Juliette Binoche
Encyclopedia
Juliette Binoche is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during adolescence. After performing in several stage productions, she was propelled into the world of auteurs Jean-Luc Godard
(Hail Mary
, 1985), Jacques Doillon
(Family Life, 1985) and André Téchiné
, who made her a star in France with the leading role in his 1985 drama Rendez-vous
. Her sensual performance in her English-language debut The Unbearable Lightness of Being
(1988), directed by Philip Kaufman
, launched her international career.
She sparked the interest of Steven Spielberg
, who offered her several parts including a role in Jurassic Park
which she declined, choosing instead to join Krzysztof Kieślowski
on the set of Three Colors: Blue
(1993), a performance for which she won the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actress
and a César
. Three years later Binoche gained further acclaim in Anthony Minghella’s
The English Patient
(1996), for which she was awarded an Academy Award
and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in addition to the Best Actress Award at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival. For her performance in Lasse Hallström’s
romantic comedy Chocolat (2000) Binoche was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
During the 2000s she maintained a successful, critically acclaimed career, alternating between French and English language roles in both mainstream and art-house productions. In 2010 she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival
for her role in Abbas Kiarostami’s
Certified Copy
making her the first actress to win the European “best actress triple crown”.
Throughout her career Binoche has intermittently appeared on stage, most notably in a 1998 London production of Luigi Pirandello’s
Naked and in a 2000 production of Harold Pinter's
Betrayal
on Broadway for which she was nominated for a Tony Award
. In 2008 she began a world tour with a modern dance production in-i devised in collaboration with Akram Khan
. Affectionately referred to as "La Binoche" by the French press, her other notable performances include: Mauvais Sang (1986), Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
, Damage (1992), The Horseman on the Roof
(1995), Code Unknown
(2000), Caché (2005), Breaking and Entering
(2006) and Flight of the Red Balloon (2007).
She was not particularly academic and in her teenage years she began acting at school in amateur stage productions. At 17, she directed and starred in a student production of the Eugène Ionesco
play, Exit the King
. She studied acting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique
(CNSAD), but quit after a short time as she disliked the curriculum. In the early 1980s, she found an agent through a friend and joined a theater troupe with which she toured France, Belgium and Switzerland under the pseudonym "Juliette Adrienne". Around this time she began lessons with the famed acting coach Vera Gregh.
Her first professional screen experience was as an extra in the three part TF1
television series Dorothée, danseuse de corde (1983) directed by Jacques Fensten, which was followed by a similarly small role in the provincial television film Fort bloque directed by Pierrick Guinnard. Following this Binoche secured her first feature film appearance with a minor role in Pascal Kané's
Liberty Belle
(1983). Her role required just two days on set, but was enough to inspire Binoche to pursue a career in film.
' controversial Hail Mary
, a modern retelling of the Virgin birth. Godard requested a meeting with Binoche having seen a photo of her taken by her boyfriend of the time. She has said that she spent six months on the set of the film in Geneva, although her role in the final cut is contained to only a few scenes. Further supporting roles followed in a variety of French films: Annick Lanoë's
Les Nanas
was to give Binoche her most noteworthy role to date, playing opposite established stars Marie-France Pisier
and Macha Meril
, in a mainstream comedy. However, she has stated that the experience was not particularly memorable or influential. She gained more significant exposure in Jacques Doillon's
critically acclaimed Family Life, which cast her as the volatile teenage step-daughter of Sami Frey's
central character. This film was to set the tone of her early career. Doillon has commented that in the original screenplay her character was written to be 14 years old, he was so impressed with Binoche's audition he changed the character's age to 17 to allow her take the role. In April 1985, Binoche followed this with another supporting role in Bob Decout's Adieu Blaireau, a policier thriller starring Philippe Léotard
and Annie Girardot
. Adieu Blaireau failed to have much impact with critics or audiences.
It was to be later in 1985 that Binoche would fully emerge as a leading actress with her role in André Téchiné's
Rendez-vous
. She was cast at short notice when Sandrine Bonnaire
had to abandon the film due to a scheduling conflict. Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival
, winning Best Director. The film was a sensation and Binoche became the darling of the festival. Rendez-Vous is the story of a provincial actress, Nina (Binoche), who arrives in Paris and embarks on a series of dysfunctional liaisons with several men, including the moody, suicidal Quentin (Lambert Wilson
). However it is her collaboration with theatre director Scrutzler, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant
, which comes to define Nina. In a review of Rendez-Vous in Film Comment
, Armond White
described it as "Juliette Binoche's career defining performance". In 1986, Binoche was nominated for her first César
for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film. Following Rendez-Vous, she was unsure of what role to take next. She auditioned unsuccessfully for Yves Boisset's
Bleu comme l'enfer and Robin Davis's
Hors la loi, but was eventually cast in My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister
(1986) by Jacques Rouffio
opposite the popular French stars Michel Serrault
and Michel Piccoli. This film was a critical and commercial failure. Binoche has commented that Rouffio's film is very significant to her career as it taught her to judge roles based on the quality of the screenplay and her connection with a director, not on the reputation of other cast members. Later in 1986, she again starred opposite Michel Piccoli in Leos Carax
's Mauvais Sang. This film was a critical and commercial success, leading to Binoche's second César nomination. Mauvais Sang is an avant-garde thriller in which she plays Anna the vastly younger lover of Marc (Piccoli) who falls in love with Alex (Denis Lavant), a young thief. Binoche has stated that she, "discovered the camera", while shooting this film.
In August 1986, Binoche began filming Philip Kaufman
's adaptation of Milan Kundera's
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
, portraying the young and innocent Tereza. Released in 1988, this was Binoche's first English language role and was a worldwide success with critics and audiences alike Set against the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968, the film tells the story of the relationships a Czech surgeon, Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis
), has with his wife Tereza and his lover Sabina (Lena Olin
). Binoche has stated that at the time her English was very limited and that she relied on a French translation to fully grasp her role. After this success, Binoche decided to return to France rather than pursue an international career. In 1988, she filmed the lead in Pierre Pradinas's Un tour de manège
, a little-seen French film opposite François Cluzet
. She has stated that her attraction to this film was that it gave her the opportunity to work with close friends and family. Pradinas is the husband of her sister Marion Stalens who was set photographer on the film and appeared in a cameo role. In the summer of 1988, Binoche returned to the stage in an acclaimed production of Anton Checkov’s The Seagull
directed by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky
at Théâtre De L'odéon in Paris. Later that year she began work on Léos Carax
's Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
. The film was beset by problems and took three years to complete, requiring investment from three producers and funds from the French government. When finally released in 1991, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf was a critical success. Binoche won a European Film Award as well as securing her third César nomination for her performance. In the film Binoche portrays an artist who lives rough on the famous Parisian bridge where she meets another young vagrant (Denis Lavant). This iconic part of the city becomes the backdrop for a wildly passionate love story and some of the most visually arresting images of the city ever created. The paintings featured in the film were Binoche's own work. She also designed the French poster for the film which features an ink drawing of the eponymous lovers locked in embrace. During a break in filming in 1990, Binoche spent five days shooting Mara
for Mike Figgis
, based on Henry Miller's
Quiet Days at Clichy. This 30 minute film was part of HBO's anthology series Women & Men 2
. The film became somewhat contentious when, according to Mike Figgis, HBO altered it once he had completed it. The film premiered on HBO in the U.S. on 18 August 1991.
At this point, Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career. She was recognized as one of the most significant French actresses of her generation. However, the long production of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf had forced her to turn down several significant roles in international productions including The Double Life of Véronique
by Krzysztof Kieślowski
, Cyrano de Bergerac
by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Night and Day by Chantal Akerman
and Beyond the Aegean an aborted project with Elia Kazan
. Now Binoche chose to pursue an international career outside France.
and Damage, both of which considerably enhanced her international reputation. Yet, from a professional and personal point-of-view, both films were significant challenges for Binoche; Her casting opposite Ralph Fiennes's
Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, in favour of English actresses Helena Bonham Carter
and Kate Beckinsale
, was immediately contentious and drew derision from the British press, unimpressed that a uniquely English role had gone to a French Actress. The film had its world premiere at the 1992 Edinburgh International Film Festival
. Reviews were poor, with Binoche being cynically dubbed "Cathy Clouseau" and being derided for her "franglais" accent. Both Binoche and director Peter Kosminsky distanced themselves from the film, with Binoche refusing to do any promotion for the film or to redub it into French. Damage, a UK and French co-production, is the story of a British Conservative Minister played by Jeremy Irons
who embarks on a torrid affair with his son's fiancé (Binoche). Based on the novel by Josephine Hart
and directed by veteran French director Louis Malle
, Damage seemed to be the ideal international vehicle for Binoche, however the production was wrought with difficulties and dogged by rumours of serious conflict. In an on-set interview Louis Malle stated that it was the "most difficult" film he had ever made, while Binoche commented that "the first day was one big argument". Damage opened in the UK late in 1992 and debuted early in 1993 on U.S. screens. Reviews were somewhat mixed. For her performance Juliette Binoche received her fourth César nomination.
In 1993, she appeared in Krzysztof Kieślowski
's Three Colors: Blue
to much critical acclaim. The first film in a trilogy inspired by the ideals of the French republic and the colors of its flag, Three Colors: Blue is the story of a young woman who loses her composer husband and daughter in a car accident. Though devastated she learns to cope by rejecting her previous life in favour of conscious "nothing", rejecting all people, belongings and emotions. Three Colors: Blue premiered at the 1993 Venice Film Festival
, landing Binoche the Best Actress Prize. She also won a César
, and a nomination for the Golden Globe. Binoche has said her inspirations for the role were her friend and coach Vernice Klier who suffered a similar tragedy and the book The Black Veil by Anny Duperey
which deals with the author's grief at losing her parents at a young age. Binoche made cameo appearances in the other two films in Kieślowski's trilogy, Three Colors: White
and Three Colors: Red. Around this time, Steven Spielberg offered her roles in Jurassic Park
and Schindler’s List. She turned down both parts. After the success of Three Colors: Blue, Binoche took a short sabbatical during which she gave birth to her son Raphaël in September 1993.
In 1995, Binoche returned to the screen in a big-budget adaptation of Jean Giono
's The Horseman on the Roof directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
. The film was particularly significant in France as it was the first French production to use digital special effects and was at the time the most expensive film in the history of French cinema. The film was a box-office success around the world and Binoche was again nominated for a César for Best Actress. This role, as a romantic heroine, was to color the direction of many of her subsequent roles in the late 1990s. In 1996, Binoche appeared in her first comedic role since My Brother-in-Law Killed My Sister a decade before; A Couch in New York
was directed by Chantal Akerman
and co-starred William Hurt
. This screw-ball comedy tells the story of a New York psychiatrist who swaps homes with a Parisian dancer. The film was a critical and commercial failure. Three Colors: Blue, The Horseman on the Roof and A Couch in New York all gave Binoche the opportunity to work with prestigious directors she had turned down during the prolonged shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. Her next role would significantly reinforce her position as a bona-fide international movie star, The English Patient
, based on the prize winning novel by Michael Ondaatje
and directed by Anthony Minghella
, was a worldwide hit. Produced by Saul Zaentz
, producer of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the film reunited Juliette Binoche with Ralph Fiennes, Heathcliff to her Cathy four years previously. Binoche has said that the shoot on location in Tuscany and at the famed Cinecitta
in Rome was among the happiest professional experiences of her career. The film, which tells the story of a badly burned, mysterious man found in the wreckage of a plane during World War II, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. With this film, she became the second French actress to win an Oscar, following Simone Singnoret’s
win for Room at the Top in 1960. After this international hit, Binoche returned to France and began work opposite Daniel Auteuil
on Claude Berri’s
Lucie Aubrac
, the true story of a French Resistance heroine. Binoche was released from the film six weeks into the shoot due to differences with Berri regarding the authenticity of his script. Binoche has described this event as being like "an earthquake" to her.
Next Juliette Binoche was reunited with director André Téchiné for Alice et Martin (1998), the story of a relationship between an emotionally damaged Parisian musician and her younger lover who hides a dark family secret. The film failed to find an audience in France, although it was critically acclaimed in the UK. In February 1998 Binoche made her London stage debut in a new version of Luigi Pirandello’s
Clothe the Naked retitled Naked and adapted by Nicolas Wright
. The production, directed by Jonathan Kent
, was very favorably received. Following this acclaimed performance, she returned to French screens with Children of the Century
(1999), a big budget romantic epic, in which she played 19th-century French proto-feminist author George Sand
. The film depicted Sand's affair with the poet and dandy Alfred de Musset
played by Benoit Magimel
. This lavish costume drama was filmed on location in Paris and Venice and featured couture costumes by the renowned fashion designer Christian Lacroix
. The following year saw Binoche in four contrasting roles, each of which enhanced her reputation. La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000) by Patrice Leconte
, for which she was nominated for a César for Best Actress, was a period drama which saw Binoche appear opposite Daniel Auteuil
in the role of a woman who attempts to save a condemned man from the guillotine. The film won favourable reviews, particularly in the U.S. where it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Audience Award at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival Next she appeared in Michael Haneke
's Code Unknown
, a film which was made following Binoche's approach to the Austrian director. The film premiered in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival
. This critically acclaimed role was a welcome change from playing the romantic heroine in a series of costume dramas. Later that year, Binoche made her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Harold Pinter
's Betrayal
for which she was nominated for a Tony Award
. Staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company
and directed by David Leveaux
, the production also featured Liev Schreiber
and John Slattery
. Back on screen, Binoche was the heroine of the Lasse Hallstrom
film Chocolat from the best selling novel by Joanne Harris. For her role Binoche won a European Film Audience Award for Best Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA. Chocolat is the story of a mysterious stranger who opens a chocolaterie in a conservative French village in 1959. The film was a worldwide hit.
Between 1995 and 2000, Binoche was the advertising face of the Lancôme
perfume Poème, her image adorning print campaigns photographed by Richard Avedon
and a television advertising campaign, including an advert directed by Anthony Minghella
and scored by Gabriel Yared
.
By the end of this period and following roles in a number of prestige productions, critics were wondering if Binoche was typecast as the tragic, despairing muse. In a feature article entitled "The Erotic Face" in the June 2000 edition of British film criticism magazine Sight and Sound, Ginette Vincendeau pondered Binoche's persona; Vincendeau suggested that the fixation of numerous directors upon her face had led to an erasure of her body, and to her being perceived only as a romantic icon rather than a versatile actress.
Following the success of Chocolat, the early 2000s saw Juliette Binoche internationally recognized as an A-list movie star. However, her persona seemed to be somewhat fixed following a series of period roles where she played the always stoic heroine facing tragedy and desolation. Ever keen to try something new, Binoche returned to French cinema in 2002 for an unlikely role; Jet Lag
opposite Jean Reno
saw Binoche play a ditzy beautician. The film, directed by Daniele Thompson
, was a box-office hit in France and saw Binoche once again nominated for a César for Best Actress. The film tells the story of a couple who meet at an airport during a strike. Initially the pair despises each other, but, over the course of one night, they find common ground and maybe even love. This playful spirit continued when Binoche featured in a 2003 Italian television commercial for the chocolates Ferrero Rocher
. The advertisement played upon her Chocolat persona featuring Binoche handing out the chocolates to people on the streets of Paris.
In a more serious vein, Binoche travelled to South Africa to make John Boorman
's In My Country
(2004) opposite Samuel L. Jackson
. Based on the book Country of My Skull
by Antjie Krog
, the film examines The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings following the abolition of Apartheid in the mid 1990s. Although the film premiered at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival, it received much criticism for the inclusion of a fictional romantic liaison and for its depiction of black South Africans. Despite the negative reception, Binoche was extremely enthusiastic about the film and her connection with Boorman. Her sister, Marion Stalens, also travelled to South Africa to shoot a documentary, La reconciliation?, which explores the TRC process and follows Binoche's progress as she acts in Boorman's film. Next, Binoche re-teamed with Michael Haneke for Caché
. The film was an immediate success, winning best director for Haneke at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, while Binoche was nominated for a European Film Award for Best Actress for her role. The film tells the story of a bourgeois Parisian couple, played by Binoche and Daniel Auteuil
, who begin to receive anonymous videotapes containing footage shot over long periods, surveying the outside of their home. Caché went on to feature in the number one position on the "Top 10 of the 2000s" list published by The Times at the end of the decade. Binoche's next film, Bee Season
, based on the celebrated novel by Myla Goldberg
, cast her opposite Richard Gere
. The film was not a success at the box office taking less than $5 million worldwide. For many critics the film, although intelligent, was “distant and diffuse”. Bee Season depicts the emotional disintegration of a family just as their daughter begins to win national spelling bees. Mary (2005) featured Binoche in a somewhat unlikely collaboration with the controversial American director Abel Ferrara
for an investigation of modern faith and Mary Magdalene's
position within the Catholic Church. Featuring Forest Whittaker, Matthew Modine
and Marion Cotillard
, Mary was an immediate success, winning the Grand Prix at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. Despite these accolades and favorable reviews, particularly from the influential cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles
, Mary failed to secure a distributor in key markets such as the U.S. and the U.K.
The Cannes Film Festival in 2006 saw Binoche feature in the portmanteau film Paris, je t'aime
appearing in a section directed by the Japanese director Nobuhiro Suwa
. Suwa's Place des Victoires is the story of a grief stricken mother who manages to have a final brief moment with her dead son. The segment also features Willem Dafoe
and Hippolyte Girardot
. Paris, je t'aime was a popular success, taking over $17 million, at the world box-office. In September 2006, Binoche appeared at the Venice Film Festival
to launch A Few Days in September
, written and directed by Santiago Amigorena
. Despite an impressive cast including John Turturro
, Nick Nolte
and up-coming French star Sara Forestier
, the film was a failure. A Few Days in September is a thriller set between 5 and 11 September 2001, in which Binoche plays a French secret service agent, who may, or may not, have information relating to impending attacks on the U.S. The film was the recipient of harsh criticism from the press for its perceived trivialization of the events of 11 September 2001. While promoting the film in the U.K., Binoche told an interviewer she believed the CIA and other government agencies must have had foreknowledge of the 11 September attacks, as depicted in the film. Next Binoche traveled to the 2006 Toronto Film Festival for the premiere of Breaking and Entering
, her second film with Anthony Minghella in the director's chair, based on his first original screenplay since his break-through film Truly, Madly, Deeply
(1991). In Breaking and Entering, Binoche played a Bosnian refugee living in London, while Jude Law
co-starred as a well-to-do businessman drawn into her life via an act of deception. In preparation for her role, Binoche travelled to Sarajevo
where she met women who had survived the war of the 1990s. Lushly photographed by Benoît Delhomme
, Breaking and Entering portrays intersecting lives amongst the flux of urban renewal in inner-city London. Despite the fact that Binoche was praised for her performance, the film did not ring true for critics and failed to find an audience. In a review in Variety
, Todd McCarthy writes that, "Binoche, physically unchanged as ever, plays Amira's controlled anguish with skill". Breaking and Entering also featured Robin Wright, Vera Farmiga
, Juliet Stevenson
, Rafi Gavron
and Martin Freeman
.
Although Binoche began the decade on a professional high with an Academy Award nomination for Chocolat, she struggled at the beginning of the 2000s to secure roles that did not confine her to the tragic, melancholic persona developed in the 1990s. Despite the huge success of Caché, other high profile films such as In My Country, Bee Season and Breaking and Entering failed critically and commercially, Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career.
. It was originally conceived as a short film to form part of a 20th anniversary tribute to the Musée D'Orsay
, to be produced by Serge Lemoine president of the museum. When that idea failed to find sufficient funding, Hou developed it into a feature length film and secured the necessary financing. The film was well received by international critics and went on to debut around the world early in 2008. Paying homage to Albert Lamorisse's
1957 short The Red Balloon, Hou's film tells the story of a woman's efforts to juggle her responsibilities as a single mother with her commitment to her career as a voice artist. Shot on location in Paris, the film was entirely improvised by the cast. The film was number one on the influential critic J. Hoberman's "Top 10 List" for 2008 published in The Village Voice
. Disengagement
by Amos Gitai
premiered out-of-competition at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Co-starring Liron Levo and Jeanne Moreau
, Disengagement is a political drama charting the story of a French woman, of Dutch/Palestinian origin, who goes in search of a daughter she abandoned 20 years previously on the Gaza strip. She arrives in Gaza during the 2005 Israeli disengagement
. The film won the prestigious Premio Roberto Rossellini and was critically acclaimed, particularly by the eminent Cahiers du Cinema
. However the film proved more controversial in Israel where state television station Channel 1
withdrew financial support for the film citing the "right-wing nature of Gitaï's films".
In stark contrast, Peter Hedges
co-wrote and directed the Disney produced Dan in Real Life
, a romantic comedy featuring Binoche along side Steve Carell
. It was released in October 2007, becoming a popular commercial success in the US, before debuting around the world in 2008. The film grossed over $65 million at the worldwide box-office. Dan in Real Life is the story of a widowed man (Carell) who meets, and instantly falls for, a woman (Binoche) only to discover she is the new girlfriend of his brother. The film also features Dane Cook
, Emily Blunt
and Diane Weist Back in France, Binoche was seen to popular and critical success in Paris
directed by Cédric Klapisch
. Paris is Klapisch's personal ode to the French capital and features an impressive ensemble of French talent including; Romain Duris
, Fabrice Luchini
and Melanie Laurent
. Paris
was one of the most successful French films internationally in recent years having grossed over $22 million at the world box office. Binoche and Klapisch had originally met on the set of Mauvais Sang in 1986, where Klapisch was working as a set electrician. Also in France, Summer Hours (2008), directed by Olivier Assayas
, is the critically acclaimed story of three siblings who struggle with the responsibility of disposing of their late mother's valuable art collection following her death. The film premiered in France in March 2008 and had its U.S. debut at the 2008 New York Film Festival
, before going on general release in the U.S. on 19 May 2009. Widely acclaimed, the film was nominated for the Prix Louis Delluc in France and appeared on numerous U.S. "Top 10 lists" including first place on David Edelstein's "Top 10 of 2009" list in New York Magazine, and J.R. Jones's list in the Chicago Reader. Summer Hours also features Charles Berling
, Jérémie Renier
and Edith Scob
.
In the Autumn of 2008 Binoche starred in a theatrical dance production titled in-i co-created with renowned choreographer Akram Khan
. The show, a love story told through dance and dialogue, featured stage design by Anish Kapoor
and music by Philip Sheppard. It premiered at the National Theatre
in London before embarking on a world tour. Writing in The Australian
, John McCallum wrote that, “Binoche has radiant presence as an actor, her dancing is relaxed and naturalistic”, while The Sunday Times
in the UK commented that, “Binoche’s physical achievement is incredible: Khan is a master mover”. The production was part of a ‘Binoche Season' titled Ju'Bi'lations, also featuring a retrospective of her film work and an exhibition of her paintings, which were also published in a bilingual book Portraits in Eyes. The book featured ink portraits of Binoche as each of her characters and of each director she had worked with to that time. She also penned a few lines to each director.
In April 2006 and again in December 2007, Binoche travelled to Tehran at the invitation of Abbas Kiarostami. While there in 2007 she shot a cameo appearance in his film Shirin
(2008) which he was shooting at the time. Binoche’s visit proved controversial when two Iranian MPs raised the matter in parliament advising more caution be exercised in granting visas to foreign celebrities which might lead to “cultural destruction”. In June 2009 Binoche began work on Certified Copy
directed by Kiarostami. The film was an Official Selection in competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
. Binoche won the Best Actress Award at the festival for her performance. The film went on general release in France on 19 May 2010 to very positive reviews. Her win at the 2010 Cannes Film festival makes Binoche the first actress to win the European “best actress triple crown”: Best Actress at Venice for Three Colors: Blue, Best Actress at Berlin for The English Patient and Best Actress at Cannes for Certified Copy. The September 2010 UK release of the film was overshadowed when French actor Gérard Depardieu
made disparaging comments about Binoche to the Austrian magazine Profil
, "Please can you explain to me what the mystery of Juliette Binoche is meant to be?" he said. "I would really like to know why she has been so esteemed for so many years. She has nothing – absolutely nothing". In response Binoche spoke to movie magazine Empire
saying, “I don't know him. I understand you don't have to like everyone and you can dislike someone's work. But I don't understand the violence [of his statements]... I do not understand why he is behaving like this. It is his problem.” Certified Copy proved to be controversial in Kiarostami's homeland when Iranian authorities announced on 27 May 2010 that the film was to be banned in Iran, apparently due to Binoche's attire; Deputy Culture Minister Javad Shamaqdari is quoted as saying, "If Juliette Binoche were better clad it could have been screened but due to her attire there will not be a general screening,".
Following the success of Certified Copy, Binoche appeared in a supporting role in The Son of No One for American writer and director Dito Montiel
. The film also stars Channing Tatum
, Al Pacino
and Ray Liotta
. The Son of No One premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival
to fairly negative reaction. It has been acquired by Anchor Bay Entertainment
for distribution in the US and other key territories. In June 2010, Binoche started work on Elles
for Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska. Elles, produced under the working title Sponsoring, is an examination of teenage prostitution with Juliette Binoche playing a journalist for Elle. The film is due for release in France on 9 November 2011. On 12 January 2011, Variety announced that Juliette Binoche has signed to star in The Life of Another based on the novel by Frederique Deghelt. The film will be the directorial debut of the highly regarded French Actress Sylvie Testud
and will co-star actor/director Mathieu Kassovitz
. In the film, a young woman falls in love, then wakes up a decade later, the mother of a young boy and on the verge of a divorce. The film began shooting on 4 April 2011. On 17 February 2011, Screendaily announced that Juliette Binoche has been cast in David Cronenberg's film Cosmopolis
with Robert Pattinson
, Paul Giamati, Mathieu Amalric
and Samantha Morton
. The film, produced by Paulo Branco, is due to begin principal photography on 24 May 2011.
, with whom Binoche starred in the 1999 film Children of the Century
. Her sister, Marion Stalens, is a professional photographer with Corbis
, as well as a director of documentary films, including; La réconciliation?, a documentary shot on the set of John Boorman's film In My Country
, The Actress and the Dancer, exploring the genesis of Binoche's dance show in-i and Juliette Binoche - Sketches for a Portrait a documentary which follows Binoche as she paints the portraits that would later appear in her book Portraits in Eyes. Her half brother Camille Humeau (born 1978) is an acclaimed musician and has been part of the line-up of Oncle Strongle, before top-lining the group Artichaut Orkestra. In 2007, he appeared in a stage production of Cabaret
directed by Sam Mendes
. Stage director Pierre Pradinas is married to her sister Marion.
. In 2002, she presided over "Photos of Stars" with Thierry Ardisson
. Nearly 100 French stars were given disposable cameras, which were then auctioned, the buyer then having the exclusive photos taken by the star developed.
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
(Hail Mary
Hail Mary (film)
Hail Mary is a 1985 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is a modern retelling of the story of a virgin birth. It was entered into the 35th Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:...
, 1985), Jacques Doillon
Jacques Doillon
Jacques Doillon is a French film director. He has a habit of giving lead roles to inexperienced young actresses in his films on family life and women...
(Family Life, 1985) and André Téchiné
André Téchiné
André Téchiné , is a French screenwriter and film director. He has had a long and distinguished career that places him among the best post-New Wave French film directors....
, who made her a star in France with the leading role in his 1985 drama Rendez-vous
Rendez-vous (film)
Rendez-vous is a 1985 French drama film directed by André Téchiné. The film stars Juliette Binoche, Lambert Wilson, Wadeck Stanczak and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best Director. The film had a total of 766,811 admissions...
. Her sensual performance in her English-language debut The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a 1988 American film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera, published in 1984. Director Philip Kaufman and screenplay writer Jean-Claude Carrière show Czechoslovak artistic and intellectual life during the Prague Spring of the Communist...
(1988), directed by Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter. His movies have adapted novels of widely different types – from Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun; from Tom Wolfe’s heroic epic The Right Stuff to the erotic writings of Anaïs Nin’s...
, launched her international career.
She sparked the interest of Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
, who offered her several parts including a role in Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
which she declined, choosing instead to join Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
on the set of Three Colors: Blue
Three Colors: Blue
Three Colors: Blue is a 1993 French drama film written, produced, and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first of three films that comprise The Three Colors Trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; it is...
(1993), a performance for which she won the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actress
Volpi Cup
The Volpi Cups are the principal awards given to actors at the Venice Film Festival. Formal acting awards were introduced in the second festival . Initially they were called Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment. The name Volpi Cup was introduced the following year...
and a César
César Award for Best Actress
List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:...
. Three years later Binoche gained further acclaim in Anthony Minghella’s
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
The English Patient
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
(1996), for which she was awarded an Academy Award
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the...
and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in addition to the Best Actress Award at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival. For her performance in Lasse Hallström’s
Lasse Hallström
Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallström is a Swedish film director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for My Life as a Dog and later for The Cider House Rules .-Life and career:...
romantic comedy Chocolat (2000) Binoche was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
During the 2000s she maintained a successful, critically acclaimed career, alternating between French and English language roles in both mainstream and art-house productions. In 2010 she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
for her role in Abbas Kiarostami’s
Abbas Kiarostami
Abbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries...
Certified Copy
Certified Copy (film)
Certified Copy is a 2010 film by Iranian writer and director Abbas Kiarostami, starring Juliette Binoche and the British opera singer William Shimell, in his first film role. The film is set in Tuscany, and focuses on a British writer and a French antiques dealer, whose relationship undergoes an...
making her the first actress to win the European “best actress triple crown”.
Throughout her career Binoche has intermittently appeared on stage, most notably in a 1998 London production of Luigi Pirandello’s
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
Naked and in a 2000 production of Harold Pinter's
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
Betrayal
Betrayal (play)
Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright's major dramatic works, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship,...
on Broadway for which she was nominated for a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
. In 2008 she began a world tour with a modern dance production in-i devised in collaboration with Akram Khan
Akram Khan (dancer)
Akram Khan, MBE is a dancer whose background is rooted in his classical kathak training and contemporary dance.-Career:Khan was born in London into a family of Bangladeshi origin. He began dancing and trained in the classical Indian dance form of Kathak at the age of seven. He studied with Sri...
. Affectionately referred to as "La Binoche" by the French press, her other notable performances include: Mauvais Sang (1986), Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf is a 1991 French film directed by Leos Carax, starring Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant. The title refers to the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris...
, Damage (1992), The Horseman on the Roof
The Horseman on the Roof
The Horseman on the Roof is a 1995 French film directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, and starring Juliette Binoche and Olivier Martinez...
(1995), Code Unknown
Code Unknown
Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys is a 2000 film directed by Michael Haneke. Most of the story occurs in Paris, France, where the fates of several characters intersect and connect...
(2000), Caché (2005), Breaking and Entering
Breaking and Entering (film)
Gabriel Yared and Underworld collaborated on the film's original music score.-External links:* at TIFF, by Andrea Miller /CANOE Live...
(2006) and Flight of the Red Balloon (2007).
Early life and career
Juliette Binoche was born in Paris, the daughter of Jean-Marie Binoche, a director, actor and sculptor, and Monique Stalens, a teacher, director and actress. Her mother is of Polish descent. Her maternal Polish Catholic grandparents were imprisoned at Auschwitz because they were considered to be intellectuals by the Nazi occupiers. She also has French, Flemish, Brazilian and Moroccan ancestry. When her parents divorced in 1968, four year old Binoche and her sister Marion were sent to a provincial boarding school. During their teens, the Binoche sisters spent their school holidays with their maternal grandmother, not seeing either parent for months at a time. Binoche has stated that this perceived parental abandonment had a profound effect on her.She was not particularly academic and in her teenage years she began acting at school in amateur stage productions. At 17, she directed and starred in a student production of the Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco
Eugène Ionesco was a Romanian and French playwright and dramatist, and one of the foremost playwrights of the Theatre of the Absurd...
play, Exit the King
Le Roi se meurt
Le Roi se meurt is an absurdist drama by Eugene Ionesco that premiered in 1962.-The play:It is the third in Ionesco's "Berenger Cycle", the first two being The Killer and Rhinocéros , and the final one being A Stroll in the Air...
. She studied acting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique
CNSAD
The Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique is France's national drama academy in Paris...
(CNSAD), but quit after a short time as she disliked the curriculum. In the early 1980s, she found an agent through a friend and joined a theater troupe with which she toured France, Belgium and Switzerland under the pseudonym "Juliette Adrienne". Around this time she began lessons with the famed acting coach Vera Gregh.
Her first professional screen experience was as an extra in the three part TF1
TF1
TF1 is a national French TV channel, controlled by TF1 Group, whose major share-holder is Bouygues. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network...
television series Dorothée, danseuse de corde (1983) directed by Jacques Fensten, which was followed by a similarly small role in the provincial television film Fort bloque directed by Pierrick Guinnard. Following this Binoche secured her first feature film appearance with a minor role in Pascal Kané's
Pascal Kané
Pascal Kané is a French director and actor. He studied in Paris before joining the editorial staff of Cahiers du Cinéma from 1969 to 1979. He left Cahiers du Cinéma to concentrate on directing. In addition to numerous documentaries he has directed feature films including Dora et la lanterne...
Liberty Belle
Liberty Belle (film)
Liberty Belle is a 1983 film set in Paris in 1959 and 1960. The film tells the story of a students involvement with a group who oppose the French Algerian war. The film premiered at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. Today the film is mostly remembered as being the first to feature Juliette Binoche....
(1983). Her role required just two days on set, but was enough to inspire Binoche to pursue a career in film.
1984–1991
Binoche's early films would see her established as a French star of some renown. In 1983, she auditioned for the female lead in Jean-Luc Godard'sJean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard is a French-Swiss film director, screenwriter and film critic. He is often identified with the 1960s French film movement, French Nouvelle Vague, or "New Wave"....
' controversial Hail Mary
Hail Mary (film)
Hail Mary is a 1985 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is a modern retelling of the story of a virgin birth. It was entered into the 35th Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:...
, a modern retelling of the Virgin birth. Godard requested a meeting with Binoche having seen a photo of her taken by her boyfriend of the time. She has said that she spent six months on the set of the film in Geneva, although her role in the final cut is contained to only a few scenes. Further supporting roles followed in a variety of French films: Annick Lanoë's
Annick Lanoë
Annick Lanoë is a French film director, screenwriter and author. She has directed and written two films Les Nanas and Les Mamies. She is also the author of a number of books including Qui est sous ma couette.She was born in Paris....
Les Nanas
Les Nanas
-Synopsis:Christine, in her forties, learns that her partner Robert has been having an affair for the past few months. As a liberated woman, Christine refuses to remain in such a situation, and surrounded by her girlfriends who are themselves struggling to find their Mr Right, she takes steps to...
was to give Binoche her most noteworthy role to date, playing opposite established stars Marie-France Pisier
Marie-France Pisier
Marie-France Pisier was a French actress. She appeared in numerous films of the French New Wave and twice earned the national César Award for Best Supporting Actress.-Life and career:...
and Macha Meril
Macha Méril
Macha Méril, born Princess Maria-Magdalena Vladimirovna Gagarina on 3 September 1940, Rabat, Morocco, is a French actress and writer, descended by her father from the Russian princely house Gagarin and by her mother from a Ukrainian noble family...
, in a mainstream comedy. However, she has stated that the experience was not particularly memorable or influential. She gained more significant exposure in Jacques Doillon's
Jacques Doillon
Jacques Doillon is a French film director. He has a habit of giving lead roles to inexperienced young actresses in his films on family life and women...
critically acclaimed Family Life, which cast her as the volatile teenage step-daughter of Sami Frey's
Sami Frey
Sami Frey, born Samuel Frei is a French actor. Perhaps his most famous films are En compagnie d'Antonin Artaud and Bande à part...
central character. This film was to set the tone of her early career. Doillon has commented that in the original screenplay her character was written to be 14 years old, he was so impressed with Binoche's audition he changed the character's age to 17 to allow her take the role. In April 1985, Binoche followed this with another supporting role in Bob Decout's Adieu Blaireau, a policier thriller starring Philippe Léotard
Philippe Léotard
Philippe Léotard was a French actor, poet, and singer....
and Annie Girardot
Annie Girardot
Annie Girardot was a French actress.She began performing in 1955, making her film debut in Treize à table. Girardot won the Prix Suzanne Bianchetti in 1956, and in 1977 won the César Award for Best Actress portraying the title character in Docteur Françoise Gailland...
. Adieu Blaireau failed to have much impact with critics or audiences.
It was to be later in 1985 that Binoche would fully emerge as a leading actress with her role in André Téchiné's
André Téchiné
André Téchiné , is a French screenwriter and film director. He has had a long and distinguished career that places him among the best post-New Wave French film directors....
Rendez-vous
Rendez-vous (film)
Rendez-vous is a 1985 French drama film directed by André Téchiné. The film stars Juliette Binoche, Lambert Wilson, Wadeck Stanczak and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best Director. The film had a total of 766,811 admissions...
. She was cast at short notice when Sandrine Bonnaire
Sandrine Bonnaire
Sandrine Bonnaire is a French actress, who has appeared in more than 40 films including Hollywood movies.Bonnaire was born in the town of Gannat, Allier, in the Auvergne region. She was born into a working-class family, the seventh of eleven children. Her acting career began at the age of 16 in...
had to abandon the film due to a scheduling conflict. Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
, winning Best Director. The film was a sensation and Binoche became the darling of the festival. Rendez-Vous is the story of a provincial actress, Nina (Binoche), who arrives in Paris and embarks on a series of dysfunctional liaisons with several men, including the moody, suicidal Quentin (Lambert Wilson
Lambert Wilson
Lambert Wilson is a French actor. He is internationally known for his portrayal of The Merovingian in The Matrix He was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, the son of Georges Wilson, who was an actor, theatrical manager and director of the Theatre National de Paris.Wilson screen tested for The...
). However it is her collaboration with theatre director Scrutzler, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant
Jean-Louis Trintignant
Jean-Louis Trintignant is a French actor who has enjoyed an international acclaim. He won the Best Actor Award at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.-Career:...
, which comes to define Nina. In a review of Rendez-Vous in Film Comment
Film Comment
Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
, Armond White
Armond White
Armond White is a New York-based film and music critic known for his provocative and idiosyncratic film criticism, which some have characterized as contrarian. He is currently the editor of City Arts, for which he also writes articles and reviews...
described it as "Juliette Binoche's career defining performance". In 1986, Binoche was nominated for her first César
César Award
The César Award is the national film award of France, first given out in 1975. The nominations are selected by the members of the Académie des arts et techniques du cinéma....
for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film. Following Rendez-Vous, she was unsure of what role to take next. She auditioned unsuccessfully for Yves Boisset's
Yves Boisset
Yves Boisset is a French film director and scriptwriter.French director Yves Boisset began his career as an assistant director. After working with such directors as Hossein, Cioampi and Clement, he began directing short films until the late 1960s when he made his feature film debut...
Bleu comme l'enfer and Robin Davis's
Robin Davis (director)
Robin Davis is a French film director and screenwriter. He directed 13 films between 1975 and 2006.-Filmography:*1979: La Guerre des polices*1982: Le Choc*1983: J'ai épousé une ombre*1985: Cher Victor...
Hors la loi, but was eventually cast in My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister
Mon beau-frère a tué ma soeur
My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister -Synopsis:Two members of the French Academy agree to help the attractive young veterinarian Esther investigate the suspicious death of her sister...
(1986) by Jacques Rouffio
Jacques Rouffio
Jacques Rouffio is a French film director and screenwriter. His 1986 film My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister was entered into the 36th Berlin International Film Festival.-Filmography as director:...
opposite the popular French stars Michel Serrault
Michel Serrault
Michel Serrault was a celebrated French actor who appeared in over 150 films.-Biography :...
and Michel Piccoli. This film was a critical and commercial failure. Binoche has commented that Rouffio's film is very significant to her career as it taught her to judge roles based on the quality of the screenplay and her connection with a director, not on the reputation of other cast members. Later in 1986, she again starred opposite Michel Piccoli in Leos Carax
Leos Carax
Leos Carax is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl , and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge and the controversial Pola X...
's Mauvais Sang. This film was a critical and commercial success, leading to Binoche's second César nomination. Mauvais Sang is an avant-garde thriller in which she plays Anna the vastly younger lover of Marc (Piccoli) who falls in love with Alex (Denis Lavant), a young thief. Binoche has stated that she, "discovered the camera", while shooting this film.
In August 1986, Binoche began filming Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman
Philip Kaufman is an American film director and screenwriter. His movies have adapted novels of widely different types – from Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Michael Crichton’s Rising Sun; from Tom Wolfe’s heroic epic The Right Stuff to the erotic writings of Anaïs Nin’s...
's adaptation of Milan Kundera's
Milan Kundera
Milan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Unbearable Lightness of Being (film)
The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a 1988 American film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Milan Kundera, published in 1984. Director Philip Kaufman and screenplay writer Jean-Claude Carrière show Czechoslovak artistic and intellectual life during the Prague Spring of the Communist...
, portraying the young and innocent Tereza. Released in 1988, this was Binoche's first English language role and was a worldwide success with critics and audiences alike Set against the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968, the film tells the story of the relationships a Czech surgeon, Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Day-Lewis
Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis is an English actor with both British and Irish citizenship. His portrayals of Christy Brown in My Left Foot and Daniel Plainview in There Will Be Blood won Academy and BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and Screen Actors Guild as well as Golden Globe Awards for the latter...
), has with his wife Tereza and his lover Sabina (Lena Olin
Lena Olin
Lena Maria Jonna Olin is a Swedish actress.-Early life:Olin was born the youngest of three children, in Stockholm, Sweden. She is the daughter of actress Britta Holmberg and the director Stig Olin...
). Binoche has stated that at the time her English was very limited and that she relied on a French translation to fully grasp her role. After this success, Binoche decided to return to France rather than pursue an international career. In 1988, she filmed the lead in Pierre Pradinas's Un tour de manège
Un tour de manège
Un Tour de Manège , Once Around the Park ) is a 1989 French film starring Juliette Binoche, François Cluzet and Denis Lavant. It is the first and to date only film directed by the acclaimed French theatre director Pierre Pradinas...
, a little-seen French film opposite François Cluzet
François Cluzet
François Cluzet is a French film and theatre actor, best known in the English-speaking world for starring in the 2006 French film "Tell No One", based on the novel of the same name by the American author Harlan Coben...
. She has stated that her attraction to this film was that it gave her the opportunity to work with close friends and family. Pradinas is the husband of her sister Marion Stalens who was set photographer on the film and appeared in a cameo role. In the summer of 1988, Binoche returned to the stage in an acclaimed production of Anton Checkov’s The Seagull
The Seagull
The Seagull is the first of what are generally considered to be the four major plays by the Russian dramatist Anton Chekhov. The Seagull was written in 1895 and first produced in 1896...
directed by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Konchalovsky
Andrei Mikhalkov-Konchalovsky is a Soviet-American and Russian film director, film producer and screenwriter....
at Théâtre De L'odéon in Paris. Later that year she began work on Léos Carax
Leos Carax
Leos Carax is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl , and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge and the controversial Pola X...
's Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
Les Amants du Pont-Neuf is a 1991 French film directed by Leos Carax, starring Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant. The title refers to the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris...
. The film was beset by problems and took three years to complete, requiring investment from three producers and funds from the French government. When finally released in 1991, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf was a critical success. Binoche won a European Film Award as well as securing her third César nomination for her performance. In the film Binoche portrays an artist who lives rough on the famous Parisian bridge where she meets another young vagrant (Denis Lavant). This iconic part of the city becomes the backdrop for a wildly passionate love story and some of the most visually arresting images of the city ever created. The paintings featured in the film were Binoche's own work. She also designed the French poster for the film which features an ink drawing of the eponymous lovers locked in embrace. During a break in filming in 1990, Binoche spent five days shooting Mara
Women & Men 2
Women and Men 2 is the second installment of HBO's made for television short films based on works by American authors....
for Mike Figgis
Mike Figgis
Michael "Mike" Figgis is an English film director, writer, and composer.-Personal life:Figgis was born in Carlisle, England and grew up in Africa. Figgis for several years had a relationship with the actress Saffron Burrows and cast her in several films...
, based on Henry Miller's
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
Quiet Days at Clichy. This 30 minute film was part of HBO's anthology series Women & Men 2
Women & Men 2
Women and Men 2 is the second installment of HBO's made for television short films based on works by American authors....
. The film became somewhat contentious when, according to Mike Figgis, HBO altered it once he had completed it. The film premiered on HBO in the U.S. on 18 August 1991.
At this point, Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career. She was recognized as one of the most significant French actresses of her generation. However, the long production of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf had forced her to turn down several significant roles in international productions including The Double Life of Véronique
The Double Life of Véronique
The Double Life of Véronique is a 1991 French- and Polish-language film directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski, co-written by Kieślowski and Krzysztof Piesiewicz, starring Irène Jacob, with original music by Zbigniew Preisner. The film was Kieślowski's first to be produced partly outside Poland.A...
by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
, Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac (film)
There are several film adaptations of Edmond Rostand's play Cyrano de Bergerac:* Cyrano de Bergerac , starring Benoît-Constant Coquelin* Cyrano de Bergerac , starring Pierre Magnier...
by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Night and Day by Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman
Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.-Early life:Akerman was born to...
and Beyond the Aegean an aborted project with Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan
Elia Kazan was an American director and actor, described by the New York Times as "one of the most honored and influential directors in Broadway and Hollywood history". Born in Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire, to Greek parents originally from Kayseri in Anatolia, the family emigrated...
. Now Binoche chose to pursue an international career outside France.
1992–2000
The 1990s saw Juliette Binoche inaugurated as a European leading lady in a series of international films that were critical and commercial successes winning Binoche much praise and numerous awards for her performances. This period saw her persona develop from that of a young gamine to a more melancholic, tragic presence. Critics suggested that many of her roles were notable for her almost passive intensity in the face of tragedy and despair. In fact Binoche has nicknamed her characters from this period as her "sorrowful sisters". Following the long shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Binoche relocated to London for the 1992 productions of Emily Brontë's Wuthering HeightsEmily Brontë's Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights was a 1992 feature film adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights directed by Peter Kosminsky....
and Damage, both of which considerably enhanced her international reputation. Yet, from a professional and personal point-of-view, both films were significant challenges for Binoche; Her casting opposite Ralph Fiennes's
Ralph Fiennes
Ralph Nathaniel Twisleton-Wykeham-Fiennes is an English actor and film director. He has appeared in such films as The English Patient, In Bruges, The Constant Gardener, Strange Days, The Duchess and Schindler's List....
Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, in favour of English actresses Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter
Helena Bonham Carter is an English actress of film, stage, and television. She made her acting debut in a television adaptation of K. M. Peyton's A Pattern of Roses before winning her first film role as the titular character in Lady Jane...
and Kate Beckinsale
Kate Beckinsale
Kathryn Bailey "Kate" Beckinsale is an English actress. After some minor television roles, she made her film debut in Much Ado About Nothing while still a student at Oxford University...
, was immediately contentious and drew derision from the British press, unimpressed that a uniquely English role had gone to a French Actress. The film had its world premiere at the 1992 Edinburgh International Film Festival
Edinburgh International Film Festival
The Edinburgh International Film Festival is an annual fortnight of cinema screenings and related events taking place each June. Established in 1947, it is the world's oldest continually running film festival...
. Reviews were poor, with Binoche being cynically dubbed "Cathy Clouseau" and being derided for her "franglais" accent. Both Binoche and director Peter Kosminsky distanced themselves from the film, with Binoche refusing to do any promotion for the film or to redub it into French. Damage, a UK and French co-production, is the story of a British Conservative Minister played by Jeremy Irons
Jeremy Irons
Jeremy John Irons is an English actor. After receiving classical training at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, Irons began his acting career on stage in 1969, and has since appeared in many London theatre productions including The Winter's Tale, Macbeth, Much Ado About Nothing, The Taming of the...
who embarks on a torrid affair with his son's fiancé (Binoche). Based on the novel by Josephine Hart
Josephine Hart
Josephine Hart, Lady Saatchi was an Irish-born British writer, theatrical producer and television presenter...
and directed by veteran French director Louis Malle
Louis Malle
Louis Malle was a French film director, screenwriter, and producer. He worked in both French cinema and Hollywood. His films include Ascenseur pour l'échafaud , Atlantic City , and Au revoir, les enfants .- Early years in France :Malle was born into a wealthy industrialist family in Thumeries,...
, Damage seemed to be the ideal international vehicle for Binoche, however the production was wrought with difficulties and dogged by rumours of serious conflict. In an on-set interview Louis Malle stated that it was the "most difficult" film he had ever made, while Binoche commented that "the first day was one big argument". Damage opened in the UK late in 1992 and debuted early in 1993 on U.S. screens. Reviews were somewhat mixed. For her performance Juliette Binoche received her fourth César nomination.
In 1993, she appeared in Krzysztof Kieślowski
Krzysztof Kieslowski
Krzysztof Kieślowski was an Academy Award nominated influential Polish film director and screenwriter, known internationally for The Double Life of Veronique and his film cycles The Decalogue and Three Colors.-Early life:...
's Three Colors: Blue
Three Colors: Blue
Three Colors: Blue is a 1993 French drama film written, produced, and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first of three films that comprise The Three Colors Trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; it is...
to much critical acclaim. The first film in a trilogy inspired by the ideals of the French republic and the colors of its flag, Three Colors: Blue is the story of a young woman who loses her composer husband and daughter in a car accident. Though devastated she learns to cope by rejecting her previous life in favour of conscious "nothing", rejecting all people, belongings and emotions. Three Colors: Blue premiered at the 1993 Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
, landing Binoche the Best Actress Prize. She also won a César
César Award for Best Actress
List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:...
, and a nomination for the Golden Globe. Binoche has said her inspirations for the role were her friend and coach Vernice Klier who suffered a similar tragedy and the book The Black Veil by Anny Duperey
Anny Duperey
-External links:*...
which deals with the author's grief at losing her parents at a young age. Binoche made cameo appearances in the other two films in Kieślowski's trilogy, Three Colors: White
Three Colors: White
Three Colors: White is a 1994 Polish mystery comedy-drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski...
and Three Colors: Red. Around this time, Steven Spielberg offered her roles in Jurassic Park
Jurassic Park (film)
Jurassic Park is a 1993 American science fiction adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Michael Crichton. It stars Sam Neill, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, Richard Attenborough, Martin Ferrero, and Bob Peck...
and Schindler’s List. She turned down both parts. After the success of Three Colors: Blue, Binoche took a short sabbatical during which she gave birth to her son Raphaël in September 1993.
In 1995, Binoche returned to the screen in a big-budget adaptation of Jean Giono
Jean Giono
Jean Giono was a French author who wrote works of fiction set in the Provence region of France.-First period:...
's The Horseman on the Roof directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Jean-Paul Rappeneau
Jean-Paul Rappeneau is a French film director, screenwriter, and actor.He started out in film as an assistant and screenwriter collaborating with Louis Malle on Zazie dans le metro in 1960 and Vie privee in 1961...
. The film was particularly significant in France as it was the first French production to use digital special effects and was at the time the most expensive film in the history of French cinema. The film was a box-office success around the world and Binoche was again nominated for a César for Best Actress. This role, as a romantic heroine, was to color the direction of many of her subsequent roles in the late 1990s. In 1996, Binoche appeared in her first comedic role since My Brother-in-Law Killed My Sister a decade before; A Couch in New York
A Couch in New York
A Couch in New York is a 1996 film about an anonymous exchange of apartments between a successful New York psychoanalyst and a young woman from Paris...
was directed by Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman
Chantal Anne Akerman is a Belgian film director, artist, and professor of film at the European Graduate School. Akerman's best-known film, Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles , exemplifies a dedication to the ellipses of conventional narrative cinema.-Early life:Akerman was born to...
and co-starred William Hurt
William Hurt
William McGill Hurt is an American stage and film actor. He received his acting training at the Juilliard School, and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut as a troubled scientist in the science-fiction feature Altered States , for which he received a Golden Globe nomination...
. This screw-ball comedy tells the story of a New York psychiatrist who swaps homes with a Parisian dancer. The film was a critical and commercial failure. Three Colors: Blue, The Horseman on the Roof and A Couch in New York all gave Binoche the opportunity to work with prestigious directors she had turned down during the prolonged shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf. Her next role would significantly reinforce her position as a bona-fide international movie star, The English Patient
The English Patient (film)
The English Patient is a 1996 romantic drama film based on the novel of the same name by Sri Lankan-Canadian writer Michael Ondaatje. The film, written for the screen and directed by Anthony Minghella, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture...
, based on the prize winning novel by Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Philip Michael Ondaatje , OC, is a Sri Lankan-born Canadian novelist and poet of Burgher origin. He is perhaps best known for his Booker Prize-winning novel, The English Patient, which was adapted into an Academy-Award-winning film.-Life and work:...
and directed by Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
, was a worldwide hit. Produced by Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz
Saul Zaentz is an American film producer and former record company executive. He has won the Academy Award for Best Picture three times and in 1996 was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award....
, producer of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the film reunited Juliette Binoche with Ralph Fiennes, Heathcliff to her Cathy four years previously. Binoche has said that the shoot on location in Tuscany and at the famed Cinecitta
Cinecittà
Cinecittà is a large film studio in Rome that is considered the hub of Italian cinema.-History:The studios were founded in 1937 by Benito Mussolini and his head of cinema Luigi Freddi for propaganda purposes, under the slogan "Il cinema è l'arma più forte"...
in Rome was among the happiest professional experiences of her career. The film, which tells the story of a badly burned, mysterious man found in the wreckage of a plane during World War II, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche. With this film, she became the second French actress to win an Oscar, following Simone Singnoret’s
Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top...
win for Room at the Top in 1960. After this international hit, Binoche returned to France and began work opposite Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil is a French film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Algiers, French Algeria.-Career:...
on Claude Berri’s
Claude Berri
Claude Berri , born Claude Berel Langmann, was one of the great all-rounders of French cinema: an actor, writer, producer, director and distributor. "Out of my failure as an actor was born my desire to direct. Then my relative failure as a director forced me to become a producer. In order to get my...
Lucie Aubrac
Lucie Aubrac (film)
Lucie Aubrac is a 1997 French biopic of the World War II French Resistance member Lucie Aubrac. The film starred Carole Bouquet in the title role...
, the true story of a French Resistance heroine. Binoche was released from the film six weeks into the shoot due to differences with Berri regarding the authenticity of his script. Binoche has described this event as being like "an earthquake" to her.
Next Juliette Binoche was reunited with director André Téchiné for Alice et Martin (1998), the story of a relationship between an emotionally damaged Parisian musician and her younger lover who hides a dark family secret. The film failed to find an audience in France, although it was critically acclaimed in the UK. In February 1998 Binoche made her London stage debut in a new version of Luigi Pirandello’s
Luigi Pirandello
Luigi Pirandello was an Italian dramatist, novelist, and short story writer awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1934, for his "bold and brilliant renovation of the drama and the stage." Pirandello's works include novels, hundreds of short stories, and about 40 plays, some of which are written...
Clothe the Naked retitled Naked and adapted by Nicolas Wright
Nicolas Wright
Nicolas Wright is a Canadian actor. Wright has performed on stage, television and film. In 2004, he received the "most promising newcomer" award at the Just for Laughs film festival in Montreal for his short film, Toutouffe...
. The production, directed by Jonathan Kent
Jonathan Kent (director)
Jonathan Kent is an English theatre director and opera director. He is best known as a director/producer partner of Ian McDiarmid at the Almeida Theatre from 1990 to 2002.-Early life:...
, was very favorably received. Following this acclaimed performance, she returned to French screens with Children of the Century
Children of the Century
Children of the Century is a 1999 French film based on the true tale of the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th Century, novelist George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset .-Plot summary:...
(1999), a big budget romantic epic, in which she played 19th-century French proto-feminist author George Sand
George Sand
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, later Baroness Dudevant , best known by her pseudonym George Sand , was a French novelist and memoirist.-Life:...
. The film depicted Sand's affair with the poet and dandy Alfred de Musset
Alfred de Musset
Alfred Louis Charles de Musset-Pathay was a French dramatist, poet, and novelist.Along with his poetry, he is known for writing La Confession d'un enfant du siècle from 1836.-Biography:Musset was born on 11 December 1810 in Paris...
played by Benoit Magimel
Benoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel is a French actor. A prolific actor who was 14 when he appeared in his first film, Magimel has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema....
. This lavish costume drama was filmed on location in Paris and Venice and featured couture costumes by the renowned fashion designer Christian Lacroix
Christian Lacroix
Christian Marie Marc Lacroix is a French fashion designer. The name may also refer to the company he founded.-Early life:Lacroix was born in Arles, Bouches-du-Rhône in southern France. At a young age he began sketching historical costumes and fashions. Lacroix graduated from high school in 1969...
. The following year saw Binoche in four contrasting roles, each of which enhanced her reputation. La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000) by Patrice Leconte
Patrice Leconte
Patrice Leconte is a French film director, actor, comic strip writer, and screenwriter.-Biography:...
, for which she was nominated for a César for Best Actress, was a period drama which saw Binoche appear opposite Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil is a French film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Algiers, French Algeria.-Career:...
in the role of a woman who attempts to save a condemned man from the guillotine. The film won favourable reviews, particularly in the U.S. where it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Audience Award at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival Next she appeared in Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke
Michael Haneke is a German born Austrian filmmaker and writer best known for his bleak and disturbing style. His films often document problems and failures in modern society. Haneke has worked in television‚ theatre and cinema. He is also known for raising social issues in his work...
's Code Unknown
Code Unknown
Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys is a 2000 film directed by Michael Haneke. Most of the story occurs in Paris, France, where the fates of several characters intersect and connect...
, a film which was made following Binoche's approach to the Austrian director. The film premiered in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
. This critically acclaimed role was a welcome change from playing the romantic heroine in a series of costume dramas. Later that year, Binoche made her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...
's Betrayal
Betrayal (play)
Betrayal is a play written by Harold Pinter in 1978. Critically regarded as one of the English playwright's major dramatic works, it features his characteristically economical dialogue, characters' hidden emotions and veiled motivations, and their self-absorbed competitive one-upmanship,...
for which she was nominated for a Tony Award
Tony Award
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway...
. Staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company
Roundabout Theatre Company
The Roundabout Theatre Company is a leading non-profit theatre company based in New York City.-History:The company was founded in 1965 by Gene Feist and Elizabeth Owens and now operates five theatres, all in Manhattan: the American Airlines Theatre ; Studio 54 ; the Stephen Sondheim Theatre The...
and directed by David Leveaux
David Leveaux
David Leveaux is a British theatre director who has been nominated for five Tony Awards as director of both plays and musicals...
, the production also featured Liev Schreiber
Liev Schreiber
Isaac Liev Schreiber , commonly known as Liev Schreiber, is an American actor, producer, director, and screenwriter. He became known during the late 1990s and early 2000s, having initially appeared in several independent films, and later mainstream Hollywood films, including the Scream trilogy of...
and John Slattery
John Slattery
John M. Slattery, Jr. is an American actor and director, best known for his role as Roger Sterling on AMC's series Mad Men. He has been nominated for many awards, and has won two SAG Awards with the Mad Men ensemble....
. Back on screen, Binoche was the heroine of the Lasse Hallstrom
Lasse Hallström
Lars Sven "Lasse" Hallström is a Swedish film director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for My Life as a Dog and later for The Cider House Rules .-Life and career:...
film Chocolat from the best selling novel by Joanne Harris. For her role Binoche won a European Film Audience Award for Best Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA. Chocolat is the story of a mysterious stranger who opens a chocolaterie in a conservative French village in 1959. The film was a worldwide hit.
Between 1995 and 2000, Binoche was the advertising face of the Lancôme
Lancôme
Lancôme Paris is a makeup brand. Owned by L'Oréal since 1964, Lancôme is part of the Luxury Products division, which offers skin care, fragrances, and makeup at higher-end prices....
perfume Poème, her image adorning print campaigns photographed by Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon
Richard Avedon was an American photographer. An obituary published in The New York Times said that "his fashion and portrait photographs helped define America's image of style, beauty and culture for the last half-century."-Photography career:Avedon was born in New York City to a Jewish Russian...
and a television advertising campaign, including an advert directed by Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella
Anthony Minghella, CBE was an English film director, playwright and screenwriter. He was Chairman of the Board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007....
and scored by Gabriel Yared
Gabriel Yared
Gabriel Yared is a Lebanese composer, best known for his work in French and American cinema.Born in Beirut, Lebanon, his work in France included the scores for Betty Blue and Camille Claudel. He later began working on English language films, particularly those directed by Anthony Minghella...
.
By the end of this period and following roles in a number of prestige productions, critics were wondering if Binoche was typecast as the tragic, despairing muse. In a feature article entitled "The Erotic Face" in the June 2000 edition of British film criticism magazine Sight and Sound, Ginette Vincendeau pondered Binoche's persona; Vincendeau suggested that the fixation of numerous directors upon her face had led to an erasure of her body, and to her being perceived only as a romantic icon rather than a versatile actress.
2001–2006
Jet Lag (film)
Jet Lag is a 2002 film starring Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. It is the second film directed by Danièle Thompson, after the 1999 release La Bûche.-Plot:...
opposite Jean Reno
Jean Reno
Jean Reno is a French actor. Working in French, English, Spanish and Italian, he has appeared not only in numerous successful Hollywood productions such as The Pink Panther, Godzilla, The Da Vinci Code, Mission: Impossible, Ronin and Couples Retreat, but also in European productions such as the...
saw Binoche play a ditzy beautician. The film, directed by Daniele Thompson
Danièle Thompson
Danièle Thompson is a French film director and screenwriter. She is the daughter of film director Gérard Oury and actress Jacqueline Roma....
, was a box-office hit in France and saw Binoche once again nominated for a César for Best Actress. The film tells the story of a couple who meet at an airport during a strike. Initially the pair despises each other, but, over the course of one night, they find common ground and maybe even love. This playful spirit continued when Binoche featured in a 2003 Italian television commercial for the chocolates Ferrero Rocher
Ferrero Rocher
Ferrero Rocher is a spherical chocolate sweet made by Italian chocolatier Ferrero SpA. Introduced in 1982, the chocolates consist of a whole roasted hazelnut encased in a thin wafer shell filled with hazelnut cream and covered in milk chocolate and chopped hazelnuts. The sweets each contain 73...
. The advertisement played upon her Chocolat persona featuring Binoche handing out the chocolates to people on the streets of Paris.
In a more serious vein, Binoche travelled to South Africa to make John Boorman
John Boorman
John Boorman is a British filmmaker who is a long time resident of Ireland and is best known for his feature films such as Point Blank, Deliverance, Zardoz, Excalibur, The Emerald Forest, Hope and Glory, The General and The Tailor of Panama.-Early life:Boorman was born in Shepperton, Surrey,...
's In My Country
In My Country
In My Country is a 2004 English-language film directed by John Boorman, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche. The screenplay, written by Ann Peacock, was based on Antjie Krog's memoir Country of My Skull....
(2004) opposite Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel L. Jackson
Samuel Leroy Jackson is an American film and television actor and film producer. After becoming involved with the Civil Rights Movement, he moved on to acting in theater at Morehouse College, and then films. He had several small roles such as in the film Goodfellas before meeting his mentor,...
. Based on the book Country of My Skull
Country of My Skull
Country of My Skull is a 1998 nonfiction book by Antjie Krog primarily about the findings of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission...
by Antjie Krog
Antjie Krog
Antjie Krog, born October 23, 1952 in Kroonstad, Orange Free State, South Africa, is a prominent South African poet, academic and writer. In 2004 she joined the Arts faculty of the University of the Western Cape.- Early life :...
, the film examines The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings following the abolition of Apartheid in the mid 1990s. Although the film premiered at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival, it received much criticism for the inclusion of a fictional romantic liaison and for its depiction of black South Africans. Despite the negative reception, Binoche was extremely enthusiastic about the film and her connection with Boorman. Her sister, Marion Stalens, also travelled to South Africa to shoot a documentary, La reconciliation?, which explores the TRC process and follows Binoche's progress as she acts in Boorman's film. Next, Binoche re-teamed with Michael Haneke for Caché
Caché (film)
Caché is a 2005 Austrian-French film written and directed by Michael Haneke. It stars Daniel Auteuil as Georges and Juliette Binoche as his wife Anne.-Plot:...
. The film was an immediate success, winning best director for Haneke at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, while Binoche was nominated for a European Film Award for Best Actress for her role. The film tells the story of a bourgeois Parisian couple, played by Binoche and Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil
Daniel Auteuil is a French film, television and theatre actor.-Early life and education:He was born in Algiers, French Algeria.-Career:...
, who begin to receive anonymous videotapes containing footage shot over long periods, surveying the outside of their home. Caché went on to feature in the number one position on the "Top 10 of the 2000s" list published by The Times at the end of the decade. Binoche's next film, Bee Season
Bee Season (film)
Bee Season is a 2005 American drama film adaptation of the 2000 novel of the same name by Myla Goldberg. The film was directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and written by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. It stars Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.-Plot:...
, based on the celebrated novel by Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg
Myla Goldberg is an American novelist and musician.-Biography:Goldberg was born into a Jewish family. She was raised in Laurel, Maryland, and graduated from Eleanor Roosevelt High School. She majored in English at Oberlin College, graduating in 1993...
, cast her opposite Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
. The film was not a success at the box office taking less than $5 million worldwide. For many critics the film, although intelligent, was “distant and diffuse”. Bee Season depicts the emotional disintegration of a family just as their daughter begins to win national spelling bees. Mary (2005) featured Binoche in a somewhat unlikely collaboration with the controversial American director Abel Ferrara
Abel Ferrara
Abel Ferrara is an American film screenwriter and director. He is best known as an independent filmmaker of such films as The Driller Killer , Ms. 45 , King of New York , Bad Lieutenant and The Funeral .-Early life:Ferrara was born in the Bronx of Italian and Irish descent...
for an investigation of modern faith and Mary Magdalene's
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
position within the Catholic Church. Featuring Forest Whittaker, Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
and Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard
Marion Cotillard is a French actress and singer. She garnered critical acclaim for her roles in films such as La Vie en Rose, My Sex Life... or How I Got Into an Argument, Taxi, Furia and Jeux d'enfants...
, Mary was an immediate success, winning the Grand Prix at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. Despite these accolades and favorable reviews, particularly from the influential cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles
Les Inrockuptibles is a French cultural magazine. Started as a monthly magazine in 1986, it became weekly in 1995. The name is a play on "Les Incorruptibles", the French title of the American television series The Untouchables...
, Mary failed to secure a distributor in key markets such as the U.S. and the U.K.
The Cannes Film Festival in 2006 saw Binoche feature in the portmanteau film Paris, je t'aime
Paris, je t'aime
Paris, Je t'aime is a 2006 anthology film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements...
appearing in a section directed by the Japanese director Nobuhiro Suwa
Nobuhiro Suwa
is a Japanese film director working in Japan and France. His directorial works and screenplays often make use of improvisation techniques. Currently, Suwa is the President of Tokyo Zokei University.-Biography:...
. Suwa's Place des Victoires is the story of a grief stricken mother who manages to have a final brief moment with her dead son. The segment also features Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe
Willem Dafoe is an American film, stage, and voice actor, and a founding member of the experimental theatre company The Wooster Group...
and Hippolyte Girardot
Hippolyte Girardot
Hippolyte Girardot is a French actor.He is not related to the actress Annie Girardot.-Selected filmography:* 1973: La Femme de Jean, directed by Yannick Bellon, Rémi...
. Paris, je t'aime was a popular success, taking over $17 million, at the world box-office. In September 2006, Binoche appeared at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
to launch A Few Days in September
A Few Days in September (film)
A Few Days in September is the first film directed by Santiago Amigorena, who previously wrote screenplays for films by Cédric Klapisch and Catherine Breillat among others...
, written and directed by Santiago Amigorena
Santiago Amigorena
Santiago Amigorena is an Argentine screenwriter, film producer, film director and actor.In 2007 he was nominated at the Mar del Plata Film Festival for Best Film in A Few Days in September....
. Despite an impressive cast including John Turturro
John Turturro
John Michael Turturro is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing , Miller's Crossing , Barton Fink , Quiz Show , The Big Lebowski , O Brother, Where Art Thou? and the Transformers film series...
, Nick Nolte
Nick Nolte
Nicholas King "Nick" Nolte is an American actor whose career has spanned over five decades, peaking in the 1990s when his commercial success made him one of the most popular celebrities of that decade.-Early life:...
and up-coming French star Sara Forestier
Sara Forestier
Sara Forestier is a French actress who lives in Paris. She began her film career in 2001 and received a César Award for Most Promising Actress in Games of Love and Chance...
, the film was a failure. A Few Days in September is a thriller set between 5 and 11 September 2001, in which Binoche plays a French secret service agent, who may, or may not, have information relating to impending attacks on the U.S. The film was the recipient of harsh criticism from the press for its perceived trivialization of the events of 11 September 2001. While promoting the film in the U.K., Binoche told an interviewer she believed the CIA and other government agencies must have had foreknowledge of the 11 September attacks, as depicted in the film. Next Binoche traveled to the 2006 Toronto Film Festival for the premiere of Breaking and Entering
Breaking and Entering (film)
Gabriel Yared and Underworld collaborated on the film's original music score.-External links:* at TIFF, by Andrea Miller /CANOE Live...
, her second film with Anthony Minghella in the director's chair, based on his first original screenplay since his break-through film Truly, Madly, Deeply
Truly, Madly, Deeply
Truly, Madly, Deeply is a 1990 film made for the BBC's Screen Two series.-Overview:The film was written and directed by Anthony Minghella and stars Juliet Stevenson and Alan Rickman. Minghella said he wrote the script specifically as “a vehicle for [Stevenson] to express all her talents...
(1991). In Breaking and Entering, Binoche played a Bosnian refugee living in London, while Jude Law
Jude Law
David Jude Heyworth Law , known professionally as Jude Law, is an English actor, film producer and director.He began acting with the National Youth Music Theatre in 1987, and had his first television role in 1989...
co-starred as a well-to-do businessman drawn into her life via an act of deception. In preparation for her role, Binoche travelled to Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
where she met women who had survived the war of the 1990s. Lushly photographed by Benoît Delhomme
Benoît Delhomme
Benoît Delhomme is a French film cinematographer who has also worked in American and English films.-Filmography:*The Scent of Green Papaya *Comment font les gens *L'irrésolu *Cyclo *Circuit Carole...
, Breaking and Entering portrays intersecting lives amongst the flux of urban renewal in inner-city London. Despite the fact that Binoche was praised for her performance, the film did not ring true for critics and failed to find an audience. In a review in Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
, Todd McCarthy writes that, "Binoche, physically unchanged as ever, plays Amira's controlled anguish with skill". Breaking and Entering also featured Robin Wright, Vera Farmiga
Vera Farmiga
Vera Ann Farmiga is an American actress and director. Farmiga made her film debut in the 1998 drama thriller Return to Paradise. This was followed by supporting roles in the 2000 romantic film Autumn in New York and the 2001 television series UC: Undercover...
, Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson, CBE is an English actor of stage and screen.- Early life :Stevenson was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England, the daughter of Virginia Ruth , a teacher, and Michael Guy Stevenson, an army officer. Stevenson's father was in the army and was posted to a new place every...
, Rafi Gavron
Rafi Gavron
Raphael Pichey "Rafi" Gavron is a British actor, known for his roles in the Anthony Minghella romantic-drama film Breaking and Entering , and the 2008 movies Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and the fantasy Inkheart....
and Martin Freeman
Martin Freeman
Martin John C. Freeman is an English actor. He is known for his roles as John in Love Actually, Tim Canterbury in the BBC's Golden Globe-winning comedy The Office, Arthur Dent in the film adaptation of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dr. John Watson in Sherlock and Mr. Madden...
.
Although Binoche began the decade on a professional high with an Academy Award nomination for Chocolat, she struggled at the beginning of the 2000s to secure roles that did not confine her to the tragic, melancholic persona developed in the 1990s. Despite the huge success of Caché, other high profile films such as In My Country, Bee Season and Breaking and Entering failed critically and commercially, Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career.
2007–present
2007 was the start of a particularly busy period for Juliette Binoche, one that would see her take on diverse roles in a series of critically acclaimed international movies giving her film career a new impetus as she shed the restrictions that seemed to have stifled her career in the early part of the decade. The Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) by the widely acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-HsienHou Hsiao-Hsien
Hou Hsiao-Hsien is an award-winning film director and a leading figure of Taiwan's New Wave cinema movement.-Biography:...
. It was originally conceived as a short film to form part of a 20th anniversary tribute to the Musée D'Orsay
Musée d'Orsay
The Musée d'Orsay is a museum in Paris, France, on the left bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, an impressive Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art dating from 1848 to 1915, including paintings, sculptures, furniture,...
, to be produced by Serge Lemoine president of the museum. When that idea failed to find sufficient funding, Hou developed it into a feature length film and secured the necessary financing. The film was well received by international critics and went on to debut around the world early in 2008. Paying homage to Albert Lamorisse's
Albert Lamorisse
Albert Lamorisse was a French filmmaker, film producer, and writer, who is best known for his award winning short films which he began making in the late 1940s, and also for inventing the famous strategic board game Risk in 1957...
1957 short The Red Balloon, Hou's film tells the story of a woman's efforts to juggle her responsibilities as a single mother with her commitment to her career as a voice artist. Shot on location in Paris, the film was entirely improvised by the cast. The film was number one on the influential critic J. Hoberman's "Top 10 List" for 2008 published in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
. Disengagement
Disengagement (film)
Disengagement is a film directed by Amos Gitai, starring Juliette Binoche, with Jeanne Moreau in a supporting role. The film is a French/Italian/Israeli co-production, and was shot in France, Germany and Israel. It is the third film of Gitai's Border Trilogy.The film premiered at the 2007 Venice...
by Amos Gitai
Amos Gitai
Amos Gitai , born 11 October 1950 in Haifa, Israel, is an Israeli filmmaker and director. He is mainly known for making documentaries and experimental / minimalist feature films...
premiered out-of-competition at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Co-starring Liron Levo and Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau
Jeanne Moreau is a French actress, singer, screenwriter and director.She made her theatrical debut in 1947, and established herself as one of the leading actresses of the Comédie-Française...
, Disengagement is a political drama charting the story of a French woman, of Dutch/Palestinian origin, who goes in search of a daughter she abandoned 20 years previously on the Gaza strip. She arrives in Gaza during the 2005 Israeli disengagement
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan
Israel's unilateral disengagement plan , also known as the "Disengagement plan", "Gaza expulsion plan", and "Hitnatkut", was a proposal by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, adopted by the government on June 6, 2004 and enacted in August 2005, to evict all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and from...
. The film won the prestigious Premio Roberto Rossellini and was critically acclaimed, particularly by the eminent Cahiers du Cinema
Cahiers du cinéma
Cahiers du Cinéma is an influential French film magazine founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca. It developed from the earlier magazine Revue du Cinéma involving members of two Paris film clubs — Objectif 49 and...
. However the film proved more controversial in Israel where state television station Channel 1
Channel 1 (Israel)
Channel 1 is one of the oldest television channels in Israel and one of five terrestrial channels in the country...
withdrew financial support for the film citing the "right-wing nature of Gitaï's films".
In stark contrast, Peter Hedges
Peter Hedges
Peter Hedges is an American novelist, screenwriter, and film director.Hedges grew up in West Des Moines, Iowa, and attended Valley High School, where he was involved in the theater department, including the improv group and the mime troupe, "The Bakers Dozen". He later went to the North Carolina...
co-wrote and directed the Disney produced Dan in Real Life
Dan in Real Life
Dan in Real Life is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Peter Hedges, starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche.-Plot:Dan Burns is a newspaper advice columnist, a widower, and a controlling father to his children Jane, Cara and Lilly in the New Jersey suburbs. His column is in...
, a romantic comedy featuring Binoche along side Steve Carell
Steve Carell
Steven John "Steve" Carell is an American comedian, actor, voice artist, producer, writer, and director. Although Carell is notable for his role on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, he found greater fame in the late 2000s for playing Michael Scott on The Office...
. It was released in October 2007, becoming a popular commercial success in the US, before debuting around the world in 2008. The film grossed over $65 million at the worldwide box-office. Dan in Real Life is the story of a widowed man (Carell) who meets, and instantly falls for, a woman (Binoche) only to discover she is the new girlfriend of his brother. The film also features Dane Cook
Dane Cook
Dane Jeffrey Cook is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He has released five comedy albums: Harmful If Swallowed; Retaliation; Vicious Circle; Rough Around The Edges: Live From Madison Square Garden; and Isolated Incident. In 2006, Retaliation became the highest charting comedy album...
, Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Leah Blunt is an English actress best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada , The Young Victoria , and The Adjustment Bureau . She has been nominated for two Golden Globe Awards, two London Film Critics' Circle Awards, and one BAFTA Award...
and Diane Weist Back in France, Binoche was seen to popular and critical success in Paris
Paris (2008 film)
Paris is a 2008 French film by Cédric Klapisch concerning a diverse group of people living in Paris. The film began shooting in November 2006 and was released in February 2008. Its UK release was in July 2008...
directed by Cédric Klapisch
Cédric Klapisch
Cédric Klapisch , is a French film director.Klapisch was born at Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine. He is from a Jewish family; his maternal grandparents were deported to Auschwitz. He studied cinema at the University of Paris III: Sorbonne Nouvelle as well as at the University of Paris VIII...
. Paris is Klapisch's personal ode to the French capital and features an impressive ensemble of French talent including; Romain Duris
Romain Duris
-Life:Born on 28 May 1974 in Paris, son of an engineer-architect father, Duris studied arts at university. He was noticed in the street by a casting director whilst waiting in a queue in 1993 and offered a part in the 1994 Cédric Klapisch film Le péril jeune...
, Fabrice Luchini
Fabrice Luchini
Fabrice Luchini is a French stage and film actor.-Biography:Fabrice Luchini was born in Île-de-France, Paris, into an Italian immigrant family, who were fruit and vegetable vendors. He grew up around the neighbourhood of Goutte d'Or in Paris's 18th arrondissement...
and Melanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent
Mélanie Laurent is a French actress, director, singer and writer. She is best known to international audiences for her role as Shosanna Dreyfus in Quentin Tarantino's 2009 film Inglourious Basterds, for which she won Best Actress from the Online Film Critics Society and the Austin Film Critics...
. Paris
Paris (2008 film)
Paris is a 2008 French film by Cédric Klapisch concerning a diverse group of people living in Paris. The film began shooting in November 2006 and was released in February 2008. Its UK release was in July 2008...
was one of the most successful French films internationally in recent years having grossed over $22 million at the world box office. Binoche and Klapisch had originally met on the set of Mauvais Sang in 1986, where Klapisch was working as a set electrician. Also in France, Summer Hours (2008), directed by Olivier Assayas
Olivier Assayas
Olivier Assayas is a French film director and screenwriter.He made his debut in 1986, after directing some short films and writing for the influential film magazine Cahiers du cinéma.-Career:...
, is the critically acclaimed story of three siblings who struggle with the responsibility of disposing of their late mother's valuable art collection following her death. The film premiered in France in March 2008 and had its U.S. debut at the 2008 New York Film Festival
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival has been a major film festival since it began in 1963 in New York. The films are selected by the Film Society of Lincoln Center...
, before going on general release in the U.S. on 19 May 2009. Widely acclaimed, the film was nominated for the Prix Louis Delluc in France and appeared on numerous U.S. "Top 10 lists" including first place on David Edelstein's "Top 10 of 2009" list in New York Magazine, and J.R. Jones's list in the Chicago Reader. Summer Hours also features Charles Berling
Charles Berling
Charles Berling is a French actor, director, scenario writer and producer born on April 30, 1958 in Saint-Mandé in Val de Marne .-Biography:Son of a marine physician, he is also the nephew of the literary critic Raymond Picard...
, Jérémie Renier
Jérémie Renier
Jérémie Renier is a Belgian actor. He lives in Paris, France. His film debut was in the critically praised La Promesse , directed by Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne. He became better known to worldwide audiences in Brotherhood of the Wolf and L'Enfant...
and Edith Scob
Édith Scob
Edith Scob is a French actress, best known for her role as the daughter with a disfigured face in Eyes Without a Face.Edith Scob has had several roles in European film and television and is married to Georges Aperghis....
.
In the Autumn of 2008 Binoche starred in a theatrical dance production titled in-i co-created with renowned choreographer Akram Khan
Akram Khan (dancer)
Akram Khan, MBE is a dancer whose background is rooted in his classical kathak training and contemporary dance.-Career:Khan was born in London into a family of Bangladeshi origin. He began dancing and trained in the classical Indian dance form of Kathak at the age of seven. He studied with Sri...
. The show, a love story told through dance and dialogue, featured stage design by Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor
Anish Kapoor CBE RA is a British sculptor of Indian birth. Born in Mumbai , Kapoor has lived and worked in London since the early 1970s when he moved to study art, first at the Hornsey College of Art and later at the Chelsea School of Art and Design.He represented Britain in the XLIV Venice...
and music by Philip Sheppard. It premiered at the National Theatre
Royal National Theatre
The Royal National Theatre in London is one of the United Kingdom's two most prominent publicly funded theatre companies, alongside the Royal Shakespeare Company...
in London before embarking on a world tour. Writing in The Australian
The Australian
The Australian is a broadsheet newspaper published in Australia from Monday to Saturday each week since 14 July 1964. The editor in chief is Chris Mitchell, the editor is Clive Mathieson and the 'editor-at-large' is Paul Kelly....
, John McCallum wrote that, “Binoche has radiant presence as an actor, her dancing is relaxed and naturalistic”, while The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
in the UK commented that, “Binoche’s physical achievement is incredible: Khan is a master mover”. The production was part of a ‘Binoche Season' titled Ju'Bi'lations, also featuring a retrospective of her film work and an exhibition of her paintings, which were also published in a bilingual book Portraits in Eyes. The book featured ink portraits of Binoche as each of her characters and of each director she had worked with to that time. She also penned a few lines to each director.
In April 2006 and again in December 2007, Binoche travelled to Tehran at the invitation of Abbas Kiarostami. While there in 2007 she shot a cameo appearance in his film Shirin
Shirin (film)
Shirin is a 2008 film directed by master Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The film is considered by some critics as a notable twist in the artistic career of Kiarostami....
(2008) which he was shooting at the time. Binoche’s visit proved controversial when two Iranian MPs raised the matter in parliament advising more caution be exercised in granting visas to foreign celebrities which might lead to “cultural destruction”. In June 2009 Binoche began work on Certified Copy
Certified Copy (film)
Certified Copy is a 2010 film by Iranian writer and director Abbas Kiarostami, starring Juliette Binoche and the British opera singer William Shimell, in his first film role. The film is set in Tuscany, and focuses on a British writer and a French antiques dealer, whose relationship undergoes an...
directed by Kiarostami. The film was an Official Selection in competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival
2010 Cannes Film Festival
The 63rd annual Cannes Film Festival was held from May 12 to May 23, 2010, in Cannes, France. The Cannes Film Festival, hailed as being one of the most recognized and prestigious film festivals worldwide, was founded in 1946. It consists of having films screened in and out of competition during the...
. Binoche won the Best Actress Award at the festival for her performance. The film went on general release in France on 19 May 2010 to very positive reviews. Her win at the 2010 Cannes Film festival makes Binoche the first actress to win the European “best actress triple crown”: Best Actress at Venice for Three Colors: Blue, Best Actress at Berlin for The English Patient and Best Actress at Cannes for Certified Copy. The September 2010 UK release of the film was overshadowed when French actor Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Depardieu
Gérard Xavier Marcel Depardieu is a French actor and filmmaker. He is a Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur, Chevalier of the Ordre national du Mérite and has twice won the César Award for Best Actor...
made disparaging comments about Binoche to the Austrian magazine Profil
Profil (magazine)
profil is an Austrian news magazine. It was founded in 1970 by Oscar Bronner, who also founded the magazine Trend and the daily newspaper Der Standard....
, "Please can you explain to me what the mystery of Juliette Binoche is meant to be?" he said. "I would really like to know why she has been so esteemed for so many years. She has nothing – absolutely nothing". In response Binoche spoke to movie magazine Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
saying, “I don't know him. I understand you don't have to like everyone and you can dislike someone's work. But I don't understand the violence [of his statements]... I do not understand why he is behaving like this. It is his problem.” Certified Copy proved to be controversial in Kiarostami's homeland when Iranian authorities announced on 27 May 2010 that the film was to be banned in Iran, apparently due to Binoche's attire; Deputy Culture Minister Javad Shamaqdari is quoted as saying, "If Juliette Binoche were better clad it could have been screened but due to her attire there will not be a general screening,".
Following the success of Certified Copy, Binoche appeared in a supporting role in The Son of No One for American writer and director Dito Montiel
Dito Montiel
Dito Montiel, born as Orlandito Montiel, is an American author, screenwriter, director and musician.Born in New York City, he came into the public eye after the breakup of his hardcore punk band Major Conflict...
. The film also stars Channing Tatum
Channing Tatum
Channing Matthew Tatum is an American actor and film producer. He began his career as a fashion model and appearing in television commercials for Pepsi and Mountain Dew before turning to film roles...
, Al Pacino
Al Pacino
Alfredo James "Al" Pacino is an American film and stage actor and director. He is famous for playing mobsters, including Michael Corleone in The Godfather trilogy, Tony Montana in Scarface, Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy and Carlito Brigante in Carlito's Way, though he has also appeared...
and Ray Liotta
Ray Liotta
[File:Ray Liotta is an American actor, best known for his portrayal of Henry Hill in the crime-drama Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese and his role as Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams...
. The Son of No One premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
to fairly negative reaction. It has been acquired by Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment
Anchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
for distribution in the US and other key territories. In June 2010, Binoche started work on Elles
Elles (film)
Co-written by Szumowska and Tine Byrckel, Elles, formerly called Sponsoring, is the story of Anne , a journalist for ELLE in Paris, who is researching an article about female student prostitution...
for Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska. Elles, produced under the working title Sponsoring, is an examination of teenage prostitution with Juliette Binoche playing a journalist for Elle. The film is due for release in France on 9 November 2011. On 12 January 2011, Variety announced that Juliette Binoche has signed to star in The Life of Another based on the novel by Frederique Deghelt. The film will be the directorial debut of the highly regarded French Actress Sylvie Testud
Sylvie Testud
Sylvie Testud is a French actress, writer and director. Her film career began in 1991. She was later highly acclaimed, and has twice won César Awards.-Biography:...
and will co-star actor/director Mathieu Kassovitz
Mathieu Kassovitz
Mathieu Kassovitz is a French director, screenwriter, producer and actor, best known for his Cannes-winning drama La Haine. Kassovitz is also the founder of MNP Entreprise, a film production company....
. In the film, a young woman falls in love, then wakes up a decade later, the mother of a young boy and on the verge of a divorce. The film began shooting on 4 April 2011. On 17 February 2011, Screendaily announced that Juliette Binoche has been cast in David Cronenberg's film Cosmopolis
Cosmopolis
Cosmopolis is Don DeLillo's thirteenth novel. It was published by Scribner on 14 April 2003.-Plot summary:Cosmopolis is the story of Eric Packer, a 28 year old multi-billionaire asset manager who makes an odyssey across midtown Manhattan in order to get a haircut...
with Robert Pattinson
Robert Pattinson
Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson is an English actor, model, musician, and producer. Born and raised in London, Pattinson started out his career by playing the role of Cedric Diggory in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire...
, Paul Giamati, Mathieu Amalric
Mathieu Amalric
Mathieu Amalric is a French actor and film director, perhaps best known internationally for his performance as the lead villain in Bond film Quantum Of Solace and for his role in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, for which he drew critical acclaim...
and Samantha Morton
Samantha Morton
Samantha Jane Morton is an English actress and film director. She began her performing career with guest roles in television shows such as Soldier Soldier and Boon before making her film debut in the 1997 drama film This Is the Sea, playing the character of Hazel Stokes...
. The film, produced by Paulo Branco, is due to begin principal photography on 24 May 2011.
Personal life
Binoche has two children: a son Raphaël (born on 2 September 1993), whose father is André Halle, a professional scuba diver, and a daughter Hana (born on 16 December 1999), whose father is actor Benoît MagimelBenoît Magimel
Benoît Magimel is a French actor. A prolific actor who was 14 when he appeared in his first film, Magimel has starred in a variety of roles in French cinema....
, with whom Binoche starred in the 1999 film Children of the Century
Children of the Century
Children of the Century is a 1999 French film based on the true tale of the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th Century, novelist George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset .-Plot summary:...
. Her sister, Marion Stalens, is a professional photographer with Corbis
Corbis
Corbis Corporation is an American company, based in Seattle, Washington, that licenses the rights to photographs, footage and other visual media...
, as well as a director of documentary films, including; La réconciliation?, a documentary shot on the set of John Boorman's film In My Country
In My Country
In My Country is a 2004 English-language film directed by John Boorman, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche. The screenplay, written by Ann Peacock, was based on Antjie Krog's memoir Country of My Skull....
, The Actress and the Dancer, exploring the genesis of Binoche's dance show in-i and Juliette Binoche - Sketches for a Portrait a documentary which follows Binoche as she paints the portraits that would later appear in her book Portraits in Eyes. Her half brother Camille Humeau (born 1978) is an acclaimed musician and has been part of the line-up of Oncle Strongle, before top-lining the group Artichaut Orkestra. In 2007, he appeared in a stage production of Cabaret
Cabaret (musical)
Cabaret is a musical based on a book written by Christopher Isherwood, music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. The 1966 Broadway production became a hit and spawned a 1972 film as well as numerous subsequent productions....
directed by Sam Mendes
Sam Mendes
Samuel Alexander "Sam" Mendes, CBE is an English stage and film director. He is best known for his Academy Award-winning work on his debut film American Beauty and his dark re-inventions of the stage musicals Cabaret , Oliver! , Company and Gypsy . He's currently working on the 23rd James Bond...
. Stage director Pierre Pradinas is married to her sister Marion.
Charitable work
Since 1992, Binoche is a patron of the French Cambodian charity Enfants d'Asie (previously ASPECA). Through this charity she is godmother to five Cambodian orphans, and has funded the construction of a children's home in Battambang. Starting in 2000, Juliette Binoche has been involved with the organization Reporters Without BordersReporters Without Borders
Reporters Without Borders is a France-based international non-governmental organization that advocates freedom of the press. It was founded in 1985, by Robert Ménard, Rony Brauman and the journalist Jean-Claude Guillebaud. Jean-François Julliard has served as Secretary General since 2008...
. In 2002, she presided over "Photos of Stars" with Thierry Ardisson
Thierry Ardisson
Thierry Ardisson , is a French television producer and host.-Bibliography:*T. Ardisson & Alain Decaux, Cinemoi*T.Ardisson & Alain Decaux, Rive droite*T.Ardisson et Alain Decaux, Louis XX*T.Ardisson, Pondichéry...
. Nearly 100 French stars were given disposable cameras, which were then auctioned, the buyer then having the exclusive photos taken by the star developed.
Political views and activism
- She supported José BovéJosé BovéJoseph Bové is a French farmer and syndicalist, member of the alter-globalization movement, and spokesman for Via Campesina. He was one of the twelve official candidates in the 2007 French presidential election...
in the 2007 French presidential elections which were won by Nicolas SarkozyNicolas SarkozyNicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
. She has disclosed on a number of occasions that she does not approve of the Sarkozy administration, stating that the president is creating a monarchic republic. - In April 2002, Binoche and several other French stars including Catherine DeneuveCatherine DeneuveCatherine Deneuve is a French actress. She gained recognition for her portrayal of aloof and mysterious beauties in films such as Repulsion and Belle de jour . Deneuve was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress in 1993 for her performance in Indochine; she also won César Awards for that...
and Mathieu Kassovitz attended a "protest picnic" to object to the firing of Canal+ chairman Pierre Lescure by the Vivendi Universal company. - On 7 February 2006, Binoche attented a high profile demonstration organised by Reporters Without Borders in support of Jill CarrollJill CarrollJill Carroll is an American former journalist who was kidnapped and ultimately released in Iraq. Carroll was a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor at the time of her kidnapping...
and two Iraqi journalists who had been abducted in Baghdad. - Binoche and numerous other French personalities including Isabelle AdjaniIsabelle AdjaniIsabelle Yasmine Adjani is a French film actress and singer. Adjani has appeared in 30 films since 1970. She holds the record for most César Awards for Best Actress with five, for Possession , One Deadly Summer , Camille Claudel , Queen Margot and Skirt Day...
, Yvan AttalYvan AttalYvan Attal is an Israeli-born French actor and director.-Background:Born in Tel-Aviv to French-Algerian Jewish parents, he grew up in the outskirts of Paris. His acting debut was in Éric Rochant's Un monde sans pitié , which earned him a César Award for Most Promising Actor...
, Jane BirkinJane BirkinJane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English-born actress and singer who lives in France. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Burma.- Early life :...
and Josiane BalaskoJosiane BalaskoJosiane Balasko is a French actress, writer and director.She was born Josiane Balašković in Paris. One of Balasko's most recognized roles among English speakers is as a lesbian in 1995's Gazon maudit...
joined Réseau Education Sans Frontieres (RESF) on 7 January 2010 with a symbolic "cake of solidarity" to highlight the taxation and legitimacy issues being faced by undocumented workers in France. - Binoche was a signatory to a June 2010 petition organized by Reporters Without Borders and Shirin EbadiShirin EbadiShirin Ebadi is an Iranian lawyer, a former judge and human rights activist and founder of Defenders of Human Rights Center in Iran. On 10 October 2003, Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her significant and pioneering efforts for democracy and human rights, especially women's,...
to protest against the detention of numerous people, including members of the press, who were protesting the occasion of the first anniversary of disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. - At the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Binoche spoke out against the detention of Iranian director Jafar PanahiJafar PanahiJafar Panahi is an Iranian filmmaker and is one of the most influential filmmakers in the Iranian New Wave movement. He has gained recognition from film theorists and critics worldwide and received numerous awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival and the Silver Bear at the...
, incarcerated in Teheran's Evin PrisonEvin PrisonEvin House of Detention is a prison in Iran, located in Evin, northwestern Tehran. It is noted for its political prisoners' wing, where prisoners have been held both before and after the 1979 Iranian Revolution...
since 1 March 2010 without charge or conviction. At the press conference following the press screening of Copie Conforme, Binoche was informed that Panahi had begun a hunger strike. The following day Binoche attended a press conference called especially to demand the release of Panahi. Also in attendance were Abbas KiarostamiAbbas KiarostamiAbbas Kiarostami is an internationally acclaimed Iranian film director, screenwriter, photographer and film producer. An active filmmaker since 1970, Kiarostami has been involved in over forty films, including shorts and documentaries...
, Mohsen MakhmalbafMohsen MakhmalbafMohsen Makhmalbaf is an Iranian film director, writer, editor, and producer. During 2007 he was the president of Asian Film Academy.Makhmalbaf's films have been widely presented in international film festivals in the past ten years. The multi-award-winning director, belongs to the new wave...
, Gilles Jacob. Binoche read a letter which pointed out that Panahi's detention was "unwarranted and intolerable".
When Binoche was awarded the Best Actress award at the festival, brandishing his name on a placard, she used her speech as an opportunity to raise Panahi's plight once again. On 25 May it was announced that Panahi had been released on bail. It was generally agreed that the publicity Binoche and Kiarostami elicited for his case was a strong factor in his release. On 20 December 2010 Panahi, after being prosecuted for “assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country’s national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” was handed a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media as well as leaving the country. Binoche continues to lobby on his behalf.
Filmography and awards
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1983 | Dorothée, danseuse de corde | minor role | Television film Also known as Dorothy the Rope Dancer |
| 1983 | Liberty belle Liberty Belle (film) Liberty Belle is a 1983 film set in Paris in 1959 and 1960. The film tells the story of a students involvement with a group who oppose the French Algerian war. The film premiered at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. Today the film is mostly remembered as being the first to feature Juliette Binoche.... |
Girl at the rally | |
| 1985 | A friend of Veronique | Also known as A Better Life | |
| 1985 | Rendez-vous Rendez-vous (film) Rendez-vous is a 1985 French drama film directed by André Téchiné. The film stars Juliette Binoche, Lambert Wilson, Wadeck Stanczak and Jean-Louis Trintignant. Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival where it won the award for Best Director. The film had a total of 766,811 admissions... |
Nina/Anne Larrieux | César Award Nomination for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... |
| 1985 | Adieu Blaireau | Brigitte | Also known as Farewell to Fred |
| 1985 | Family Life | Natacha | Also known as La Vie de famille |
| 1985 | Antoinette | Also known as The Girls | |
| 1985 | Hail Mary Hail Mary (film) Hail Mary is a 1985 French film written and directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The film is a modern retelling of the story of a virgin birth. It was entered into the 35th Berlin International Film Festival.-Plot:... |
Juliette | Also known as Je Vous salue, Marie |
| 1985 | Fort bloqué | Nicole | Television film |
| 1986 | Mauvais Sang | Anna | César Award Nomination for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... Also known as Bad Blood and The Night is Young |
| 1986 | My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister | Esther Bouloire | Also known as Mon Beau-frère a tué ma soeur |
| 1988 | Tereza | ||
| 1989 | Elsa | Also known as Once Around the Park | |
| 1991 | Michèle Stalens | Also known as The Lovers on the Bridge European Film Award for Best Actress European Film Award for Best Actress -1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-External links:*... César Award Nomination for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... |
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| 1991 | Women & Men 2 Women & Men 2 Women and Men 2 is the second installment of HBO's made for television short films based on works by American authors.... |
Mara | Television film Segment "Henry Miller's Mara" |
| 1992 | Damage | Anna Barton | César Award Nomination for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... |
| 1992 | Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights was a 1992 feature film adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel Wuthering Heights directed by Peter Kosminsky.... |
Cathy Linton / Catherine Earnshaw | |
| 1993 | Three Colors: Blue Three Colors: Blue Three Colors: Blue is a 1993 French drama film written, produced, and directed by the acclaimed Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski. Blue is the first of three films that comprise The Three Colors Trilogy, themed on the French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity; it is... |
Julie Vignon (de Courcy) | César Award for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... Venice Film Festival for Best Actress Volpi Cup The Volpi Cups are the principal awards given to actors at the Venice Film Festival. Formal acting awards were introduced in the second festival . Initially they were called Great Gold Medals of the National Fascist Association for Entertainment. The name Volpi Cup was introduced the following year... Golden Globe Award Nomination for Best Actress Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama The Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture - Drama was first awarded by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association as a separate category in 1951... Also known as Trois couleurs bleu |
| 1994 | Three Colors: White Three Colors: White Three Colors: White is a 1994 Polish mystery comedy-drama film co-written, produced, and directed by Krzysztof Kieślowski... |
Julie Vignon (de Courcy) | Also known as Trois couleurs blanc |
| 1994 | Three Colors: Red | Julie Vignon (de Courcy) | Also known as Trois couleurs rouge |
| 1995 | Pauline de Théus | Nominated – César Award for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... . Also known as Le Hussard sur le toit |
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| 1996 | Hana | Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry. Since its inception, however, the... BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role Best Actress in a Supporting Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding supporting performance in a film... Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress The Chlotrudis Award for Best Supporting Actress is an award given by the Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film to the actress or actresses whose winning performance is voted by participating members... Silver Bear for Best Actress Silver Bear for Best Actress The Silver Bear for Best Actress is the Berlin International Film Festival's award for achievement in performance by an actress.-Awards:- External links :*... Golden Globe Award Nomination for Best Supporting Actress Screen Actors Guild Award Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role |
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| 1996 | Beatrice Saulnier | Also known as Un Divan à New York | |
| 1998 | Alice et Martin | Alice | Also known as Alice and Martin |
| 1999 | Children of the Century Children of the Century Children of the Century is a 1999 French film based on the true tale of the tumultuous love affair between two French literary icons of the 19th Century, novelist George Sand and poet Alfred de Musset .-Plot summary:... |
George Sand/Baroness Aurore Dudevant | Also known as Les Enfants du siècle |
| 2000 | Chocolat | Vianne Rocher | European Film Award for Best Actress European Film Award for Best Actress -1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-External links:*... Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress Academy Award for Best Actress Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actress who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry... BAFTA Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :... Screen Actors Guild Award Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role Screen Actors Guild Award Nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Golden Globe Award Nomination for Best Actress |
| 2000 | Code Unknown Code Unknown Code Unknown: Incomplete Tales of Several Journeys is a 2000 film directed by Michael Haneke. Most of the story occurs in Paris, France, where the fates of several characters intersect and connect... |
Anne Laurent | Also known as Code inconnu |
| 2000 | Pauline (Madame La) | César Award Nomination for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... Also known as La Veuve de Saint-Pierre |
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| 2002 | Jet Lag Jet Lag (film) Jet Lag is a 2002 film starring Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno. It is the second film directed by Danièle Thompson, after the 1999 release La Bûche.-Plot:... |
Rose | César Award Nomination for Best Actress César Award for Best Actress List of winners and nominees of the César Award for Best Actress .-Winners and nominees:... Also known as Décalage horaire |
| 2004 | In My Country In My Country In My Country is a 2004 English-language film directed by John Boorman, starring Samuel L. Jackson and Juliette Binoche. The screenplay, written by Ann Peacock, was based on Antjie Krog's memoir Country of My Skull.... |
Anna Malan | Also known as Country of My Skull |
| 2005 | Mary | Marie Palesi / Mary Magdalene | |
| 2005 | Bee Season Bee Season (film) Bee Season is a 2005 American drama film adaptation of the 2000 novel of the same name by Myla Goldberg. The film was directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel and written by Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal. It stars Richard Gere and Juliette Binoche.-Plot:... |
Miriam | |
| 2005 | Caché | Anne Laurent | European Film Award Nomination for Best Actress European Film Award for Best Actress -1980s:-1990s:-2000s:-2010s:-External links:*... Also known as Hidden |
| 2006 | Breaking and Entering Breaking and Entering (film) Gabriel Yared and Underworld collaborated on the film's original music score.-External links:* at TIFF, by Andrea Miller /CANOE Live... |
Amira | |
| 2006 | Irène Montano | Also known as Quelques jours en septembre | |
| 2006 | Paris, je t'aime Paris, je t'aime Paris, Je t'aime is a 2006 anthology film starring an ensemble cast of actors of various nationalities. The two-hour film consists of eighteen short films set in different arrondissements... |
Suzanne | Segment "Place des Victoires" |
| 2007 | Dan in Real Life Dan in Real Life Dan in Real Life is a 2007 American comedy-drama film directed by Peter Hedges, starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche.-Plot:Dan Burns is a newspaper advice columnist, a widower, and a controlling father to his children Jane, Cara and Lilly in the New Jersey suburbs. His column is in... |
Marie | |
| 2007 | Disengagement Disengagement (film) Disengagement is a film directed by Amos Gitai, starring Juliette Binoche, with Jeanne Moreau in a supporting role. The film is a French/Italian/Israeli co-production, and was shot in France, Germany and Israel. It is the third film of Gitai's Border Trilogy.The film premiered at the 2007 Venice... |
Ana | |
| 2007 | Flight of the Red Balloon | Suzanne | Also known as Le Voyage du ballon Rouge |
| 2008 | Paris Paris (2008 film) Paris is a 2008 French film by Cédric Klapisch concerning a diverse group of people living in Paris. The film began shooting in November 2006 and was released in February 2008. Its UK release was in July 2008... |
Elise | |
| 2008 | Summer Hours | Adrienne | Also known as L'Heure d'été |
| 2008 | Shirin Shirin (film) Shirin is a 2008 film directed by master Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The film is considered by some critics as a notable twist in the artistic career of Kiarostami.... |
Woman in audience | |
| 2010 | Certified Copy Certified Copy (film) Certified Copy is a 2010 film by Iranian writer and director Abbas Kiarostami, starring Juliette Binoche and the British opera singer William Shimell, in his first film role. The film is set in Tuscany, and focuses on a British writer and a French antiques dealer, whose relationship undergoes an... |
Elle | Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress Best Actress Award (Cannes Film Festival) The Best Actress Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of films at the festival. It was first awarded in 1946.-Award Winners:-External links:* * .... Also known as Copie Conforme |
| 2011 | The Son of No One | Lauren | |
| 2011 | Elles Elles (film) Co-written by Szumowska and Tine Byrckel, Elles, formerly called Sponsoring, is the story of Anne , a journalist for ELLE in Paris, who is researching an article about female student prostitution... |
Anne | Post-production Also known as Sponsoring |
| 2012 | Cosmopolis Cosmopolis (film) Cosmopolis is an upcoming drama film starring Robert Pattinson and directed by David Cronenberg. It is based on the novel of the same name by Don DeLillo.-Cast:* Robert Pattinson as Eric Packer* Jay Baruchel as Shiner* Paul Giamatti as Benno Levin... |
Didi Fancher | Production |
| 2012 | The Life of Another | Marie | Post-production Also known as La Vie d'une autre |
Won
- 1986 – Prix Romy SchneiderPrix Romy SchneiderThe Prix Romy Schneider is the most prestigious award for promising upcoming actresses in the French film industry.It was initiated in 1984 by the French journalists Marlène and Eugène Moineau and is named after the actress Romy Schneider...
- 1992 – European Film Award – Best Actress – Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
- 1993 – Berlin International Film Festival43rd Berlin International Film FestivalThe 43rd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 11 to 22, 1993.-Jury:* Frank Beyer * Juan Antonio Bardem* Michel Boujut* François Duplat* Katinka Faragó* Krystyna Janda* Naum Kleiman* Brock Peters...
– Berlinale Camera - 1993 – Venice Film FestivalVenice Film FestivalThe Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
– Best Actress – Three Colors: Blue - 1996 – National Board of ReviewNational Board of Review of Motion PicturesThe National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
– Best Supporting Actress – The English Patient - 1997 – Berlin International Film FestivalBerlin International Film FestivalThe Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
– Best Actress – The English Patient - 1997 – European Film Award – Best Actress – The English Patient
- 1997 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Best Supporting Actress – The English Patient
- 2010 – Cannes Film FestivalCannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
– Best Actress – Certified Copy - 2010 – Kerry Film FestivalKerry Film FestivalThe Kerry Film Festival is an annual film festival in County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.The first festival with this name was held in 1993..From 2000, it has been called the Samhlaíocht Kerry Film Festival and funded by the Arts Council of Ireland, Kerry County Council, Fáilte Ireland, as well as...
– Maureen O'Hara Award - 2010 – Cairo International Film FestivalCairo International Film FestivalThe Cairo International Film Festival is an annual film festival held in Cairo, Egypt. It was established in 1976 and was the first international film festival held in the Arab world...
– Lifetime achievement
Nominations
- 2001 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Best Actress – Chocolat
- 2001 – Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role – Chocolat
- 2001 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Outstanding Cast – Chocolat
- 2005 – European Film Award Best Actress; – Caché
- 2005 – London Critics Circle Film Awards – Best Actress – Caché
- 2006 – British Independent Film Award – Best Actress – Breaking & Entering
External links
- Juliette Binoche at filmsdefrance.com
- Juliette Binoche Interview at AMCtv.com