this is bbc news. the headlines... hezbollah fires a barrage of rockets into northern israel, after an israeli strike on a residential building in southern lebanon kills ten people. the israeli army says about 55 rockets were fired across the border — no casualties have been reported. no casualties have been reported. hospital officials in gaza say at least 15 people, including children and women, have been killed in israeli strikes on central gaza. meanwhile us president, joe biden says he believes a ceasefire deal is "closer than ever". the african union confirms more than 18,000 mpox cases have been detected in thirteen countries across the continent this year. india's ministry of health urges doctors to return to work.

medics are on strike demanding better protection after the rape and murder of one of their colleagues in a kolkata hospital. now on bbc news, this cultural life: juliette binoche. juliette binoche is one of the most acclaimed actors of her generation — a bafta and academy award winner. she's known for playing complex characters on stage and screen. from three colours: blue and les amants du pont—neuf to chocolat and the english patient, across a ao—year career, her roles have been incredibly varied. she brings an intelligence and emotional intensity to many of her big—screen characters. "the heart is an organ of fire." i love that.

in this episode of this cultural life, the radio 4 programme, juliette binoche reveals her formative influences and experiences, and reveals how it was seeing a play directed by peter brook that first ignited her passion for acting. i felt so much joy watching it. i remember thinking, "if you can give thatjoy, "i want to give it as well." it's tight. juliette binoche, welcome to this cultural life. it's tight. juliette binoche, welcome to this cultural life. thank you for having me.

you were born in paris in 1964 and you spent your early years there. both your parents were actors. what sort of work did they do? well, yes, they were actors but they were doing other things to survive because it was hard to be an actor. so, we're not poor but we were very restricted. and my father was a communist and he was, like, fighting for the people, and — but, yes, they were back and forth into directing and writing, as well as acting and travelling. so, they were both very artistic people. yes, and struggling people as well, you know. right. your parents divorced, i think, when you were four years old and you were sent to a boarding school with your sister. so, that's a young age to be sent away. was that pretty tough? yes, they separated when i was 2.5 and then, we were put into different places. one was in a boarding school and another place

was at my grandmother's, who separated my sister and i, and i went to my aunt's house. so, it's been a childhood that has been, you know, travelling and emotionally not knowing where i was, you know, where i was, where i was belonging, you know, why i was there, so it was — and i think it helped me as an actress very much, because it opens your heart in a way. it, it's, erm... it hurts, but at the same time, you've got to find a way to survive inside you. and so, i was a joyful child. my way of surviving was playing and being joy by, you know, feeling joy. and so, i suffered but also, i was happy. even though you weren't, i presume, seeing your parents very often, then? when we were in boarding school, we saw them saturday afternoon and sunday. and sometimes, we were sent sunday night to the boarding school. so, that was — they were probably rough years, but, you know, children — they don't know that.

mmm. they understand that later on, when you have your own children and you — you remember, "0k, "i was there then." you have to deal with it your whole life afterwards. what sort of cultural education did you get at school? a normal one, let's say, but i was educated by the passion of my parents, you know — going to the theatre as well as, you know, going to see musicians or going to see films or, you know, or reading plays during christmas—time. so, it was rich. i would say it was chaotic, but it was rich. and did you say your father was a communist? oh, yeah. yeah. so, there was a political dimension to the upbringing as well? yeah, and my mother was a feminist and ecologist in the �*70s, so i was, you know, surrounded by — yeah, the consciousness of what's happening in this world. on this cultural life, i ask my guest to choose the most important influences and experiences that have inspired their own creativity and you've

chosen for us a production of alfred jarry�*s ubu roi, which was directed by peter brook. my mother took me. i remember being with her and seeing ubu roi, and i was probably 13 or 14, and i rememberfollowing this play and being mesmerised by it. drum beats. woman shrieks. it's a really interesting production — very bare set, minimal props — i think there was a drum kit on the stage — and the play ubu roi is a satire, interweaving some of shakespeare's stories as well — there's a bit of hamlet in there, and macbeth. there was a special spirit in peter brook's plays, you know, and his way of directing. first of all, is that your

imagination really go strong when there's almost no object. it's not, you know, the set is not telling you where you are. you'rejust imagining. so, i felt it was — and it was not that conscious when i saw it, you know, when i was a teenager. you probably haven't seen that production since you were there in that theatre. i haven't seen it since then. you know, there is some film — we found it in the bbc archive. amazing. yeah. let me just — just have a look at this clip here. let mejust press... shivers. shouting. can you see? this is the... he makes the... ..the animal! this is a bear, is it? yeah! isn't it amazing? it's a rug which turns into a bear. yeah, i love that. roars. shouts. laughter. it was something else. it came almost from —

instead of showing off something, it was like going down into something. but i felt likejust — it was working in me, for me, and so — and in the play, it's just the freedom, the — you know, the tragedy and comedy all together. and at the end of it all, i, i felt so much joy watching it. i remember standing up — everybody was standing up and applauding — and the joy i felt, that "if you can give "thatjoy, i want to give it as well." why does it move you so much, do you think? i don't know, it's the... i think i'm made like that. i'm made like that because it touches me and i'm not controlling it. it'sjust happening. it's — probably it's when you open yourself — it's as simple as that. and that was the moment, seeing that production, that changed you as well, that made you want to be part of theatre.

it's more an awareness — "i want to do this". and i don't know how or whether it's possible or not because, you know, life is big and you had to — i needed to be found as well, as i had needed to find my road and how to, you know, to realise a dream. but at least i had the dream. so, that's why going to see, you know, arts is so important because it really can transform me — transform you — inside. so, seeing this production was a transformative moment. it made you think, "i want to do that." and then, you started acting. yes, well, i did at school. my mother was my theatre teacher. and it was wonderful. it was very joyful. and then, when i arrived in paris — i was 15 with my sister. when i got my a—level, then my mother found a class for me where i met vera gregh. your next choice for this cultural life is your acting teacher, vera gregh.

yes. vera gregh, yeah. yeah. so, what did she teach you? how did she teach you? well, you know, when i entered her class, i was full of will — talk about will. and so, she took me and she didn't allow me to go on stage. and i thought, you know, what am i doing here if i'm not a scene? and so, after three months, she was working on a scene and after a while, she stopped me. like, almost shouting at me — "stop, stop!" so, i was a little surprised. and then she stopped me, like, several times until i was totally lost. and the turning point of being lost is very important for an actor — not knowing. not knowing what you're doing and where you're going but allowing the trust in you that it's ok not to know. it will find its way. so, when she was saying "stop, stop, stop acting,"

she was encouraging you to strip away your self—awareness? the knowledge i thought i had, the willingful to — to prove i was a good actress. it was — you know, just a way to — to listen to myself somehow, to listen to what's in me. so, for you, the acting itself is a profound, creative act? absolutely. otherwise, it's not worth it. after you left drama school, you started landing some early screen roles. one of the first ones was a part created for you byjean—luc godard in a film called hail mary in 1985. and, of course, he's — he was very much a god of french cinema, one of the prime movers, the pioneers of the new wave. so, working with him, that experience —

was that intimidating, to work with somebody who was so revered at a young age? yes, it was, but at the same time, he was not that reachable. and he would change his mind all the time on the set, and — or sometimes, he would come on the set and he didn't want to shoot, so we had to go back to our hotel and we stayed there for months. but what i felt, he was respecting us because he was paying us quite well. paying you? yeah! and that — it meant a lot to me because i was living, you know, with my little roles, you know, how i could because i was not helped by my parents, so it meant a lot to me. and ifelt, "0h, he has respect in that way." he was not trying to be cheap. i presume that that style of acting that you developed at school was with a kind of an eye

on the stage, primarily. was it very different, the technique of having — that you had to employ in front of the camera for godard? what was different is that my acting teacher — vera orjean—pierre — they were trying to help me. jean—luc godard didn't try to help me at all! he was... i would say he was almost — not that i had a lot of scene in the film, you know — i have very little scenes — but what i recall from, you know, working with him is that he was always trying to shift things so you wouldn't feel comfortable. so, that you would feel a sort of malaise, a twist of not feeling — not feeling at home.

your next choice for this programme is the experience of making les amants du pont—neuf, which is a love story about two young people sleeping rough on the oldest bridge in paris, and it's set in 1989 against the backdrop of the bicentennial celebrations that were going on in paris, fireworks going off. the blue danube waltz byjohann strauss ii plays. a breakthrough role for you, playing one of the two lovers — playing, actually, a painter who's going blind in the story. you've made around 70 films in your career to date,

so why have you chosen this one? well, i was totally part of it because i was living with leos carax at the time, and we had... who was the director and writer. well, i was totally part of it because i was living with leos carax at the time, and we had... who was the director and writer. yes, we had done, the night is young in english — le mauvais sang — and so, we were living together and as he was writing the script, i was painting and drawing him and so, he included that role — and i'm a painter in the story — and you know, we were fighting to, to make it done together. so, it was 2.5 years of, you know, of trying to shoot it, first of all but before that, there was the writing side and the production side. take us to the experience of the shoot itself. there's a scene — an incredible scene — when the two characters are in the seine, they fall underwater. it's said that you almost drowned shooting that scene. we were shooting in a swimming pool and i had 14 kilos

around my waist and i had a wig on, i had the coat on, i had the, you know, all the shoes. and then, i had to go down with the actor denis lavant and we had a scene to play and we had two scuba divers, you know, helping us. and i asked for the air and the air didn't come, so i had no more air. and with the weight and the clothes and the five metres, i had to go up. i, like, just fight. i fought for my life. ifelt like, really, that's the turning point. whether, "goodbye, life" or whether i was going to survive. and during that time, i really — i really had a sort of a clear idea that i say "yes" to life forever and the art will be second because i think it's — inside of me, there was a sort

of a feeling that i'll give myself until the end to the art form, you know, acting. and so, after i came out, you know, of the swimming pool, like... gasps. ..trying to breathe and all, the first assistant came and said, "well, we're going to do a second take." and i went, "without me!" because that was just crazy. and i said, you've got to take a professional. this is not my — i'm not a professionalfor that. and so... and so, after that, i was very — i knew the line, i knew the limit. but with leos carax, who you were working with, being directed by and living with, because there was a personal and professional relationship, i mean, that must have put a huge amount of pressure on the relationship itself, didn't it? well, you know, when you live with the person you're working with, you don't think a grand director or grand this or that — you're just living together and that's it and there's a relationship.

yeah, it did put a lot of pressure. i mean, we separated during the shooting. after les amants du pont—neuf, you went on to make three colours: blue with krzysztof kieslowski... song for the unification of europe (patrice�*s version) by zbigniew preisner plays. it's about a woman who has lost her husband. he is a very famous composer, composing an anthem to celebrate european union. and it's about — it's a film very much about grief as well, isn't it? mm—hm, and how do you survive. piano lid thuds. when you're choosing a role — in that case, it was that story and it was kieslowski. it was... yes. ..it was the chance to work with him in particular. oh, yes. yes, he was wonderful to work with, very easy to work with, and we had a great time —

we were laughing, giggling all the time. coming from the east before the wall fell, like, he would only do one take because he didn't have a lot of film. you know, it was expensive in his world for many years, so... he was polish, wasn't he? polish, yeah. and so, i said, "go ahead. "we can do at least two, three, four, maybe seven." but he said, "no, i don't need. "i don't need it." so, i had to have deals with him, saying i had technical problems, that's why, you know, i needed a second take, because it was allowing to do a second take when there was a sound problem or a camera problem, but not when the actor, you know, wanted to do another one. but maybe you were just nailing it first take, every time. yes, but you want to explore. as an actor, you want to explore. it's about being revealed by the scene.

the role that did make you a big international star was in the english patient, directed by anthony minghella, for which you won an academy award in 1997, best supporting actress. it is a beautiful role in which you play hannah, the nurse nursing the english patient — the title character played by ralph fiennes. this will help you. i must be a curse. anybody who loves me, anybody who gets close to me know i must be cursed. what was the appeal of that role of hannah?

you can't explain everything. it was probably a meeting between this role and myself. during the shooting, it felt i was on a cloud of love, kind of. everything was — i was — i was very frightened, i have to say, the first half month. the first month of shooting, i remember being, like, super frightened. and then the second half, it was like, erm, purejoy. i'll always go back to that church by academy of st martin in the fields and gabriel yared plays. and that was a journey of the complexity of, you know, of what it is to be in a war and what it is to have a patient,

and the responsibility of playing this role of many, many nurses. that is such a loved film and it went on to win so many academy awards. were you aware as you were making it... not at all. ..that something works? just before shooting, the production, fox dropped it, so we were like orphans. we were just about to shoot and then, suddenly, the money stopped. so, it was like trauma, and are we going to be able to shoot this film? we had done the rehearsals, we were really ready to go. and saul zaentz and anthony were, like, scratching their heads, not knowing how to deal with it. and so, finally, they called miramax and they loved the script and they started producing and we did it. even when the scenes were unfolding, when the camera was rolling, i mean,

did you not get that sense from anthony that something really special is happening there? no, we were trying our best every day and every second, you know, we were shooting, but no, we didn't know. and we started with the italian site and then, they went to tunisia to finish with kristin, and, and — and no, we didn't know. in your latest film, the taste of things, you play a cook and the lover of a very famous french gourmet. the film is very much a love letter to haute cuisine, isn't it? so, this film was very special to me because first of all,

i wanted to work with tran anh hung, and the fact he wrote a script that is so french and coming from vietnam when he was 12 years old, and he embraced the haute cuisine, you know, the culinary art is a very french thing. so, when i read the script, it felt like it was going into this world that he created. it's a very tender relationship which is explored there — and very subtly done as well. and the development of the food and the menu runs in parallel to this relationship, which is not explicit and not full—on, in a way. it's — it's explored in a very tentative way. yes. but you get a sense that he is very, very deeply in love with her. we were looking for the actor, and then finally they asked me, "do you — can we ask benoit magimel to shoot and do the male role?"

and because i had a relationship with him and we have a daughter together, and i said, "yes, you can try and ask him, "but i'm not sure he's going to say yes." and then, finally, he said yes. so it was like, "oh, wow! "so, we're going to tell that love story, even though we've been "separated for a long time and it was not always easy in the — "in the separation". and so, finally playing two lovers, you know, in this realm of cooking was certainly a challenge — it felt like a challenge before starting. you've made such a huge variety of films and the parts that you play don't seem to get any less interesting. i mean, why do you think that is, in your case? you're the outsider who sees, and i don't — i don't have explanation. ijust have the passion of — of acting. but you must be aware that so many women, so many actors say that,

you know, you get to 40, the phone stops ringing so often. well, i didn't wait for the phone to ring. i also go to the directors or, you know, be creative in my own way, and you have to provoke things to come and choose something that you really want to do and notjust do for the outside money or fame or things like that. i think you really have to choose for something that is meaningful to you. and sometimes, you're in a film, you feel, "ugh," you know, the way it's been shot or the way, you know, you're a little, a little disappointed. you have to still give the best you can, because that's the rule. my philosophy, you know, "you go, you fight for it "until the end." my philosophy, you know, "you go, you fight for it until the end." and if it's not good at the end,

you tried your best. juliette binoche, thank you so much for... thank you. ..sharing your cultural life with us. thank you. voiceover: and for podcast episodes of this cultural life, _ go to bbc sounds or wherever you get your podcasts. hello there. it's fairly settled weather for the weekend. it's not altogether dry — as we've seen this morning, there have been a scattering of showers, because we are still under this dominant low to the north of the uk, with its west north—westerly winds bringing in the showers off the atlantic. and those winds are fairly brisk, not as strong as they were yesterday, but still strong enough to push the showers across scotland. many places still escape them, as we'll see in northern ireland. we've had 1 or 2 for england and wales. they could even be the odd one where we see the lion's share of the sunshine in east anglia and the south east, but warmest here 2a, 25. 19 to 20 in the north. the temperatures are around about average for the time of year, perhaps just a little bit above in the south.

but it means, again, that we've got some high levels of pollen if you're out and about, stretching right the way up into scotland now, and with more sunshine on offer tomorrow, i'm sure a similar case. but the cloud does melt a little overnight. the winds start to ease, the showers start to fade under the influence of that ridge of high pressure. so again, i think it'll be quite cool or even quite fresh as we get towards sunday morning. temperatures will be in single figures in rural areas — as low as 5 or 6 in the north. and that's under the extending influence of the azores high, where we get a lot of our dry and settled weather from at this time of year. but again, yes, it's promising to be quite sunny first thing. the cloud bubbles up. there'll be a few showers developing — probably fewer than today on balance. a scattering for scotland primarily, and one or two in northern ireland and not as brisk a wind as today, but temperatures might be a degree or so down, but it'll still feel warm in the strong august sunshine, and we'll still see some of that as we go into next week, but increasingly it turns unsettled. later on monday, this next area of rain starts to move

in from the atlantic. the next area of low pressure. it's going to pull in more of a southerly wind ahead of it, so we'll find that our dew points or our humidity rises. so monday night will actually be quite uncomfortably warm for sleeping once again. and by the end of play monday, we've got that heavyish rain coming into northern ireland, western and northern scotland, the western fringes of england and wales. but we stay largely fine further east. we could just have some fog first thing under the clearer skies and some sea fog as that humidity increases further west. and then, i think, for the rest of the week, a very unsettled looking picture — showers or longer spells of rain. we will of course put the detail on as we get closer to the time.

live from london. this is bbc news. hezbollah retaliates after reports that at least ten people were killed in an israeli strike on a residential building in lebanon. protests in venezuala's capital after the country's opposition calls for world—wide demonstrations over president nicolas maduro's disputed election victory. the african union confirms more than 18,000 mpox cases have been detected in 13 countries across the continent this year. the art collection at london's somerset house safe after a blaze breaks out at the historic cultural centre.

lebanon says at least ten people were killed in an israeli strike