She studied drama at the prestigious Conservatoire de Paris: then, as now, the intensity she brings to her work has never wavered. She admits to having found it nearly impossible to return to "real life” once the cameras stopped turning as a result. "I would often come down with a fever after the last day of filming because the separation was so brutal. The fact is that I would have killed myself for a film before. I just didn’t care about my life, because for me that was true dedication, and back then, art was bigger than anybody to me – bigger than myself, even.”
The epiphany came while Binoche was making Les Amants du Pont Neuf in 1991. "I almost drowned during filming, but I saved myself in order to live. I realised then, I think, that love was more important than anything else.”
At the time, Binoche was involved in a five-year relationship with the film’s director, Leos Carax, and has subsequently been linked to actor Olivier Martinez, her co-star on the Horseman on the Roof, Daniel Day-Lewis and, most recently, the Argentine director Santiago Amigorena. She has a 10-year-old daughter, Hanna by the French actor Benoit Magimel and a son, Raphael, 16, by a professional scuba diver named Andre Halle.
Enforced separations – the subject of Copie Conforme, a Tuscan love story exploring the marriage of an antique dealer (Binoche) and a writer (opera singer William Shimell) who behave like strangers after a long absence – are something Binoche can relate to. "When both sides have passion, it can work. Passion, however, requires your whole body, and if you are working hard that can be difficult to give.”
On the subject of her own relationships she will say little, cloaking any personal revelations in the therapy-speak French actresses are prone to. "I love in a different way now. I am less taken by my emotions. It’s not that I’m less sensitive, but I do feel more stable now.”
On a physical level too, Binoche has acquired gravity. That exceptionally sweet face – which once reminded one of a beautiful, shy deer – has aged naturally and shamelessly. Tiny fans of lines sprout from her eyes when she laughs and her default expression (perhaps because the interviewing process is one she clearly suffers rather than enjoys) is sharper than it once was. There are, however, no caveats necessary to describe her beauty (no "for her age,” no "considering”). And there’s something else: unlike so many in the industry, Binoche’s life shows on her face.