Juliette Binoche (Paris, 1964) belongs to that rare and perfect generation of actresses, essentially French, who dare with everything. Far from any commitment to an already earned posterity, now each of her appearances seems more radical than the previous one, riskier. And always (or almost always) hand in hand with a director outside the obvious. "My only interest is the script. I don't gossip much about people's filmographies. If the script is good, it's enough for me," she says with a broad smile that hides something. It seems like she's lying, but an actress is always forgiven.
At the ongoing Berlinale, she has just presented Queen at Sea, by American director Lance Hammer. If it doesn't ring a bell, there's no need to worry. It didn't ring a bell for Binoche either when she received the script. In truth, it had been a while since Hammer rang a bell for anyone. In 2008, he presented Ballast and... until now, literally shaking up the Berlin Festival with a story about consent, aging, and dementia; a story from the other side of all taboos, a story against the current. "I saw it clearly from the very beginning. This story needed to be told," says the actress.