Juliet Binoche. What to do in Paris.
Juliette Binoche
Actress
I have a special relationship with Paris because it belongs to my history and my memories. It is like a map of my heart. I was born in Paris, I lived in the suburbs as a child and I came back to do my studies when I was 15. When I was 19, I lived in 11 different places in the city. I had a suitcase which was my apartment. Each time I go to a part of the city, an event comes back to me as a memory, as a smell or as a sensation.
I remember seeing the rose windows inside Notre Dame. My mother asked me when I was six years old how I felt about seeing those and I said: ‘It’s the most beautiful gift you could have given me.’
We didn’t have a lot of money and my mother took my sister and me to the Louvre every Sunday because it was free. As a teenager I remember going to see movies. For me, Paris was the city of movies and I went to see a lot of Fellini films. I was only 14 and I was discovering movies and love. Those memories are imprinted on me.
Once, before I had decided whether to be in Les enfants du siècle, in which I played the writer George Sand, I was driving home through the 16th arrondissement. I had to stop at a red light and I saw rue George Sand. It was a sign I had to do the film. I had never seen this street before but the city made me change mind.
Paris has a very particular beauty because of all those megalomaniac kings and emperors and their need to have their names on places. When I see the Arc de Triomphe, even though it’s very Parisian, I feel ashamed because I hate what Napoleon did. And I’m amazed there’s no monument for the Algerians. Why does it all need to be about conquests? What about honouring the people we hurt?
Paris can be a stressful place because there’s not enough green for me and I don’t feel the seasons enough. But it always feels like home. I don’t feel French, but when I’m here I feel like I belong, because I know the city very well. I feel like I can answer back, and I can be myself because I know the rules.