Juliette Binoche – This Had Oscar Buzz

As The Odyssey continues to prove to be a career peak for Christopher Nolan and possible return to the Oscar stage, we’re looking back at a very different take on Homer’s epic poem. In 2024, The Return reunited Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche as the Ithacan king and queen – but limited the story just to the fallout from Odysseus’s arrival back to his kingdom. Despite the promise of TIFF Gala placement and a holiday release, The Return was met with a shrug on arrival.

This episode, we talk about Ralph Fiennes’s physique-forward performance (eye emoji) and Fiennes in the year of Conclave. We also discuss Charlie Plummer’s brattier take on Telemachus, the film’s lackluster design and aesthetics, and the Oscar hopes for Nolan’s blockbuster.

Topics also include Bleecker Street Film, Penelope’s loom, and Best Picture reunion 20 Questions.

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Our patrons said we must stay in Tuscany! This week, we’ve got another Patreon Selects episode and it has us talking about one of our least favorite Oscar years. In 2010, Abbas Kiarostami returned to Cannes with yet another masterpiece in Certified Copy, a dense and transfixing musing on reproductions of art, authenticity, and perception. The film didn’t release stateside until 2011, but did earn Juliette Binoche Best Actress at Cannes and a wide range of critical response, from befuddled to enraptured. But Certified Copy became more of a critical favorite than Oscar hopeful, while a different Iranian filmmaker, Asghar Farhadi, would win the country’s first international Oscar for A Separation.

This episode, we talk about Binoche’s career including her mixed bag of American projects. We also talk about the film’s slippery presentation of reality and role-play, the Iranian New Wave and Iran’s Oscar history, and the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.

Topics also include other 2011 favorites in a bad Oscar year, coffee shop ladies, and Cannes acting prizes.

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Tag: Juliette Binoche

402 – The Return

274 – Certified Copy (Patreon Selects)