Juliette Binoche

French actress who has appeared in more than 60 films, particularly in French and English languages, and has been the recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Film Award and a César Award.

She was the sweet, sensual leading lady and 1996 Oscar-winning French actress of The English Patient. In October 1997 she was ranked in the Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time list by Empire magazine in the United Kingdom and she was chosen by People magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World.

Binoche has been onscreen from 1984 in the film Rendezvous. As she has a greater interest in making films that are meaningful to her than in making money, her contract as an elegant model with Lancôme cosmetics gave her the financial freedom of choice. Her films include Alice and Martin in 1997 followed by The Assumption of the Virgin (1998).

Juliette is the daughter of Jean-Marie Binoche, a theatre director, sculptor and mime artist with a Brazilian origin, and French-Polish actress Monique Stalens. Her parents divorced when she was four and the girl was sent to boarding school. Although she hated being sent away, she said it taught her independence and how to act; the stage was her home from the time she was a child. At 13 she took acting classes and was soon staging her own productions in an experimental Parisian high school. She took a job in a Paris department store while trying out for screen roles, getting an occasional line or two, before Andre Techine saw her screen test and was struck by "the irrational light that her face held."

She entered a long relationship with Leos Carax and did two films with him. Carax was described as her Pygmalion, making her over for her work, having her lose weight, take singing and dancing lessons, read good literature and improve her vocal tone. She completed Three Colours: Blue in 1993, considered by many to be her best role.