Needless to say, audiences at the Cannes film festival savored every bite.
We chatted, and I liked him very much.
He sees things always from within, and thats what I love about his work.
Juliette Binoche and Benoît Magimel in ‘The Taste of Things.‘IFC Films/Everett Collection
Its not only about the surface of things.
Hes connected to what hes filming in a special way, in a loving way.
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Though Eugenie cooks in industrial quantities, Binoche claims no boot camp was needed.
Juliette Binoche in San Sebastian at the photocall forThe Taste of Things.Ander Gillenea/Getty Images
I didnt have to prepare, in the sense that Ive been cooking all my life, she says.
Well, a good part of my life, because I have children and I like cooking.
Having said that, I sometimes dislike it, because when its every day it becomes a duty.
And sometimes I dont have the patience.
People tend nowadays to order their food from outside, she notes.
They dont have a relationship with what theyre eating.
You plant something, you give it some light, a little water, and it comes to you.
Its also about how precious it is to have the time we spend cooking.
Its precious to cook for others.
Its not about buying things its about creating, doing, making things for others.
Binoche will turn 60 next year, and shes packed an incredible amount into nearly 40 years of acting.
Well, Im not thinking about taste when Im choosing the project, she says.
Im just choosing the person I want to spend time with, in an artful situation.
Sometimes you just use your intuition.
Because then you never regret anything.
Sometimes I might start a project thinking, Oh, Ilovethis movie!
Its part of the game of life.
Sometimes you make mistakes, and sometimes it works.
Thanks to luck, fate, whatever you want to call it, it works.
Given her tendency to put her heart and soul into a movie, has she ever gone too far?
No, she says firmly.
Im not thinking about that.
I might wobble at the end of it all.
I might feel like, Oh my god, its been so rough.
Thats not in my vocabulary.
I just learn when theres a mistake.
You learn from it, and you say, OK.
So, I dont really live with regrets.
I use them as wisdom at the end of the day.
Some of that wisdom came fromThe Lovers on the Bridge, the film she made with Leos Carax.
It was hard, but it taught me that you go till the end.
But life is more important than anything.
Meaning, I almost killed myself in one of the scenes.
Is that a vindication?
Yes, it is, she says.
In France, its always been rejected, ever since when it came out, and even afterwards.
So, in France, theres a mix of admiration and jealousy.
In other countries, theres no jealousy.
How do you say that in English?
Its something different from what you usually see in the movie world.
And our belief in it is what made it happen.
Surprisingly, director Krzysztof Kieslowski very nearly didnt give her the part.
So I said to him, I dont feel Im too young.
I showed Kieslowski the same picture, thinking, Maybe hell see the same thing, and he did.
He said yes to me, because he could see in my eyes that somehow I was ageless.
You couldnt define how old I was.
We worked very harmoniously, she says.
They were very quick in preparing.
We would rehearse, because he liked rehearsing, and we would do one or two takes.
I remember the shoot being really light, laughing with him and the crew.
I was always asking for a second take, or a third take, which was hard to get.
But if I fought hard enough, I could sometimes have another one.
Oh, I didnt see him like that at all, she says.
No, it was never about discussing things.
It was just aboutdoingthings.
I dont have that perception of him.
He was very open, delightful, and absolutely charming.
Did she consider that a step towards Hollywood?
Not at all, because we shot it in Paris and Lyon.
And so, to me, it was a very European film.
I had no reference for what Hollywood meant.
It was just an idea, and I had no idea what the system meant.
But at the time, I was not aware of it.
I had no idea of the outside consequences, because I was not interested in that.
But as to the consequences of my choices?
I had no idea.
It took me a while to read it, she says.
And I remember Anthony teasing me about that.
But reading in English at the time was not that easy.
It took me a while.
And when youre busy in your life…
But when I read it, I was very touched by his writing.
Did she expect it to be such a big phenomenon?
No, I didnt expect that at all.
And when awards season came around?
I had no idea.
They just asked me, Do you want to go here?
Do you want to go there?
And I said yes because I was happy to go for the journey.
But I didnt know how political it was.
It was like a political campaign.
Its a harsh story, but, looking back, Binoche has surprisingly fond memories of it.
It was intense, definitely, because Claudels life was very intense, she says.
Waking up in the middle of the night, sweating.
The second half of the film, I felt like she was with me.
And she was never taken back).
So, Binoche reached out to Claudels nephew and asked if she could visit.
He made it happen, and it was the most powerful experience Ive ever had, she says.
I could touch the furniture she lived with as a young adult, with her parents.
The memory still haunts her.
Beyond the film itself, theres always a story, she says.
Something that nourishes your soul and validates your reasons for making it.
