Juliette Binoche about the new film “Queen at sea”

It all starts with a nude bedroom scene. Amanda (Juliette Binoche) panics when she witnesses her stepfather Martin (Tom Courtenay) having sex with her demented mother (Anna Calder-Marshall). She soon called the police, setting in motion an extensive chain of investigations and social efforts that cannot be stopped. It raises a number of complicated questions in a borderland: Is this abuse – even though the mother often shows sexual desire? Or is a person with dementia by definition unable to make decisions about consent?

So begins Lance Hammer’s British social drama “Queen at Sea”, which is considered one of the favorites in the hunt for the Golden Bear. What initially appears to be a problem-focused geriatric Metoo drama evolves into a heartbreaking and complex depiction of love, intimacy, consent and aging, much in the same vein as Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner “Amour.”

– For me, who is always looking for maximum authenticity at work, “Queen at sea” was a pure gold mine. In a world where authenticity is in short supply, I think it’s especially important to at least try to find it in film. “This film is particularly close to my heart,” says Juliette Binoche in a room at the Hotel Ritz on Potsdamer Platz.

La Binoche changed into comfortable clothes after yesterday’s gala premiere. Blue jeans, yellow blouse with red stripes, sand beige jacket and dark tinted glasses that hide her signature almond eyes. She thrives like a fish in water at the Berlin Festival, where she has been a regular guest for a long time. It has been almost 30 years since Binoche won the Silver Bear for her stoic nurse in The English Patient – one of many roles in which she demonstrated her excellence as a sensual, vulnerable and sad heroine.

Now she can add Amanda in “Queen at Sea” to her collection of melancholic signature roles. A self-confident academic who gradually loses control over his feelings and his mother’s practical situation.

– But for me it’s less about morals and more about a daughter’s instinct to protect her mother. She never doubts that Martin loves her mother, but the uncertainty about what is best for the mother and whether she has made the right decision leads to a nightmare, says Binoche.

“Queen at Sea” raises important questions Questions about guilt, responsibility and how we care for our elders. Juliette Binoche notes that dementia is more common in movies, just as it is in real life.

– Like everyone else, I will be old one day. Sometimes I worry. But my daughter sends tips – lots of articles and recipes – on how to avoid dementia, Binoche says with a laugh.

Nevertheless, she takes the advice very seriously. Among other things, Lasse Hallström’s former chocolate queen has completely given up cocoa.

– I stopped eating chocolate because it contains too high levels of the heavy metal cadmium, which can cause both cancer and Alzheimer’s disease. This is particularly true of dark chocolate from South America, which is grown in cadmium-rich soils, says Juliette Binoche, without sounding exactly alarming.

Despite her often melancholic appearance on the big screen, she is not a depressed idiot in her private life. More of a passionate charmer with a winning personality and a boisterous laugh that echoes around the room.

She is very happy about all the tears in her eyes at the screening of “Queen at Sea” in the ballroom of the Berlinale Palast.

– That’s probably why I became an actor – to touch the heart. The film changed my life, so I believe it is possible to change other people’s lives.

Decided as a 14 year old She decided to become an actress after seeing Peter Brook’s legendary interpretation of the grotesque satirical play “Ubu roi” at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord in Paris in 1977.

– When everyone stood up and applauded, I thought: If I can give people the same happiness, then I want to do that, says Juliette Binoche, who has a large dose of self-irony, which she used, among other things, in an episode of the acclaimed series “Call my agent!” revealed.

– Ok, maybe I’m not always a laughing machine. People don’t tan themselves to death for my films, but I believe that art can touch people deeply.

After a few extra rolls She became an overnight star with her debut in André Techiné’s erotic drama “Rendez-vous” (1985), in which she had destructive love affairs with two cultured men, played by Wilson Lambert and Jean-Louis Trintignant.

– I was a young actor trying to make a living and survive. There were a lot of nude scenes which were difficult and sometimes it was 20 degrees cold. “It was hard and tough, but it was my chance – and I took it,” recalls Binoche, who was immediately nominated for a French César.

She has remained at the top ever since. In addition to the German superstar Sandra Hülser (“Rose”), Binoche also made one of the most discussed performances of the year before the awards ceremony on Saturday.

– There was a certain inflation in film prices, but as an A-festival Berlin is something special. But I can’t compete against Sandra. We were on the same jury and I love her, so she is welcome to accept the award!

As chairman of The European Film Academy EFA, Binoche is proud that European productions received many Oscar nominations and also won the Cannes Festival last year with films such as “Sentimental Value”, “Sirãt”, “Sound of Falling” and Jafar Panahi’s “It was just an Accident”, shot under the French flag. Although she’s suitable for big productions like Godzilla, she’s essentially a Eurocentric movie star.

– For me the most important thing is always to put art before business. On the other side of the Atlantic it is the other way around. European cinema must become aware of its own strength – to make fewer but stronger films that are important for humanity, she says with a smile:

– Amen.

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