrondissement of Paris; she was then buried in Charonne cemetery.

Selected filmography

Bibliography

References

References

1. (28 January 2017). "Emmanuelle Riva: a life in pictures". [[The Guardian]].
2. (10 January 2015). "Emmanuelle Riva: 'I thank heaven for the child that's still in me'". [[The Irish Times]].
3. (1 January 2013). "Renewed Love for Symbol of New Wave". [[The New York Times]].
4. (28 January 2017). "Emmanuelle Riva, French icon who starred in Amour, dies aged 89". [[The Guardian]].
5. (28 January 2017). "'Amour' Star Emmanuelle Riva Dies: Oscar-Nominated Actress Was 89". [[IndieWire]].
6. (10 January 2013). "Oscars 2013: Records Broken for Oldest, Youngest Nominees". [[The Hollywood Reporter]].
7. (30 October 2013). "Oscar Nominee Emmanuelle Riva to Star in French-Language Savannah Bay in Paris and Washington, D.C.". [[Playbill]].
8. "[http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/event/2008/A4AE.en Emmanuelle Riva 'Hiroshima 1958']", Tokyo Art Beat. {{nihongo2. [http://www.nikon-image.com/activity/salon/exhibition/2008/12_ginza-1.htm エマニュエル・リヴァ展 [Hiroshima 1958]], Nikon. Both accessed 2010-07-24.
9. Kim Willsher [https://www.theguardian.com/film/2013/feb/10/emmanuelle-riva-actress-amour-oscars "Emmanuelle Riva, 85, star of ''Amour'', tells of her extraordinary life"], ''The Observer'', 10 February 2013.
10. (4 February 2017). "L'actrice Emmanuelle Riva enterrée dans la discrétion à Paris". [[Le Parisien]].
11. (5 February 2017). "Emmanuelle Riva enterrée en toute discrétion à Paris".
12. "BSFC Winners 2010s".
13. "Emmanuelle Riva". Académie des César.
14. "Dublin Film Critic's Circle 2012 Awards".
15. "EFA Highlights 2012".
16. (February 11, 2013). "2013 ICS Award Winners".
17. (January 23, 2013). "The 33rd London Critics' Circle Film Awards". Critics' Circle.
18. "38th Annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards". Los Angeles Film Critics Association.
19. (January 19, 2013). "'Amour' Named Best Film at France's Lumiere Awards".
20. "Past Awards".
21. (December 9, 2012). "'Amour' & 'The Master' Top Winners At LA Film Critics Awards, 'Zero Dark Thirty' Takes Victory In Boston".
22. "Vincitori 2012".