A Natural Dancer

by Stuart Kemp

Juliette Binoche is known in the French press simply as “La Binoche”. It’s a mark of respect and acknowledges her status as one of the most internationally decorated, recognised and spell-binding actors of her generation.

And while never formally trained in dance, Juliette Binoche has been described by those in the know as a “natural dancer,” a raw talent that came in handy for her role in POLINA, a film co-directed by choreographer Angelin Preljocaj and his wife, the filmmaker Valérie Müller, in 2016.

Juliette’s skillset doesn’t stop when the music does. She has won myriad accolades for her roles both on stage and screen and is equally at home delivering lines in French and English, comfortable in arthouse to mainstream, blockbuster to low budget indie. Born in Paris to artistic parents, she started performing in theatre as a child.

She came-of-age on the silver screen with a role as a young actress coming to Paris to realise her dream in celebrated French filmmaker André Téchiné’s RENDEZ-VOUS (1985). Earlier in the same year, Juliette Binoche landed a role in HAIL MARY, written and directed by none other than Jean-Luc Godard.

From then on, she began building her impressive on-screen French-language resume, lighting up the screen in Leos Carax’s THE NIGHT IS YOUNG as well as LE MEILLEUR DE LA VIE, directed by Renaud Victor.

In the late 1980s, Binoche launched her English-language career in THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING, Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of the Milan Kundera novel.

She re-united with Carax in 1992 for THE LOVERS ON THE BRIDGE, a role for which she won her first European Film Academy award: European Actress of the Year. The following year, Juliette Binoche won a Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival and a French César for her turn as Julie Vignon (de Corcy) in THREE COLOURS: BLUE, the first of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s trilogy of films.

Binoche went on to pick up her second European Film Award, a Silver Bear in Berlin, a BAFTA and an Oscar for her outing in Anthony Minghella’s THE ENGLISH PATIENT (1996).

Less than four years later, she appeared in Lasse Hallström‘s CHOCOLAT, securing an EFA People’s Choice Award. In 2010, she won the best actress award at the Festival de Cannes for her role in CERTIFIED COPY, directed by Abbas Kiarostami.

The list of filmmakers La Binoche has worked with reads like a who’s who in global cinema and includes Chantal Akerman, Olivier Assayas, John Boorman, Rupert Sanders, Isabel Coixet, David Cronenberg, Claire Denis, Bruno Dumont, Abel Ferrara, Amos Gitaï, Michael Haneke, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Naomi Kawase, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Louis Malle, Jean-Paul Rappenau, and Małgorzata Szumowska.

More is sure to follow for this year’s recipient of the European Film Academy’s European achievement in world cinema accolade.