FILM
Juliette Binoche talks to Marie-Claire Chappet about her new film – a feast of food and love – as well as her own passions, old and new
YOU’D THINK THERE WOULD BE CERTAIN subjects that are off-limits when speaking to Juliette Binoche about her latest film, The Taste of Things; chief among them, what it was like acting opposite her real-life ex-lover Benoît Magimel. But I discover just how deliciously Parisienne Binoche is: love, passion and former boyfriends are precisely what she wishes to discuss.
‘As an actor, you are always exposing yourself emotionally, because the most interesting way to approach a role is to go to the innermost parts of you,’ she tells me over coffee at a rooftop bar in London. ‘I was facing a man I used to love, in front of a camera. I had to tell him that I will love him no matter what. The script allowed me to say things I hadn’t been able to say in real life.’
The Taste of Things portrays the quiet intimacies of a couple living in rural France during the late 19th century who are brought together by a shared passion for gastronomy. Served alongside lingering shots of melting butter and roasting chickens is a moving story of devotion. It is for this reason that Binoche believes the film is ‘the perfect gift’ for Hana, the 23-year-old daughter she shares with Magimel.
Binoche’s performance as the cook Eugénie is as assured and mesmerising as you’d expect from a star who has been lighting up the silver screen for more than 40 years. Her career is characterised by bold, emotional work that has made her a national treasure in her home country and has earned her international acclaim for Englishlang uage roles such as her much-loved turn in Chocolat, or her moving portrayal of a World War II nurse in Anthony Minghella’s 1996 film The English Patient, which won her an Oscar. (She was so shocked to receive the accolade that, with her customary charm, she offered it to her fellow nominee Lauren Bacall, who politely declined.)
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