Emmanuelle Riva
# Emmanuelle Riva

Emmanuelle Riva (French pronunciation: ​; 24 February 1927 – 27 January 2017) was a French actress, best known for her roles in the films Hiroshima mon amour (1959) and Amour (2012).

Riva was nominated for a BAFTA Award for her role in Hiroshima mon amour, and won Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival for Thérèse Desqueyroux (1962). For her lead role in Michael Haneke's Amour, she won a BAFTA Award and the César Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award.

## 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 from Italy.

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

| Year | Title | Director | Notes |
| - | - | - | - |
| 1959 | Hiroshima mon amour | Alain Resnais | Nominated—BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress |
| 1959 | Kapò | Gillo Pontecorvo | |
| 1960 | The Eighth Day | Marcel Hanoun | |
| 1960 | Adua and Friends | Antonio Pietrangeli | |
| 1960 | Recourse in Grace | Laslo Benedek | |
| 1961 | Léon Morin, Priest | Jean-Pierre Melville | |
| 1962 | Thérèse Desqueyroux | Georges Franju | Volpi Cup for Best Actress |
| 1962 | Climats | Stellio Lorenzi | |
| 1963 | The Hours of Love | Luciano Salce | |
| 1963 | Le gros coup | Jean Valère | |
| 1965 | Thomas the Impostor | Georges Franju | |
| 1967 | Les risques du métier | André Cayatte | |
| 1973 | I Will Walk Like a Crazy Horse | Fernando Arrabal | |
| 1982 | The Eyes, the Mouth | Marco Bellocchio | |
| 1983 | Liberté, la nuit | Philippe Garrel | |
| 1993 | Three Colors: Blue | Krzysztof Kieślowski | |
| 1999 | Venus Beauty Institute | Tonie Marshall | |
| 2001 | Médée | Don Kent | |
| 2009 | A Man and His Dog | Francis Huster | |
| 2011 | Le Skylab | Julie Delpy | |
| 2012 | Amour | Michael Haneke | BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress Dublin Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress European Film Award for Best Actress International Cinephile Society Award for Best Actress London Film Critics Circle Award for Actress of the Year Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Lumières Award for Best Actress National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actress New York Film Critics Online Award for Best Actress Premio Cinema Ludus for Best European Actress San Francisco Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated—Academy Award for Best Actress Nominated—AACTA International Award for Best Actress Nominated—Alliance of Women Film Journalists Award for Best Actress Nominated—Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated—Chicago Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated—Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated—Dorian Award for Best Actress Nominated—Houston Film Critics Society for Best Actress Nominated—Irish Film & Television Awards – Best International Actress Nominated—Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Actress Nominated—New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress Nominated—Satellite Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama Nominated—Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Nominated—Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Actress Días de Cine Awards for Best Actress |
| 2016 | Marie and the Misfits | Sébastien Betbeder | |
| 2016 | Lost in Paris | Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon | |
| 2017 | La Sainte Famille | Marion Sarraut | |
