Juliette Binoche on Certified Copy, Minimum French and Watching Godard Search

Your co-star hadn't acted in a film before--

Yes, but he's been acting in opera, so didn't do this with no experience.

He's said he was very grateful for your support. What support do you think he means?

I feel responsible, of course! Acting is not easy! I was very impressed, because the first day of rehearsal, he knew the entire script -- by heart. It was like I was was in a cartoon -- my jaw dropped. I said, "I've never seen that!" But I wanted to make sure that he related every word to his own personal experience as a man, because if you don't relate it to a personal experience, it doesn't get real somehow. It isn't just word-saying, or attitude-having. It has to be sort of heart-related. It has to be a body transformation in order to be live and truthful. As soon as he understood that... Because there's technique to learn in order to get there. You start with sensation
and all that. When he got that, I thought, "OK, it's all right. We're safe."

Beyond the body transformation, though, the language transforms throughout the film. How does that affect character? Were they in the script, or is Kiarostami saying, "Enh, let's do this one in Italian. Let's do this one in French..."?

Oh, it was in the script. It was very specific, and I'll tell you why it was specific: To get money from the French government, you have to have enough French words to balance out the English.

So pragmatic!

I know! The decisions of whether to speak English or French were the rules of governments.

You've got to be kidding.

Nope.

OK, so you spoke the bare minimum of French, and then...

[Laughs] We started off with Abbas wanting to make a film in English, but we couldn't. We had to be in French to get the French money. And toward the end, the assistant was counting how many words we had in French and how many words we had in English. So all of the sudden, the scenes we rehearsed in English had to be changed to French. And William doesn't speak French that fluently. I mean, he's quite comfortable -- just not as fluent as in English, of course. It was a brave tour de force, as you also say in English.

Did you do your own driving in this movie?

[Pauses] Yeah! Yeah?

I only mean it technically -- for that long, talky scene on the narrow lanes with a camera mounted to the hood.

No, I did it allll myself. And I couldn't see anything. I could see maybe one centimeter here -- a couple centimeters there when the camera was on him. It was a nightmare. And it was so hot outside. You have no idea. And we couldn't put the air conditioner on because of sound. It was quite a journey. And it was the beginning of the film, because we shot chronologically. But I had Abbas [in the car], and the sound engineer was in the trunk. I don't know how he survived, but he wanted to be there. He was sweating so much. I mean, the middle of July -- hello? And then William was next to me, and we was like, "Oh my God, Oh my God..." [Laughs] These little streets!

I know! I was saying that just watching it: It's not where you're from, and the way the reflections from the building are so precise that I know you're following a chosen route--

Oh, his frames are very precise. Very precise.

So how does that impact performance?

First day of rehearsal, he says, "Bring me a TV and DVD player." So we bring the devices, and he turns the DVD on. I actually saw the entire film cut, which meant he had come to every single place, shooting -- with his assistant, his producer, different people he'd found -- the entire script in the different locations. So he knew exactly that he'd need a piece of a street to end a certain scene. I saw the entire film before I started shooting -- from this place where they lived, their car, the village and into the bedroom.

Hitchcock used to do something similar, and some of his actors bristled -- as though the performances were secondary to camerawork.

I didn't feel that at all. It gave me the sense of the film, and it was wonderful for that because it was like an être noir. You're seeing it start out open and it stops in the end like this [closes hands] in the bedroom. They walk here, they go there, but they're going to one place. Also, I can't see the sky in the film. It was...

Claustrophobic?

Yeah! Pressing, pressing, pressing. It gave me the outside in order the help me with the inside. It was genius. I've never seen a director prepare that way.

And that doesn't threaten you?

No. It's different when you're seeing a storyboard -- where you feel like it's just images. The fact that it's moving, you see somebody searching as well. So you're searching as, with him.

With that in mind, I'm still curious about directors. How do you select projects? Is there some guiding principle?

With Abbas, I just wanted to work with him. I didn't know when it would be; they were just wishes. When I got the Oscar, that's one of the questions they asked me: "Now that you have an Oscar are you going to move to America?" I said, "No -- I want to work with Abbas Kiarostami." They didn't know who he was. For me, it's been my dream to work with great directors who have a strong vision and specific vision. Now I want to meet with Bruno Dumont; I think he's one of the most talented directors we have in France. I really want to work with him, but I don't know on what. And he doesn't work with actors either! [Laughs] I don't know why I'm drawn to the directors trying to avoid actors.

You want the one you can't have.

Well, not that exactly. But they're looking for something different, and I'm looking for something different as well. And it's not something outside. It's something inside.

If Godard stopped making movies today -- which it seems like he might -- you would have worked with him right at the midpoint of his career [Hail Mary, 1984]. It was a pretty important milestone for both of you; now you have your Oscar and he's all but rejected his own. Have you stayed in touch at all?

He asked me to do [Film] Socialisme -- to be in the movie -- but I was doing the dance tour. He loves sending texts that are not directly related to what he's doing --

"Texts?" Text messages?

No, no... Texts.

Oh. Books, letters...

Letters or photocopies with underlined specifics. He always searching and being inspired. [Pause] My experience with him was quite short, even though I stayed for... I don't know how many months in this hotel waiting for him to feel good about shooting or wanting to shoot Je vous salue, Marie. But because it was at the beginning of my career, it taught me a lot, in a way -- of being kind of... [Pause] I would say, not willing to please. So it gave me another perspective with work, because I had been in theater classes where the teacher was verge generous and outgoing and helping. And there it was almost so cold, in a way -- almost stingy. Difficult. At the same time, I could see that he was searching. So it's not out of being mean -- it's out of being in a space where he's searching. It requires so much in order to be truthful to himself. It goes into his structure; he has to find it while he's shooting. Being with the season, being with the lights, being with his emotions, and his actors' emotions as well.

Suddenly I felt there was another layer with directors that I didn't expect and that you're not being taught. You can't be taught that in school. You're just learning it as you're going. You see directors wanting to make you feel comfortable, and they're playing a role -- being in control, knowing which shot, playing the game. But when you have someone whose so truthful and not trying to play a game, it's totally a different story.

But you still stay in touch?

Not specifically. But I spoke to Haneke like three days ago. I say, "Why don't you give me news?" but we're all so in the present time. They're friends, but at the same times we all have our lives. Some moments we each other more, some moments we don't. He's busy, I'm busy, and that's that.

[Top photo: Getty Images/AFP]

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