By then, in 1996, Juliette Binoche was simply living up to a brilliant career in the making early on. Directed by the late British director Anthony Minghella and starring alongside Ralph Fiennes in the war melodrama, his name was to accompany us on the journey of the seventh art.
He has just received the International Goya in Seville in recognition of his impeccable career and honored his moment of fame along with the tribute to the recently deceased Spanish filmmaker Carlos Saura.
He never filmed with Saura, but he found out about the printing of one of the four great celluloid films in Spain and had the luxury of humming the song Porque te vas, the theme of the film Cría cuervos, by the excellent director also of Mama cumple centen años , Hey Carmela! and Amor brujo, among many.
“I feel this international Goya as a reward for my fire and inner energy that drives me to devote myself to this and that has to do with my need to share a story of transformation with other people, to share that love and hope that we receive from the public and what we want to give,” said Binoche these days.
Trained at the National Conservatory of Dramatic Art, she was born in Paris in 1964 and is the daughter of actors. He made his debut in Anglo-Saxon filmography in 1996 with The English Patient and has since worked with one leg in independent Europe and the other in commercial productions.
In the course of her career, in addition to the Oscar for best supporting actress, she received the César Award, the Silver Bear from La Palma de Cannes, the Volpi Cup, Donostia from the San Sebastián Festival and three European film awards.
THE GOYA AND OTHER MIRACLES
She was moved to admit that the International Goya, the second to be awarded to Australian Cate Blanchet after the previous one, is very relevant “because it comes from the country of all those Spanish artists who have inspired me, not just Goya, but also Gaudí, Velázquez, Lorca, Cervantes…”.
Caring for the media, she made no secret of her philosophy of life regarding celluloid:
“If a film doesn’t change you, it’s a mistake. My agents in the United States told me to do such a commercial film so later I could do the ones I like like it’s a haggle, that system doesn’t work for me.
“Every scene and every take has to be done as if it were the first and the last, otherwise it’s not art and it’s not an expression of yourself. You have to be humble in front of a camera, otherwise the emotions don’t come out.”
The laconic summary of his work stands out in his filmography, which, although more comprehensive, does not hide his lovely English patient:
Bad Blood, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Lovers of the Pont-Neuf, Wound, Three Colors: Blue, Code Unknown, Chocolate, Cache, The Flight of the Red Balloon, Certified Copy, Cosmopolis, Camille Claudel 1915, Word and Image, TheSon of No One, Paris, je t aime, Cosmpolis, among many others.
(From Cuarta Pared, Orb Cultural Supplement)