Brawling with her ex-husband on the big screen in romantic “Pot-au-feu. The way to the heart” – Dagsavisen

One of France’s biggest stars welcomes Dagsavisen in a hotel room in his birthplace of Paris. It’s hard to see that Juliette Binoche passed 60 this month.

– We can’t go backwards, she says when the anniversary is brought to the fore.

She throws out a rusty pearl necklace with laughter.

– That’s not how it works, so I’ll take it well, she continues with a cold.

– And at every stage I have lived the life I wanted to live.

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The vagaries of love

Apart from the cold, it also bodes well for the spring of 2024. Recently it became known that Binoche will take over the presidency of the European Film Academy. At the same time, she is a critical success as designer icon Coco Chanel in the streaming series “The New Look” on Apple TV+. Now she follows up on the cinema screen in her most personal project to date. Between 1998 and 2003, Binoche was married to fellow actor Benoît Magimel. The ex-partner reunites in “Pot-au-feu. The road to the heart”, where they play food-loving parties in a complicated love story from the late 19th century.

– For many years we had a relationship that was not good. The fact that we were able to make a film together made a big difference in my life and my daughter’s, says Binoche, who has Hana (24) with Magimel.

– For me it was a gift. For a long time I wanted to talk to and meet him, but he always avoided me. Suddenly being in the same room meant a lot to me. It seemed healing, because I got to express my feelings. Love is bigger than conflicts and sad things. It was beautiful to experience.

Smell and taste

“Pot-au-feu” is based on Marcel Rouff’s 100-year-old novel about the gourmet Dodin Bouffant. Binoche’s character Eugénie is the disease-stricken chef he would so much like to make his wife. In addition to each other, they share a passion for the pleasures of the table, inspired by culinary national treasures such as Balzac and Carême.

The director is French-Vietnamese Cannes favorite Trần Anh Hùng. Audience members who remember “The smell of green papaya in the morning” (1993) and “Norwegian Wood” (2011) will recognize the look with which he explores the kitchen. And they should not rule out that they will leave the hall hungry for more than popcorn.

– Far too many films function only as an illustration of a story or a theme, Hùng claims to Dagsavisen.

– Instead, I try to give people a taste of the power of cinema. It’s hard to put your finger on, but it’s about film language and expression.

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– Made for my daughter

In the beginning, he admittedly feared that Binoche and Magimel would become strong ingredients.

– I was very nervous that they wouldn’t get along. Fortunately, it worked smoothly after two or three days of recording. They are great professionals, he attests, adding:

– Since it had been 20 years since they had worked together, everything seemed somehow new with the film. I have the feeling that it was also made for your daughter. This was the only opportunity for her to see her parents in this type of relationship.

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Satisfaction

Binoche is careful not to use the word “message” about what Hùng serves up.

– Sometimes you have no message, you just have to “live” it, she says.

– You are transported to a place you have not been before. It’s about an experience. It’s about something that comes into your life, while you wonder why. You live it – and little by little it becomes a part of you.

– “Feeling” is perhaps a better word? Do you want to convey a feeling?

– Well, Benoît and I kind of got through the film. I think it might help others to crack up. That’s my understanding, although it doesn’t have to be true. Some people are obsessed with food and they will find satisfaction in watching the food being prepared, as well as the way we have filmed.

Art and commerce

When Binoche embraces her cup of tea in an azure dress, the associations are not free to go to the breakthrough: Krzysztof Kieślowski’s “Blue” from 1993. Four winters later, she was awarded an Oscar for her performance in Anthony Minghella’s “The English Patient”.

Since then, she has combined Hollywood assignments with art films: “Chocolat”, “Clouds of Sils Maria”, “Caché”, “Cosmopolis”, “Godzilla” – Erik Poppe’s “A Thousand Times Good Night”. In sum, she challenges the pop culture cliché that there are no roles for grown women.

– It has never been a problem for me, she says in her Americanized English.

– Although certain productions got stuck and never came to fruition, I don’t think it was related to the fact that I am a woman.

– Do you feel privileged in this respect?

– I don’t know if I want to formulate it that way. Because I have had the guts to turn down roles that could seem very nice from the outside. When I read a script, I have to recognize something that I can add. It must be something I feel in my diaphragm or head or heart. I have to have a reaction.

Binoche throws out a few more rusty pearls of laughter.

– So I’m 60 – and I think that’s fine. But I want to work on something I feel passionate about. It turns the idea of ​​age upside down, because then it’s about your energy, she declares.

– It’s about passion and love. It’s about your interests intellectually, emotionally and creatively. And then there is no age – you exist beyond time.

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