Juliette Binoche: Guest of honour of BRUSSELS FILM FESTIVAL 2015

 

 

The 13^th BRUSSELS FILM FESTIVAL will take place from 5 to 12 June 2015 in Flagey and Cinematek. After Peter Greenaway in 2012, Bertrand Tavernier in 2013 and Alan Parker last year, the festival - under guidance of Ivan Corbisier - will have the pleasure to welcome French actress Juliette Binoche as guest of honour.

As an international actress par excellence, Juliette Binoche has worked with the greatest directors of the world, from Godard to Téchiné, over Doillon, Kieslowski, Minghella, Haneke, Ferrara, Assayas, Klapisch, Leconte, Rappeneau, Boorman, Hou Hsiao Hsien, Kiarostami and Cronenberg. Just to show the scope of her talent.

Debuting in the Nouvelle Vague

Born in Paris in 1964, Juliette Binoche made her debut in small roles, notably under the direction of Jean-Luc-Godard (Hail Mary) and Jacques Doillon (La vie de famille). But it's André Téchiné that introduced her to the spotlights with Rendez-Vous in 1985. The next year, she receives the much-desired Prix Romy Schneider. Some fifty more titles will follow, in which most times she plays the lead.

 

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The muse of directors

After having inspired the enfant terrible of French cinema, Leos Carax, with Mauvais Sang (1986) and The Lovers on the Bridge (1991), Juliette Binoche started a fruitful collaboration with directors that didn't get tired of her immense talent, including Olivier Assayas (Summer Hours, Sils Maria), the Austrian director Michael Haneke (Code Unknown, Hidden), Iran's Abbas Kiarostami (Shirin, Certified Copy), not to forget Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, Breaking and Entering).

 

An English-speaking career

In 1988, Philip Kaufman launches her American career with The Unbearable Lightness of Being, where she starred alongside Daniel Day-Lewis. She is then found alongside Ralph Fiennes in Wuthering Heights by Peter Kominsky (1992) and in the famous The English Patient of Anthony Minghella (1996). She will star opposite Jeremy Irons in Louis Malle's Damage (1992), Johnny Depp in Lasse Hallström's Chocolat (2000), Samuel L. Jackson in In my country of John Boorman (2004), Richard Gere in Bee Season of McGehee & Siegel, Forest Whitaker in Mary of Abel Ferrara, Jude Law in Breaking and Entering (2006), Steve Carell in Dan in the real life (2007), Channing Tatum and Al Pacino in The son of no one (2011) and even Robert Pattison in David Cronenberg's Cosmopolis (2012) and Clive Owen in Words and Pictures of Fred Schepisi (2013).

 

Actress without borders

Throughout her filmography, Juliette Binoche knew no borders, playing under the direction of filmmakers as diverse as Hou Hsiao-Hsien (Flight of the Red Balloon), Amos Gitai (Disengagement), Santiago Amigorena (A Few days in September, an Italian-French-Portuguese production with John Turturro), the Norwegian Erik Poppe (1000 Times Good Night with the star of Game of Thrones, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau). And recently, she opened the Berlin Film Festival with Nobody Wants the Night by Spanish filmmaker Isabel Coixet.

 

The alter ego of female directors

If her talent has attracted many male filmmakers, Juliette Binoche has also inspired female directors such as our compatriot Chantal Akerman in the comedy A Couch in New York with William Hurt (1996), Diane Kurys in Children of the Century with Benoît Magimel (1999), Danièle Thompson in Jetlag (2002), Malgorzata Szumowska in Elles (2011) or Sylvie Testud in La vie d’une autre 2012). No wonder that Bruno Dumont entrusts this feminine emblem with the title role in Camille Claudel 1915 (presented at the Brussels Film Festival in 2013)!

 

A bunch of awards

Three times, Juliette Binoche won the Best Actress Award at the European Film Awards with The Lovers on the Bridge in 1992, The English Patient in 1997 and in 2001 for Chocolat. Her moving role in Blue of Kieslowski earned her the coveted Volpi Cup for best Actress at the Venice Film Festival in 1993 and the César Award for Best Actress the following year. It’s her role in The English Patient, which will bring her the ultimate accolade with an Oscar in 1997 when she had just won the Silver Bear for Best Actress in Berlin. And in 2010 it was the turn of the Cannes Film Festival to award her for her role in Certified Copy by Kiarostami.

 

From cinema to dance

In addition to the 7th art, Juliette Binoche was quickly introduced to the theatre (particularly in Pirandello, Molière, Ionesco, Chekhov, Strindberg), but also to dance. In 2008, she began a world tour with the contemporary dance show called In-I, with the English choreographer of Bangladeshi origin, Akram Khan.

 

Juliette Binoche in Brussels!

The French actress will attend the opening of the 13th BRUSSELS FILM FESTIVAL on Friday, 5June 5th at 20:30 at Flagey. The next day, she will give a master class at 16h in Flagey before presenting a Carte Blanche evening at 19h at Cinematek.

 

 

BRUSSELS FILM FESTIVAL

From 5-12 June at Flagey. Info and reservation: +32 2 762 08 98.

 

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