This radiantly appealing lead of international films first gained American audiences' attention as the sexually repressed Tereza in "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" (1988), Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Milan Kundera's mediation on freedom, sex and love. The raven-haired Juliette Binoche provided the emotional center to that film, as she has with most of those in which she has appeared. Since winning a Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1996 for "The English Patient", she has divided her time between stage and screen, working predominantly in English in the former medium and in her native French in the latter.
The daughter of a theatrical director and an actress, Binoche first developed an interest in the stage while attending school. She began her career as a teenager, appearing in productions of Moliere, Ionesco and Pirandello before segueing to the big screen with a small role in the 1983 feature "Liberty Belle". Although she did not win the lead role in Jean-Luc Godard's "Hail Mary/Je vous salue, Marie" (1985), Binoche impressed the writer-director enough for him to create the role of Joseph's jealous former lover especially for her. That same year, she landed her first starring part in Andre Techine's erotic drama "Rendezvous" and went on to deliver a series of impressive performances, most notably in Leos Carax's drama "Bad Blood/Mauvais Sang" (1986).
After her initial impact in "Unbearable Lightness,” Binoche returned to France and committed three years to filming Carax's operatic and visually stunning "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf/The Lovers on the Bridge" (1991). As a runaway artist slowly going blind, the actress turned in a beautifully rendered performance that meshed with Denis Levant's work as her homeless lover. (Binoche also created several of the paintings used in the film.) In her first foray in American television, she turned in a heart-wrenching performance as a young Polish prostitute befriended by Scott Glenn (as a thinly veiled Henry Miller) in the Mike Figgis-directed segment of HBO's "Women & Men II" (1991). Binoche further enhanced her reputation in the early 90s by appearing as a woman who begins a sexual relationship with a politician – who happens to be the father of her fiancé – in "Damage" (1992) and garnered raves, including a Best Actress trophy at the Venice Film Festival, for her work as a wife and mother coping with the aftermath of a tragic accident in "Blue" (1993), the first installment of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's French trilogy "Trois Couleurs", (The actress reprised the role in the other parts of the triptych, 1994's "Red" and "White".) In Jean-Paul Rappeneau's sumptuous period drama "The Horseman on the Roof/Le Hussard sur le toit" (1995), Binoche was convincing as a restless married noblewoman and she and co-star Olivier Martinez created a palpable erotic tension without a love scene.
Binoche was Cathy to Ralph Fiennes' Heathcliff in a remake of "Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights", which was lambasted by European critics in its 1992 theatrical release but lauded by US critics in its premiere on TNT in 1994. She was again cast alongside Fiennes in Anthony Minghella's beautifully realized adaptation of "The English Patient" Her Hana, a Canadian nurse tending to a wounded stranger during WWII, was another in the line of Binoche heroines that projected emotional vulnerability and formed the nucleus of the feature's action.
Following her Oscar win, Binoche seemingly disappeared from American movie screens but the luminous actress remained occupied on stage (in London in "Naked" in 1997 and on Broadway in "Betrayal" in 2000) and films shot in France. She reunited with Andre Techine to portray a strong-willed musician who falls in love with a slightly disturbed younger man in "Alice et Martin" (1998). Binoche is one of the rare actresses who is capable of portraying contemporary or historical figures with equal aplomb. In most cases, she is also able to create a tangible chemistry with the men cast opposite her in romantic leads, and this ability helps to provide a more satisfying experience for the audience. A choice example is her turn opposite Daniel Auteuil in the period drama "La Veuve de St. Pierre/The Widow of St. Pierre" (2000), directed by Patrice Leconte. With a chameleonic grace, Binoche makes her character's love for her husband (Auteuil) so plausible, one almost forgets one is watching a film. Similarly, in "Chocolat" (also 2000), she and Johnny Depp (as an Irish rover) create an appreciable adult relationship. "Chocolat" also marked her return to English-language films and her turn as an itinerant candy maker who has a magical effect on the residents of a sleepy village allowed her to demonstrate her gifts for comedy. Even those critics who were unimpressed with the film could not ignore this gifted performer's incandescence.
Binoche then starred in the drama feature "Children Of The Century” (released in the U.S. in 2002), playing famed 19th century French author George Sand who smoked cigars and dressed as a man to get her novels sold—a performance that ranks among her best. She then appeared opposite Jean Reno in the charming romantic comedy, “Jet Lag” (2003), playing Rose, a beautician who summons the courage to leave her abusive boyfriend and take a seasonal job at a Mexican resort. While delayed at a Paris airport, the chatty and extroverted Rose meets mild-mannered Felix (Reno), an encounter that leads to an unexpected romance. Binoche then starred opposite Samuel L. Jackson in John Boorman’s romantic drama, “In My Country” (2005). Binoche played a South African poet who butts heads with a Washington Post reporter (Jackson) over his bitterness and racial agenda—though the two fall in love despite both being married. “In My Country” was dismissed by critics for being too pedantic, while Binoche’s French accent was cited as being distracting for someone portraying an Afrikaner.
Binoche was roundly praised for the otherwise critically polarizing "Bee Season" (2005), as the dissatisfied scientist mother of a spelling be champ and wife of a Jewish religious studies professor (Richard Gere) who reacts to her daughter's success by retreating further into herself, into the grip of a mysterious series of behaviors, and becomes more and more psychologically unstable. After “Bee Season” came and went with little buzz, Binoche was seen by some in “Cache” (2005), a suspenseful psychological thriller in which she played a well-to-do publisher married to a popular television interviewer (Daniel Auteuil) whose comfortable bourgeois world is disrupted when a mysterious videotape left on their doorstep lets the couple know someone is watching. As more tapes arrive with images more disturbing and revealing, her husband launches an investigation that reveals his own dark past, threatening to destroy their safe and secure lives. Binoche was lauded for her performance while the film was awarded Best Foreign Language Film by several critics’ awards.