The daughter of a theatrical director and an actress, Binoche first developed an interest in the stage while attending school. She began her career as a teenager, appearing in productions of Moliere, Ionesco and Pirandello before segueing to the big screen with a small role in the 1983 feature "Liberty Belle". Although she did not win the lead role in Jean-Luc Godard's "Hail Mary/Je vous salue, Marie" (1985), Binoche impressed the writer-director enough for him to create the role of Joseph's jealous former lover especially for her. That same year, she landed her first starring part in Andre Techine's erotic drama "Rendezvous" and went on to deliver a series of impressive performances, most notably in Leos Carax's drama "Bad Blood/Mauvais Sang" (1986). After her initial impact in "Unbearable Lightness", Binoche returned to France and committed three years to filming Carax's operatic and visually stunning "Les Amants du Pont-Neuf/The Lovers on the Bridge" (1991). As a runaway artist slowly going blind, the actress turned in a beautifully rendered performance that meshed with Denis Levant's work as her homeless lover. (Binoche also created several of the paintings used in the film.) In her first foray in American television, she turned in a heart-wrenching performance as a young Polish prostitute befriended by Scott Glenn (as a thinly veiled Henry Miller) in the Mike Figgis-directed segment of HBO's "Women & Men II" (1991).
Binoche further enhanced her reputation in the early 90s by appearing as a woman who begins a sexual relationship with a politician -- who happens to be the father of her fiance -- in "Damage" (1992) and garnered raves, including a Best Actress trophy at the Venice Film Festival, for her work as a wife and mother coping with the aftermath of a tragic accident in "Blue" (1993), the first installment of Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski's French trilogy "Trois Couleurs", (The actress reprised the role in the other parts of the triptych, 1994's "Red" and "White".) In Jean-Paul Rappeneau's sumptuous period drama "The Horseman on the Roof/Le Hussard sur le toit" (1995), Binoche was convincing as a restless married noblewoman and she and co-star Olivier Martinez created a palpable erotic tension without a love scene. Binoche was Cathy to Ralph Fiennes' Heathcliff in a remake of "Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights", which was lambasted by European critics in its 1992 theatrical release but lauded by US critics in its premiere on TNT in 1994. She was again cast alongside Fiennes in Anthony Minghella's beautifully realized adaptation of "The English Patient" Her Hana, a Canadian nurse tending to a wounded stranger during WWII, was another in the line of Binoche heroines that projected emotional vulnerability and formed the nucleus of the feature's action.
Following her Oscar win, Binoche seemingly disappeared from American movie screens but the luminous actress remained occupied on stage (in London in "Naked" in 1997 and on Broadway in "Betrayal" in 2000) and films shot in France. She reunited with Andre Techine to portray a strong-willed musician who falls in love with a slightly disturbed younger man in "Alice et Martin" (1998). Her performance as the author George Sand in the Diane Kurys-directed "Les Enfants du siecle/Children of the Century" (1999) ranks among her best, capturing the writer's passionate qualities.
Chosen by Empire magazine as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (#48) in 1995. Ranked #93 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in October 1997. Chosen by "People" magazine as one of the 50 Most Beautiful People in the World in 1997. Was the advertising face of Lancome perfume "Poeme" from 1995 to 2000. In Jan 2003 she became the new face for Italian Pret-a-Porter line, Gentryportofino.
