Broad Appeal

Quick: name an Oscar-winning actress who’s worked with both Godard AND Godzilla. THERE IS ONLY ONE. Having been on international screens for three decades, Juliette Binoche has matured more gracefully than a vintage Bourdeaux, acquired more ripe notes than a cave-aged Gruyère. Take a look at the whole career from the dewy, sexualized ingénue of DAMAGE to the earthy middle-aged diva of SILS MARIA, and it is clear: JB is the Actress of Actresses. She’s bared both her flesh and her soul for countless auteurs, but she’s perhaps never been asked to carry a film quite so completely as she did for Krzystof Kieslowski in THREE COLOURS: BLUE. As a grieving widow thrown into a traumatised “liberté” that she never asked for, Binoche’s performance is mostly silent, often as cold as the film’s azure cinematography and as deeply felt as Zbigniew Preisner’s extraordinary score. Her Julie (like the continent of Europe itself) must confront the submerged pains of the past as she is hurtled forward into an uncertain future. T