Emmanuelle Riva

Emmanuelle Riva, born as Paulette Germaine Riva, is a French Actress. She was born in Chenimenil, a commune in France. She was the only daughter of Jeanne Riva and Alfredo Riva. Jeanne descended from Lorrainian and Alsatian farmers’ family. Alfredo was an Italian migrant from Lombardy, who was employed as a sign painter. She, while growing up, aspired to become an actress who was primarily disapproved by her father. However, in her teens, she continued to take part in school’s theatrical productions and participated in amateur theater/dramatic groups. Ultimately, she had to give in to her father’s wish. After completing her schooling, she started to sew and became a seamstress. Though she left acting but never left the wish to become an actress. Luckily, she once saw an ad for a competition organized in the road Rue Blanche in Saint-Georges district of Paris by the Dramatic Arts Centre. She came to Paris in the springtime of the year 1953. For the contest, Riva performed in front of the prominent actress of those times Jean Meyer and Comedie- Francaise’s directors. She enacted a segment from a play by dramatist Alfred de Musset. Her performance mesmerized the judges and their committee who then awarded Emmanuelle a grant/ scholarship. Her first stage debut as a professional was a role in comedy drama Arms and the Man production by George Bernard Shaw. She next performed some classical characters in plays including L’ Espoir by Henri Bernstein, Mrs. Warren’s (written in 1893) Profession by Shaw, Britannicus by Jean Racine, and Le Dialogue des Carmelites by Georges Bernanos.

In 1956-57, Emmanuelle made her television debut with Enigmas de L’ Histoire. It was a historical anthology series in which Emmanuelle played the Queen (Her Majesty) of England. The next year, she did an uncredited feature film The Possessors. She was cast opposite Jean Gabin (screen legend). She continued doing theater plays in Paris. At the event of one such production, L’ Epouvantail, she was approached by Alain Resnais. She was in her green room when Alain offered her a role in his first full-length film as a lead actress. He was impressed by previous presentations of Emmanuelle and thought she was apt for the lengthy dialogues in the movie ‘Hiroshima mon amour,’ especially because of her voice quality. Alain took her photographs to the screenwriter of the film who, upon seeing the photos, also agreed that Emmanuelle was the right choice for the main lead. Her role was of an unidentified French actress who gets caught up in an abrupt but profound relationship in Hiroshima (post war) with an architect of Japan. She was highly acclaimed for this role, and the film became a huge success. She was a nominee for a BAFTA Award in 1960 for the movie.

Emmanuelle’s impressive act in “Hiroshima mon amour” brought her to the notice of many other directors. She then worked in Le Huitieme Jour by Marcel Hanoun as a lonesome young woman, in German- occupied France opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo, and in Kapo by Gillo Pontecorvo as a victim in concentration. In German- occupied France, she portrayed the role of an agnostic widow who is in a sensually charged relationship with a preacher / priest. Emmanuelle, in 1962, got the Volpi Cup at the Cannes Film Festival for Best Actress for her acting in Therese Desqueyroux by Georges Franju. Her role was as a married (unhappy) wife who poisons her spouse. Some of her pictures are ‘The Hours of Love’, ‘Thomas the Imposter’, ‘La Fin de la Nuit’,’ Risky Business’, ‘La Foret Noire’, and ‘I Kill, You Kill.’ Riva also started publishing her collections of poems in 1975 with Le Feu des miroirs. Some of her other writing works include Juste derriere le sifflet des trains, Hiroshima in 1958, L’ otage du desir, and Tu n’ as rien vu a Hiroshima. Her other notable acting works comprise of ‘Gilocchi, la bocca’, ‘Liberte, lanuit’, ‘Venus Beauty Institute’, ‘Three Colors: Blue’, ‘A Man and His Dog’, and much more. She also published in France and Tokyo the photographs of Hiroshima during the period they were filming Hiroshima mon amour. Her most recent work was in Michael Heneke’s Amour in 2012. The film has won numerous awards including BAFTA, Cesar Award, NSFC Award (National Society of Film Critics) and a nomination in Oscars. She used to sleep in the set of Amour during the night to preserve her energy for the challenging role. She once said that being an actor is like being a cat having an opportunity to live nine lives. Riva never got married and had no children.