ITSO . . . In the Style of . . . Juliette Binoche

Photo Source accessed from The Snipe

 

French women bloom at 40! I can't wait!

Juliette Binoche who is now closer to 60 than 40, apparently had been quoted saying that while in her 30's.

It was the movie Chocolat (2000) where I first noticed Juliette Binoche. I loved the character she played and a love interest with Johnny Depp kept me interested until the end of the movie. And although I had seen The English Patient (1996), somehow the character did not interest me enough to find out who the actress behind her was. That sounds so terrible now that I watched the movie again, and pay closer attention to Juliette Binoche. As an Oscar-winning supporting actress for that role, I'm obviously the one who didn't get it. Now she ranks as "my favourite" actress and I seek out her movies. 

If you don't know her work, this 3-minute youtube video will introduce you to Juliette Binoche, the actress. One of the reviews of her acting career (that I enjoyed reading) was written by Sofia Bohdanowicz, The Double Life of Juliette Binoche.

As I learn more about her political, social, and humanitarian activism, her own choices when accepting and rejecting roles, and the tidbits from her personal life, the more I admire her.

In 2014 her public persona took on a new "face" for Blue Illusion, an Australian clothing company focused on women 45+. Binoche uses the words "effortless" and "comfortable" when describing the look of adopted Parisian style translated by an Australian company. Those two words have different interpretations in Paris as compared with the rest of the world, particularly North America. But, that's another topic for another post.

The photo is one of La Binoche in a Blue Illusion design as sourced from Styling You.

Binoche described herself as "feminine with masculine strength" in a Daily Telegraph article in 2014. The Sydney Morning Herald quoted her as saying "A face has to move with the emotions because it's a mirror of what's happening inside . . ." when responding to a cosmetic surgery query.

Interviewers often are surprised by her casualness. British journalist, Tim Adams, described her as arriving in "a plain sweatshirt and no make-up". But more often than not, she shows up in what appears to be a suited look. She arrived at an interview with Kristen Yoonsoo Kim in a "cream-colored suit and baby-pink dress shirt". Perhaps it was that "feminine with masculine strength" that triggered the choice to wear a suit in light colours. The blazer and pants or jeans have always been a "look" I loved but I never thought of it as "feminine with masculine strength", just "feminine strength".  

She will soon be 60 and continues with grace and poise. That's the ticket, grace and poise.

I'll leave you with a gem of youthful wisdom from Binoche,

The only way for me to stay young is to let go of youth. You cannot hang on to the past. You cannot try to be young when you're not young anymore. But the youth is within yourself. How do you renew yourself, how do you go to a new layer of yourself? That is the real youth. That is the renewance of yourself.