Actress and now also director Juliette Binoche lit up the seventh day of the festival not only with two film introductions, but also with a KVIFF Talk moderated by Variety journalist Marta Bałaga.
She began by discussing the film In-I in Motion, on which Binoche is credited as director. “I had 200 hours of footage from my sister, and it took me ages to find a film in it. How can you condense six months of rehearsals into one hour? That was a challenge,” remarked the French star, who believes it is important for artists to try new things. “I don’t want to repeat myself, because then I get bored. I want to learn something new; doing the same thing over and over again is like death to me.”
A question was also asked about Binoche’s first international film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, in which she played a Czech woman. “I was cast ten days before filming began, so I had to learn to speak English with a Czech accent very fast. I do, however, have lovely memories of the shoot. I used to read Kundera every morning,” the actress recalled. She also shared her memories of the famous writer: “We all went for dinner together before filming. He was gentle and attentive, but it was mainly his wife who did the talking.”
The programme also included a story about Krzysztof Kieślowski, with whom Binoche made the drama Three Colors: Blue. “Filming was a breeze; we had a good laugh. It was all quick and easy. He wanted to rehearse a lot, but then he only shot one or two takes. He was used to that from Poland, where they had no money. I told him that in France he could afford to shoot more takes. But he replied that he would then have too many choices in the editing room.”
Binoche regularly works with foreign directors; one such collaboration even earned her an Oscar. “Awards are merely a consequence, and there is a danger in taking them personally, as if you deserve them. But they can give you wings,” the actress said of the award for The English Patient. She added that she had never considered moving to Hollywood, not least because she has two children.
Towards the end of the KVIFF Talk, there was time for advice. She suggested to a young director that he should try acting himself. “Michael Haneke gave it a go, which is why he loves actors,” she remarked. And she had this to say to a young actress: “Observe people and what is going on inside you. You have to have faith too, because this journey is a difficult one. Life gives you what you need. And failures can sometimes be excellent teachers. So let them teach you.”
