French films

Juliette Binoche - biography

1964-
Biography
Juliette Binoche photo
Juliette Binoche was born on 9th March 1964, in Paris.  Her father was a sculptor and her mother a French teacher who gave drama classes.  After a happy childhood growing up in Loir-et-Cher, Juliette and her sister Marion moved to Paris to persue their studies.  Juliette developed a strong interest in the theatre, studying drama and mounting a school production of  Ionesco’s Le Roi se meurt at the age of 16.   Having chosen to opt for a career as an actress, she studied drama at the théâtre au Conservatoire de Paris.  To earn a living, she worked as a shop assistant at the Bazar de l’Hotel de Ville in Paris, which she later claimed allowed her to make a close study of human behaviour. 

Attracted by her beauty, the influential New Wave director Jean-Luc Godard gave her a small role in his contraversial film Je vous salue Marie.  Her big break came in 1985 with a leading role in André Téchiné’s film Rendez-vous , which earned her instant recognition with critics and public alike.  This was followed by appearances in two of Leos Carax’s films which cemented her reputation as a promising acting talent, Mauvais Sang (1986) and Les Amants de Pont-Neuf(1991).  International stardom came her way in 1988 for her role in Philip Kaufman’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being.

Since, Juliette Binoche’s career has blossomed and she is now regarded as one of the finest actresses of her generation, much sought after by the world’s leading film directors.  She appeared opposite Jeremy Irons in Louis Malle’s Fatale (1992) and later starred in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Trois Couleurs: Blue (1993) (for which she won a César and the best actress award at Venice).  Further success followed with Jean-Paul Rappeneau’s Le Hussard sur le toit (1995), before Téchiné’s comparatively unsuccessful Alice et Martin (1998). 

Binoche was awarded an Oscar in 1997 for her supporting role in Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient (1996).  In 1999, she starred opposite Daniel Auteuil in Patrice Leconte’s moving historical drama La Veuve de Saint-Pierre. 

With the success of Lasse Hallström’s English language film Chocolat (2000), for which she was nominated for an Oscar, Binoche has been able to consolidate her international reputation. 


To find out more about Juliette Binoche, visit: 
http://www.juliettebinoche.fr.st/ 
Juliette Binoche is best-known for the following films:


Juliette Binoche Quotes
“Acting is a tough business, and you need to be in good shape mentally and physically.”

“As an actress we don’t beat one another.  It’s whoever’s right for the part.”

“Being a famous actress may give you a sense of being important, but believe me, it’s just an illusion.”

“But I’ve never felt that being an actress is being in a comfortable place.  It’s seen from the outside that we’re being driven in big cars and having these gorgeous suites and all of that.  But come on, it’s not about that.”

“Choosing to be in the theatre was a way to put my roots down somewhere with other people.  It was a way to choose a new family.”

“I believe that being an actress or being involved in a movie has to be a life experience, otherwise why go for it?  I have to change me, and I have to learn things, and I have to push me and my limits.  By acting, I find a freedom inside of a prison in a way.”

“I never felt being an actor or making a movie was an easy thing to do.”

“I sometimes feel like I could do another job.  Anything.  Maybe because as an actress you’re playing different characters, everything feels possible.”

“I think acting is about forgetting yourself in order to give the best of yourself.  It’s passing through you more than you’re creating it.  You’re not the flower, but the vase which holds the flower.”

“People think actors have such glamorous lives, but the truth is actors go where nobody wants to go.”

“But I think it’s a little different in Europe, because 40 is really the best age for a woman.  That’s when we hit our peak and become this ripe fruit.”

“My ambition is to have beautiful encounters, not to make money.”

“It’s never been my purpose to become an American icon, or more famous or richer.”

“For me, habit is just a synonym for death.”

“Before I thought there was a common denominator between my films - as if all my characters were sisters - but I’m not so sure now.”

“But, you know, when I choose a film I need to believe in it and believe I can do something special with it, and after a while that means not trying to judge or analyze why I should do it.  You have to follow this intuition thing, which is a mystery to me.”

“Each new film is like a trial.  Before I step in front of the camera, I do not know whether I am going to fall or whether I am going to fly - and that is exactly the way I want it to stay.”

“I like travelling and if I have to come to Hollywood to make a movie I will, but otherwise I’d never move there.  It’s very much an industry town and that doesn’t really interest me.”

“I try to see my films just once.  it’s like a dream you’ve been through when it’s been intense, and you just have to go through it once more just to make sure you’ve had it.”

“Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life.”

“I would have loved to have met Marilyn Monroe and have dinner with her.”

“Attraction is beyond our will or ideas sometimes.”

“I’ve never thought of my characters as being sad.  On the contrary, they are full of life.  They didn’t choose tragedy.  Tragedy chose them.”

“My only ambition is to be true every moment I am living.”

“I think it’s the same simple thing for everyone - to be happy, and have love in your life.”

“What I love most about this crazy life is the adventure of it.”

“Maybe it’s because my mother divorced and my grandmother divorced, so maybe I’m frightened deep down.  But then I also feel there is no real need.  Why do I need to get married?  To reassure me?  No I don’t need reassurance.”

“I live for the present always.  I accept this risk.  I don’t deny the past, but it’s a page to turn.”

“I don’t believe in coincidence.”

“I think I am pretty much melancholic.”

“I was so happy when they cast me in Chocolat, because it’s one of my vices.”

“I won’t do something just for the sake of working.”

“I would say I’m humanly engaged.”

“I’m not obsessed by looks.  I think you can become a prisoner of your own image.”

“If you have everything, then you don’t want to go on.  It’s the lacking that makes you search for something better.”

“Oh, I’ll be forgotten too, don’t worry.”

“There was probably something as a child I wanted to express, something unsaid that I needed to share.”

“What makes a person sexy is when he’s not trying to be sexy.”

“You must understand, I don’t have to be happy to be happy.”





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