Juliette Binoche

Season 9, Episode 901

Original Airdate: October 27, 2002

Juliette Binoche was born on March 9, 1964 in Paris, France. Her father, actor-director Jean-Marie Binoche, and mother, actor Monique Stalens, divorced when Binoche was only a few years old, and her childhood time was divided between them as well as a Catholic boarding school.

In her teens, she studied acting at the Paris Conservatoire and The National School Of Dramatic Art of Paris. At the age of 21, she played a minor role in Jean Luc Godard's papally controversial Hail Mary (Godard created the part after she didn't receive the lead).

Only a few years later, she achieved international acclaim with her portrayal of Tereza in 1988's The Unbearable Lightness of Being. (Roger Ebert stated in a 1988 review, “Juliette Binoche, as Tereza, is almost ethereal in her beauty and innocence”.)

In the Louis Malle 1992 film Damage she was enveloped in the arms of her fiance's father (Jeremy Irons). The following year, she portrayed a grief-stricken woman starting anew in Krysztof Kieslowski's first film of his Three Color Trilogy, Blue, for which she captured both the 1993 Venice Film Festival Award and 1994 Cesar Award for Best Actress.

After a brief repose for the birth of her son Raphael (with deep sea diver Andre Halle), she again captivated the public as the Canadian nurse Hana in Anthony Minghella's epic The English Patient (along with Ralph Finnes), and in the process earned both the Academy Award and National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress (1996), and the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear Award for Best Actress (1997).

Binoche researched her next role as the proprietor of a confectionary shop in Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat by visiting French chocolatiers and studying with a specialist. Beforehand in 1999, she had given birth to her second child, a daughter named Hannah (with actor Benoit Magimel).

Her Broadway debut in 2000 was in a revival of Harold Pinter's Betrayal. This role, placing her in a love triangle between Live Screiber and John Slattery, earned a Tony nomination. Currently in production is a Richard Eyre film titled, The Assumption, which is slated for release in 2004. Binoche stars with Javier Bardem in this tale of the 15th Century Florentine artist Fra Lippi's love for one of his models, who is a deeply religious nun.