Juliette Binoche is tipped for a best actress Oscar nomination for her performance in the new film Queen at Sea, in which she plays Amanda, a woman coping with a traumatic family situation involving her stepfather, Martin (Tom Courtenay), and her mother, Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall), who has dementia.
A difficult moral dilemma
Amanda reports her stepfather to the police after walking in on Leslie and Martin in bed together, worrying about her mother's capability to give informed consent to sex. The film, which won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, raises difficult moral dilemmas concerning consent and the impact of advanced dementia within a family, especially regarding decisions about care and autonomy.
Director Lance Hammer took the unusual decision to use real officials, such as a social worker, in certain roles to give the scenes more authenticity. Juliette says: “It's always wonderful when you have real people because they know what they're talking about, and so you believe them. It's as simple as that.”
Real people on set
Determined to bring sincerity to the role, Juliette found the professionals' input invaluable. “I was asking a lot of questions about, you know, what in this case, in that case? Asking about what they know, what they've been through. It was the perfect combination for a film,” she tells The Arts Hour on the BBC World Service.
Juliette, 62, explains: “Amanda, my character in the film, is in shock, and of course Amanda's reaction is to protect [her mother] and call the police immediately. And so from that, the film [plot], you know, spread. The first instinct is to protect and stop what my stepfather, Tom, is doing.” She says the situation quickly escalates beyond her control: “It's a silent bomb in a way. You don't know what you're going into as you start, and then it goes on and on, and it becomes this immense mountain. You don't know how to deal with it.”
Challenging roles and career reflections
Queen at Sea is far from the first time Juliette has chosen a difficult role. In Camille Claudel 1915 she played the real-life French sculptor confined to an asylum; in Three Colors: Blue, she played a woman dealing with the loss of her husband and child; and in The English Patient, she played a nurse caring for a severely burned, dying man.
Despite the harrowing storyline, Juliette enjoyed making the film because of the actors. She says of Tom Courtenay: “The transformation of his character is wonderful. With Tom, it was very genuinely easy. We talked a lot about the situation, the conversation about how it feels like to be in that situation. There was a lot of care … and giggles, I have to say, because he was wonderful to be around.” She adds: “The thing is, I think in any situation in films, whether it's darker or lighter, whatever you want to call it, being truthful to a situation brings light.”
Juliette, who has never married, has previously said about deciding not to marry: “Maybe it's because my mother divorced and my grandmother divorced, so maybe I'm frightened deep down. But then I also feel there is no real need. Why do I need to get married? To reassure me? No I don't need reassurance.” Born into an artistic family, she took acting lessons as an adolescent and broke into French cinema with André Téchiné's 1985 film Rendez-vous.
Despite more than 40 years at the top of her profession, Juliette says she's never had a career plan: “You know, as an actor, you're going step by step because you don't know the road. You want to survive and try to make your life as interesting as possible.” She adds: “I don't know what my life is going to be like. I've no idea, and I don't want to know, because life is about not knowing. That's the fun of it. It's because the unknown is bigger than what you imagine or you think, because you're not in control. Life is not about controlling. It's so interesting. It's never the same.”
