Juliette Binoche on The Taste of Things, French culture through cooking, working with Benoît Magimel

Intro I have a such a passion for for food and for cinema. This was like my perfect film. But did you already have an in-built passion for cooking? And before I can have the passion for cooking, Passion for cooking but every day it's not a passion, it's a duty. And I don't always have that, you know, that love of cooking. But at least I'm trying to to get nice ingredients to to enjoy it. So if you're hosting a dinner party, what would be your signature dish? God. I have a binder. I have all my recipes and I often, you know, I often do the same, but sometimes I try an Internet to try to look for something new. no, I'm trying to change it, you know? Really? I don't want to give you an idea that is not real. I mean, I've been trying tagine. I've been trying the salmon with the, you know, the crust on top and with the spinach and the cream with the low Muscat. I don't know how you say that in English. And I mean, I'm trying to put the food I've done many, many times. Well, I wanted to ask about the sort of technical side of this production and how those kind of cooking scenes were created, because unlike a usual scene, Cooking scenes if a director says Cut, you can just go back to the start. But I guess if you've already started cooking onions or the fish is half kids, I wondered about the kind of creation of those sequences and if the lot of patience was required. No, no, there was no creation on the spot. It was already, you know, looked after and very much so. And we had in case we needed to start again, we had what we needed to start again. So there was no we were following a map that was chosen with the chef, Pierre Gagnaire and chosen also with the director, whom and we had the the right arm of the chef that was with us, Michelle who was really looking after us and teaching us, you know, how you would do this and that to do specifically that dish. I mean, it was a real I mean, the magic of the movies because it's such a masterclass in filmmaking. I think. Working with Magimel I mean, this is a filmmaker you said you've wanted to work with before. I wondered if you've reached a point in your career where wanting to work with someone can be enough for you to make a decision, because I know, I know. Obviously the script and the characters are always important, but if there's someone you've wanted to work with, if they say, I'd like to work abuse, can you just say, Yeah, sure. Yes. And but I'd like to see the script, you know, like, do you think you're going to do more? I said, Yes to his film, but I, I, I was already in the film. I hadn't, I hadn't read anything. I hadn't read anything. But what he did is at a certain point before shooting, I said, You have to tell me what what I'm going through in the film because I'm here. I have to prepare, you've got to help me. So he started telling, describing what he had written because there was a script. He didn't want me to have it. So he started describing and so I wrote on the table cloth, you know, the paper table tablecloth at the restaurant. What was seen one scene to scene three scene. So I was, you know, writing on the on the spot, the script, and then the following day. So, no, I forgot I made a mistake. This is coming before that. And so finally I had that is sort of map of what we were going to shoot Yeah. I mean, because of course he's he's Vietnamese, but the film feels very undeniably kind of French, French cuisine and it really celebrates a very major part of French culture, which is its cuisine. Do you think in some ways having a kind of outside this perspective helps truly appreciate French culture in a way that's quite different to you be able to do? If you were looking at it from the inside? I think so, because when you say the inside as French people, yeah, French people don't appreciate the French cuisine or the French qualities. They poo poo it, especially when it's made in a film. Yeah, we much more appreciated in this film and outside than inside. And that's not sad in a way. But newly profit also be nobody's profit. Profit in its own country. That's from the Bible, right? That you cannot have success in, you know, in your own country. And of course the sea. And of course, you're working with Benoît Magimel for the first time in, I think 25 years. Working with Benot I was because I wondered about how you saw from that experience and obviously having that shared history and connection that you felt that that really kind of helped him force and inform sorry, the kind of performances and the experience. Definitely. I think it did that and I think that's what speaks, you know, especially in the film as well. Of course, the food, of course, the way of shooting the food. But I mean, come on, that's not the otherwise we would do only a food food recipe kind of thing. It's the relationship that is is crucial because it's it's bringing the meaning of the the need of food, of the need of having a companion, a co-creator, a team, you know, where you you get you excel in something. And it's it's so beautiful when you can achieve that that you have your heart being fulfilled with love with the person you're working with. I mean, that's the super, super best thing. Communication via dialogue Was it quite interesting for you to communicate via characters, via dialog that had been written for you? definitely. I use the Who's writing very much to tell Bonsoir how much I love him. No matter what, you know, no matter separation, conflicts, all the stuff from behind. You know, I was just happy to be able to put it upside down and, you know, reconcile in a in a very weird way, because it's through a film and through character and the feelings that are ours and yet written for another purpose in a way. But I use that purpose and I feel that was a real gift that the director gave us. Anyway. So you mentioned you worked with some incredible directors now in your career Directing and you still get incredible directors that you still to work with, but I wondered if you've ever considered directing or stepping into. I mean, do you still feel that one day perhaps we might see you in? Yeah, yeah, probably. But I've been very spoiled as an actress, so it's very hard to find, you know, moments to stop and and and have the time to write and and go for it. But it's in my mind. I know most of film directing you'd make if you got a is there a star is Style I mean is there a style of filmmaker that you've really you know and even you can appreciate the style of a director doesn't mean that you would have used the same style and you don't want to use a stone. You want to find your own way of telling things, and the way of editing and the way of the rhythm is so important in in a film. And, you know how you leave spaces inside and how you, you want to cut it quickly or you know, and the meaning of it all and you know, it's, it's a journey and just go back to the cooking of the food. Cooking I know obviously you said before you cooked many times before, I'm sure. But did you have to pick up any certain cooking techniques for this? Just yeah, there were techniques that, you know, Michelle gave us, and I think I did them in the film, but I forgot all of them, because if you don't do it every day, it goes away. So just very funny then. Did you get to eat much of the food? Because I'm assuming there must have been loads of food and there was a lot of food and I what I had to eat I ate, but otherwise I didn't eat that much because I was preparing Chanel and I had to lose weight. But that just takes some frankly, It's my final question. You should know. I mean, I've not seen the series yet, but I'm going to be watching it quite soon. How was it, I mean, to play an icon that you've you've played such a variety of wonderful roles. Is it always different to play someone so real? Definitely, because especially her, because she's and somehow it it's almost impossible to know who she was because she had many facets, because she had a thousand lives from, you know, when she started to the end, there were different women. She just the thing is, she was a survivor. That is the first fruit, you know, And and it brought a lot of things with the survivor, you know, the fears, the the the needs are on a very high stake. And so throughout her, you know, her life, she it was she's a fascinating woman. And I had to read to read lots of different books in order to try to understand a little bit of her. Because coming from a very poor background, she's, you know, for a woman at the time, at the end of 19th century, the beginning of 20 century was very hard. So she, she battled so deeply to, in order to survive. Yeah. And to follow her passion because she had a real passion. It was her skills were very special. Yeah. I guess you can relate to that with your acting and your drive to become so that again, I said, I guess you could relate to that sense of well, to keep, to try, because I think as an actor you've had to work so hard, I guess. Can you? Yeah, well you always relate to the character you playing because even the the most horrible what's because you've got to find the root, the human root inside in order to make it real for people to relate to if you otherwise it becomes a caricature. Well, I can't wait to see your version. Thank you very much. Yeah, Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, you are watching. Hey, you guys. Yeah, you guys are you guys? I That's what they all say. You guys. Hey, guys.