Juliette Binoche (; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English, and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a BAFTA Award and a César Award, and is one of only two women to have won an acting award at each of the world's three major film festivals (the Volpi Cup, the Silver Bear for Best Actress and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress).
Binoche first gained recognition for working with such auteur directors as Jean-Luc Godard (Hail Mary, 1985), Jacques Doillon (Family Life, 1985), and André Téchiné; the latter made her a star in France with a leading role in his drama Rendez-vous (1985). She won the Volpi Cup and César Award for Best Actress for her performance as a grieving music composer in Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colours: Blue (1993), and the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for playing a nurse in The English Patient (1996). For starring in the romantic film Chocolat (2000), Binoche received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. In 2010, she won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for her role as an antiques dealer in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy. Binoche has since starred in such films as Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), Happy End (2017), High Life (2018), The Taste of Things (2023), and The Return (2024).
Binoche has appeared on stage intermittently, most notably in a 1998 West End theatre production of Luigi Pirandello's Naked and in a 2000 production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal on Broadway for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play. In 2008, she began a world tour with a modern dance production, in-i, devised in collaboration with Akram Khan.
Early life Binoche was born in Paris, the daughter of Jean-Marie Binoche, a director, actor, and sculptor, and Monique Yvette Stalens (born 1939), a teacher, director, and actress. Her father, who is French, also has one eighth Portuguese-Brazilian ancestry; he was raised partly in Morocco by his French-born parents.Juliette Binoche, 'Breaking and Entering' , Debruge, Peter; Variety, 12 December 2006. Retrieved 18 April 2011 Her mother was born in Częstochowa, Poland. Binoche's maternal grandfather, Andre Stalens, was born in Poland, of Belgian (Walloon) and French descent, and Binoche's maternal grandmother, Julia Helena Młynarczyk, was of Polish origin. Both of them were actors who were born in Częstochowa; the German Nazi occupiers imprisoned them at Auschwitz as intellectuals.Juliette Binoche: Femme Fatale, Groskop, Viv; The Daily Telegraph (London), 1 September 2007. Retrieved 18 April 2011
Her great-uncle was Léon Binoche, who won a gold medal in rugby at the 1900 Paris Olympics.
When Binoche's parents divorced in 1968, four-year-old Juliette and her sister Marion were sent to a provincial boarding school.Inside the Actors Studio; Lipton, James; 27 October 2002; season 9, episode 2 During their teens, the Binoche sisters spent their school holidays with their maternal grandmother, not seeing their parents for months at a time. Binoche has stated that this perceived parental abandonment had a profound effect on her.Imagine...: Dangerous Liaisons, When Akram met Juliette; Yentob, Alan; 14 October 2008. Retrieved 18 April 2011
She was not particularly academicL'Année Juliette; Première, September 1995; issue 222, p 83; (French language) and in her teenage years began acting at school in amateur stage productions. At seventeen, 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, touring France, Belgium and Switzerland under the pseudonym "Juliette Adrienne".The Sunshine Girls; Bignell, Darren; Empire, March 1997; iss 94, p 63 Around this time, she began lessons with acting coach Vera Gregh.Juliette Binoche Biography Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Retrieved 18 April 2011
Her first professional screen experience came as an extra in the three-part TF1 television series Dorothée, danseuse de corde (1983) directed by Jacques Fansten, followed by a similarly small role in the provincial television film Fort bloque directed by Pierrick Guinnard. After 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.
Career
1984–1991
Binoche's early films established her as a French star of some renown. In 1983, she auditioned for the female lead in Jean-Luc Godard's controversial Hail Mary, a modern retelling of the Virgin birth.Hail Mary Film Review, Croce, Fernando F.; Slant Magazine, 8 October 2006. Retrieved 18 April 2011 Godard requested a meeting with Binoche having seen a photo of her taken by her boyfriend at the time."Juliette Binoche: The First Act". Brody, Richard. The New Yorker. 10 March 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2011 Although she said she spent six months on the film's set in Geneva, her presence in the final cut is confined to just a few scenes.Juliette Binoche. Die unnahbare Schöne; Blum, Katerina; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1995; ; p. 74; (German language) Further supporting roles followed in a variety of French films. Annick Lanoë's Les Nanas gave Binoche her most noteworthy role to date, playing opposite established stars Marie-France Pisier and Macha Méril in a mainstream comedy,Juliette Binoche. Die unnahbare Schöne; Blum, Katerina; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1995; ; p. 76; (German language) though she has stated the experience was not particularly memorable or influential.L'Année Juliette; Première, September 1995; iss 222, p. 84; (French language) She gained more significant exposure in Jacques Doillon's critically acclaimed Family Life cast as the volatile teenage step-daughter of Sami Frey's central character. This film was to set the tone of her early career.Family Life at BAM ; bam.org. Retrieved 18 April 2011 Doillon has commented that in the original screenplay her character was written to be 14 years old, but 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.L'Année Juliette; Première, September 1995; iss 222, p. 87; (French language) 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.Juliette Binoche Biography; Brennan, Sandra; allmovie.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011 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 theater director Scrutzler, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, which comes to define Nina.L'Année Juliette; Première, September 1995; iss 222, p. 88; (French language) In a review of Rendez-Vous in Film Comment, Armond White described it as "Juliette Binoche's career-defining performance".Rendez-Vous DVD; image-entertainment.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011
In 1986, Binoche was nominated for her first César for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film.César Winners and Nominations 1986; allocine.fr. Retrieved 18 April 2011; (French language) 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.Première Iss. 132, March 1998 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.Première Iss. 132, 03/1998 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.Film Festival; 'Bad Blood,' From France; Walter, Goodman; The New York Times, 30 September 1987. Retrieved 18 April 2011 Binoche has stated that she "discovered the camera" while shooting this film.Première Iss. 112, July 1986
In August 1986, Binoche began filming Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Milan Kundera's novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, portraying the young and innocent Tereza.Juliette Binoche. Die unnahbare Schöne; Blum, Katerina; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1995; ; p. 83; (German language) Released in 1988, this was Binoche's first English language role and was a worldwide success with critics and audiences alike.Juliette Binoche. Die unnahbare Schöne; Blum, Katerina; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1995; ; p. 85; (German language) Set against the USSR's 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.Juliette Binoche. Die unnahbare Schöne; Blum, Katerina; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1995; ; p. 88; (German language) After this success, Binoche decided to return to France rather than pursue an international career.Juliette Binoche. Die unnahbare Schöne; Blum, Katerina; Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1995; ; p. 89; (German language) 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 Chekhov's The Seagull directed by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky at Théâtre de l'Odéon in Paris.Juliette Binoche Biography ; Filloux, Karine; filmdeculte.com. Retrieved 18 April 2011