Since the 1980s, Juliette Binoche has moved seamlessly between roles in major motion pictures and more intimate, lesser-known projects—each one contributing to an expansive career that has readily embraced the unexpected.
For her efforts Binoche became the first actress ever to win acting awards at all three of the world’s most prestigious film festivals: Cannes, Venice, and Berlin (a feat only matched by Julianne Moore). And, adored both in Hollywood and across Europe, the last 10 years have seen her appear in films by the likes of Claire Denis, Olivier Assayas, and Hirokazu Kore-eda, as well as in major series on Netflix, HBO, and Apple TV+.
As la Binoche steps up to preside over the jury at the 78th Cannes Film Festival, taking over from Greta Gerwig, now is the perfect moment to revisit some of the most stunning vintage photographs of one of the most inspired—and inspiring—French actresses of her generation.
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1984
Juliette Binoche at about 20, in one of her earliest credited film roles: as Natacha in Jacques Doillon’s 1985 film Family Life.
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1985
In a pretty yellow knit at the 1985 Festival du Film Policier de Cognac.
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1985
Jumping for joy at the 38th Cannes Film Festival. That year, Binoche’s erotic drama Rendez-vous, directed by André Téchiné, screened in competition.
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1985
Sporting a choppy bob—and wielding a bright red parapluie—in Sète, in the south of France.
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1986
As Anna in Leox Caraz’s Mauvais Sang (or The Night Is Young).
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1989
Posing with director Elia Kazan at the 42nd Cannes Film Festival.
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1990
Enjoying dinner—and a little ciggy—in the summer of 1990.
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1991
All cheekbones and loose curls the year that her second film with Leos Carax—Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, co-starring Denis Lavant—came out.
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1993
At the Los Angeles premiere of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s Three Colors: Blue with her costar Julie Delpy. Binoche won the best-actress prize at both the Venice Film Festival and the Césars for her role as Julie Vignon de Courcy.
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1994
With kohled eyes and slicked-back hair during a photoshoot for Detour magazine.
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1994
Holding her César for Three Colors: Blue.
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1996
Wearing wispy micro-bangs and wavy lengths to the American Film Institute’s benefit premiere of Anthony Minghella’s The English Patient.
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1997
Arriving at LAX like a proper Parisienne: in a black leather jacket, black turtleneck, black trousers, and perfectly ’90s little sunglasses.
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1997
With her The English Patient costars Kristin Scott Thomas and Ralph Fiennes at the 69th Academy Awards, where the film picked up nine Oscars.
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1997
Binoche with her best-supporting-actress Oscar for The English Patient, in which she played Hana. (Sophie Sitbon made her dramatic collared gown.)
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1997
In a flowery headpiece and a lovely shade of red at the BAFTA Film and Television Awards in London.
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1997
Promoting the Lancôme fragrance Poeme at Saks Fifth Avenue.
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1998
Not divot-stomping, in fact, but attending the Trophée Lancôme, a golf tournament held in Saint-Nom-la-Bretèche, France, until 2003.
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1998
Signing autographs in full glam at the 1998 Césars, where she was chair of the ceremony.
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2000
With her costars Mark Lotito, Liev Schreiber, and John Slattery—as well as director David Leveaux—the night their production of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal opened on Broadway.
