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Blue
Blue field
Directed by	Derek Jarman
Produced by	James Mackay Takashi Asai
Written by	Derek Jarman
Narrated by	Derek Jarman Tilda Swinton Nigel Terry John Quentin
Music by	Simon Fisher Turner John Balance Momus Peter Christopherson Karol Szymanowski Erik Satie
Studio	Channel Four Films BBC Radio 3 Arts Council of Great Britain
Distributed by	Basilisk Communications Ltd
Release date(s)	Venice Biennale, June 1993, Edinburgh International Film Festival, August 1993, 3 October 1993 (New York Film Festival)
Running time	79 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English

Blue is the twelfth and final feature film by director Derek Jarman, released four months before his death from AIDS-related complications. Such complications had already rendered him partially blind at the time of the film's release.

The film was his last testament as a film-maker, and consists of a single shot of saturated blue colour filling the screen, as background to a soundtrack where Jarman's and some of his favourite actors' narration describes his life and vision.

On its premiere, Channel 4 and BBC Radio 3 collaborated on a simultaneous broadcast so viewers could enjoy a stereo soundtrack. Radio 3 subsequently broadcast the soundtrack separately as a radio play and it was later released as a CD.

The film ends with the words:

In time,
No one will remember our work
Our life will pass like the traces of a cloud
And be scattered like
Mist that is chased by the
Rays of the sun
For our time is the passing of a shadow
And our lives will run like
Sparks through the stubble. I place a delphinium, Blue, upon your grave

The film has been released on DVD in Germany and in Italy. On 23 July 2007 British distributor Artificial Eye released DVD tying Blue together with Glitterbug, a collage of Jarman's Super 8 footage.

Notes[link]

See also[link]

• Themes for Derek Jarman's Blue

External links[link]

• A review of Blue
• Text of Jarman's soundtrack for the film Blue
• Blue DVD page
• Blue at the Internet Movie Database
• Blue at AllRovi

This 1990s drama film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Juliette Binoche
at the Elysee Biarritz movie theatre in Paris on 22 October 2009
Born	(1964-03-09) 9 March 1964 (age 48) Paris, France
Other names	"La Binoche"
Occupation	Actress, artist, dancer, poet, designer, human rights campaigner
Years active	1983–present
Partner	Leos Carax (1986–1991) André Hallé (1991–1993) Benoît Magimel (1998–2003) Santiago Amigorena (2005–2009)
Children	Raphaël Hallé (b 1993) Hana Magimel (b 1999)
Signature	150px

Juliette Binoche (French pronunciation: [ʒyljɛt binɔʃ]; born 9 March 1964) is a French actress, artist and dancer. She has appeared in more than 40 feature films, been recipient of numerous international accolades, is a published author and has appeared on stage across the world. Coming from an artistic background, she began taking acting lessons during adolescence. After performing in several stage productions, she was propelled into the world of auteurs Jean-Luc Godard (Hail Mary, 1985), Jacques Doillon (Family Life, 1985) and André Téchiné, who made her a star in France with the leading role in his 1985 drama Rendez-vous. Her sensual performance in her English-language debut The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988), directed by Philip Kaufman, launched her international career.

She sparked the interest of Steven Spielberg, who offered her several parts including a role in Jurassic Park which she declined, choosing instead to join Krzysztof Kieślowski on the set of Three Colors: Blue (1993), a performance for which she won the Venice Film Festival Award for Best Actress and a César. Three years later Binoche gained further acclaim in Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996), for which she was awarded an Academy Award and a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress in addition to the Best Actress Award at the 1997 Berlin Film Festival. For her performance in Lasse Hallström's romantic comedy Chocolat (2000) Binoche was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

During the 2000s she maintained a successful, critically acclaimed career, alternating between French and English language roles in both mainstream and art-house productions. In 2010 she won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for her role in Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy making her the first actress to win the European "best actress triple crown".

Throughout her career Binoche has intermittently appeared on stage, most notably in a 1998 London production of Luigi Pirandello's Naked and in a 2000 production of Harold Pinter's Betrayal on Broadway for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. In 2008 she began a world tour with a modern dance production in-i devised in collaboration with Akram Khan. Affectionately referred to as "La Binoche"^[1] by the French press, her other notable performances include: Mauvais Sang (1986), Les Amants du Pont-Neuf (1991), Damage (1992), The Horseman on the Roof (1995), Code Unknown (2000), Caché (2005), Breaking and Entering (2006) and Flight of the Red Balloon (2007).

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Juliette Binoche was born in Paris, the daughter of Jean-Marie Binoche, a director, actor and sculptor, and Monique Stalens, a teacher, director and actress.^[2] Her mother is of Polish descent. Her maternal Polish Catholic grandparents were imprisoned at Auschwitz because they were considered to be intellectuals by the Nazi occupiers.^[3] She also has French, Flemish, Brazilian and Moroccan ancestry.^[4] When her parents divorced in 1968, four year old Binoche and her sister Marion were sent to a provincial boarding school.^[5] During their teens, the Binoche sisters spent their school holidays with their maternal grandmother, not seeing either parent for months at a time. Binoche has stated that this perceived parental abandonment had a profound effect on her.^[6]

She was not particularly academic^[7] and in her teenage years she began acting at school in amateur stage productions. At 17, she directed and starred in a student production of the Eugène Ionesco play, Exit the King. She studied acting at the Conservatoire National Supérieur d'Art Dramatique (CNSAD), but quit after a short time as she disliked the curriculum.^[7] In the early 1980s, she found an agent through a friend and joined a theater troupe with which she toured France, Belgium and Switzerland under the pseudonym "Juliette Adrienne".^[8] Around this time she began lessons with the famed acting coach Vera Gregh.^[9]

Her first professional screen experience was as an extra in the three part TF1 television series Dorothée, danseuse de corde (1983) directed by Jacques Fensten, which was followed by a similarly small role in the provincial television film Fort bloque directed by Pierrick Guinnard. Following this Binoche secured her first feature film appearance with a minor role in Pascal Kané's Liberty Belle (1983). Her role required just two days on set, but was enough to inspire Binoche to pursue a career in film.^[7]

1984–1991[link]

Juliette Binoche in 1985.

Binoche's early films would see her established as a French star of some renown.^[5] In 1983, she auditioned for the female lead in Jean-Luc Godard's' controversial Hail Mary, a modern retelling of the Virgin birth.^[10] Godard requested a meeting with Binoche having seen a photo of her taken by her boyfriend of the time.^[11] She has said that she spent six months on the set of the film in Geneva, although her role in the final cut is contained to only a few scenes.^[11][12] Further supporting roles followed in a variety of French films: Annick Lanoë's Les Nanas was to give Binoche her most noteworthy role to date, playing opposite established stars Marie-France Pisier and Macha Meril, in a mainstream comedy.^[13] However, she has stated that the experience was not particularly memorable or influential.^[14] She gained more significant exposure in Jacques Doillon's critically acclaimed Family Life, which cast her as the volatile teenage step-daughter of Sami Frey's central character. This film was to set the tone of her early career.^[15] Doillon has commented that in the original screenplay her character was written to be 14 years old, he was so impressed with Binoche's audition he changed the character's age to 17 to allow her take the role.^[14] In April 1985, Binoche followed this with another supporting role in Bob Decout's Adieu Blaireau, a policier thriller starring Philippe Léotard and Annie Girardot. Adieu Blaireau failed to have much impact with critics or audiences.^[13]

It was to be later in 1985 that Binoche would fully emerge as a leading actress with her role in André Téchiné's Rendez-vous. She was cast at short notice when Sandrine Bonnaire had to abandon the film due to a scheduling conflict.^[16] Rendez-vous premiered at the 1985 Cannes Film Festival, winning Best Director. The film was a sensation and Binoche became the darling of the festival.^[17] Rendez-Vous is the story of a provincial actress, Nina (Binoche), who arrives in Paris and embarks on a series of dysfunctional liaisons with several men, including the moody, suicidal Quentin (Lambert Wilson). However it is her collaboration with theatre director Scrutzler, played by Jean-Louis Trintignant, which comes to define Nina.^[18] In a review of Rendez-Vous in Film Comment, Armond White described it as "Juliette Binoche's career defining performance".^[19] In 1986, Binoche was nominated for her first César for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in the film.^[20] Following Rendez-Vous, she was unsure of what role to take next. She auditioned unsuccessfully for Yves Boisset's Bleu comme l'enfer and Robin Davis's Hors la loi,^[18] but was eventually cast in My Brother-in-law Killed My Sister (1986) by Jacques Rouffio opposite the popular French stars Michel Serrault and Michel Piccoli. This film was a critical and commercial failure.^[21] Binoche has commented that Rouffio's film is very significant to her career as it taught her to judge roles based on the quality of the screenplay and her connection with a director, not on the reputation of other cast members.^[22] Later in 1986, she again starred opposite Michel Piccoli in Leos Carax's Mauvais Sang. This film was a critical and commercial success, leading to Binoche's second César nomination. Mauvais Sang is an avant-garde thriller in which she plays Anna the vastly younger lover of Marc (Piccoli) who falls in love with Alex (Denis Lavant), a young thief.^[23] Binoche has stated that she, "discovered the camera", while shooting this film.^[24]

In August 1986, Binoche began filming Philip Kaufman's adaptation of Milan Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being, portraying the young and innocent Tereza.^[25] Released in 1988, this was Binoche's first English language role and was a worldwide success with critics and audiences alike^[26] Set against the Russian invasion of Prague in 1968, the film tells the story of the relationships a Czech surgeon, Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis), has with his wife Tereza and his lover Sabina (Lena Olin). Binoche has stated that at the time her English was very limited and that she relied on a French translation to fully grasp her role.^[27] After this success, Binoche decided to return to France rather than pursue an international career.^[28] In 1988, she filmed the lead in Pierre Pradinas's Un tour de manège, a little-seen French film opposite François Cluzet.^[28] She has stated that her attraction to this film was that it gave her the opportunity to work with close friends and family.^[7] Pradinas is the husband of her sister Marion Stalens who was set photographer on the film and appeared in a cameo role.^[7] In the summer of 1988, Binoche returned to the stage in an acclaimed production of Anton Checkov's The Seagull directed by Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky at Théâtre De L'odéon in Paris.^[29] Later that year she began work on Léos Carax's Les Amants du Pont-Neuf.^[30] The film was beset by problems and took three years to complete, requiring investment from three producers and funds from the French government.^[14] When finally released in 1991, Les Amants du Pont-Neuf was a critical success. Binoche won a European Film Award^[31] as well as securing her third César nomination for her performance. In the film Binoche portrays an artist who lives rough on the famous Parisian bridge where she meets another young vagrant (Denis Lavant). This iconic part of the city becomes the backdrop for a wildly passionate love story and some of the most visually arresting images of the city ever created.^[32] The paintings featured in the film were Binoche's own work.^[14] She also designed the French poster for the film which features an ink drawing of the eponymous lovers locked in embrace.^[14] During a break in filming in 1990, Binoche spent five days shooting Mara for Mike Figgis, based on Henry Miller's Quiet Days at Clichy. This 30 minute film was part of HBO's anthology series Women & Men 2.^[33] The film became somewhat contentious when, according to Mike Figgis, HBO altered it once he had completed it.^[34] The film premiered on HBO in the U.S. on 18 August 1991.^[35]

At this point, Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career. She was recognized as one of the most significant French actresses of her generation.^[36] However, the long production of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf had forced her to turn down several significant roles in international productions including The Double Life of Véronique by Krzysztof Kieślowski, Cyrano de Bergerac by Jean-Paul Rappeneau, Night and Day by Chantal Akerman and Beyond the Aegean an aborted project with Elia Kazan.^[37] Now Binoche chose to pursue an international career outside France.^[14]

1992–2000[link]

Juliette Binoche at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.

The 1990s saw Juliette Binoche inaugurated as a European leading lady in a series of international films that were critical and commercial successes winning Binoche much praise and numerous awards for her performances.^[38] This period saw her persona develop from that of a young gamine to a more melancholic, tragic presence. Critics suggested that many of her roles were notable for her almost passive intensity in the face of tragedy and despair.^[28] In fact Binoche has nicknamed her characters from this period as her "sorrowful sisters".^[39] Following the long shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, Binoche relocated to London for the 1992 productions of Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights and Damage, both of which considerably enhanced her international reputation.^[40] Yet, from a professional and personal point-of-view, both films were significant challenges for Binoche; her casting opposite Ralph Fiennes's Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights, in favour of English actresses Helena Bonham Carter^[41] and Kate Beckinsale,^[42] was immediately contentious and drew derision from the British press, unimpressed that a uniquely English role had gone to a French actress.^[43] The film had its world premiere at the 1992 Edinburgh International Film Festival. Reviews were poor, with Binoche being cynically dubbed "Cathy Clouseau" and being derided for her "franglais" accent.^[44] Both Binoche and director Peter Kosminsky distanced themselves from the film, with Binoche refusing to do any promotion for the film or to redub it into French.^[45] Damage, a UK and French co-production, is the story of a British conservative minister played by Jeremy Irons who embarks on a torrid affair with his son's fiancée (Binoche). Based on the novel by Josephine Hart and directed by veteran French director Louis Malle, Damage seemed to be the ideal international vehicle for Binoche; however the production was wrought with difficulties and dogged by rumours of serious conflict. In an on-set interview, Louis Malle stated that it was the "most difficult" film he had ever made, while Binoche commented that "the first day was one big argument".^[46] Damage opened in the UK late in 1992 and debuted early in 1993 on US screens. Reviews were somewhat mixed.^[47] For her performance, Juliette Binoche received her fourth César nomination.

In 1993, she appeared in Krzysztof Kieślowski's Three Colors: Blue to much critical acclaim.^[48] The first film in a trilogy inspired by the ideals of the French republic and the colors of its flag, Three Colors: Blue is the story of a young woman who loses her composer husband and daughter in a car accident. Though devastated she learns to cope by rejecting her previous life in favour of conscious "nothing"; rejecting all people, belongings and emotions.^[49] Three Colors: Blue premiered at the 1993 Venice Film Festival, landing Binoche the Best Actress Prize. She also won a César, and a nomination for the Golden Globe. Binoche has said her inspirations for the role were her friend and coach Vernice Klier who suffered a similar tragedy, and the book The Black Veil by Anny Duperey which deals with the author's grief at losing her parents at a young age.^[50] Binoche made cameo appearances in the other two films in Kieślowski's trilogy, Three Colors: White and Three Colors: Red. Around this time, Steven Spielberg offered her roles in Jurassic Park and Schindler's List. She turned down both parts.^[51] After the success of Three Colors: Blue, Binoche took a short sabbatical during which she gave birth to her son Raphaël in September 1993.^[52]

In 1995, Binoche returned to the screen in a big-budget adaptation of Jean Giono's The Horseman on the Roof directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau. The film was particularly significant in France as it was the first French production to use digital special effects and was at the time the most expensive film in the history of French cinema.^[53] The film was a box-office success around the world and Binoche was again nominated for a César for Best Actress. This role, as a romantic heroine, was to color the direction of many of her subsequent roles in the late 1990s.^[54] In 1996, Binoche appeared in her first comedic role since My Brother-in-Law Killed My Sister a decade before; A Couch in New York was directed by Chantal Akerman and co-starred William Hurt. This screw-ball comedy tells the story of a New York psychiatrist who swaps homes with a Parisian dancer.^[55] The film was a critical and commercial failure.^[56] Three Colors: Blue, The Horseman on the Roof and A Couch in New York all gave Binoche the opportunity to work with prestigious directors she had turned down during the prolonged shoot of Les Amants du Pont-Neuf.^[14] Her next role would significantly reinforce her position as a bona fide international movie star, The English Patient, based on the prize winning novel by Michael Ondaatje and directed by Anthony Minghella, was a worldwide hit.^[57] Produced by Saul Zaentz, producer of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, the film reunited Juliette Binoche with Ralph Fiennes, Heathcliff to her Cathy four years previously. Binoche has said that the shoot on location in Tuscany and at the famed Cinecittà in Rome was among the happiest professional experiences of her career.^[5] The film, which tells the story of a badly burned, mysterious man found in the wreckage of a plane during World War II, won nine Academy Awards, including Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Binoche.^[58] With this film, she became the second French actress to win an Oscar, following Simone Signoret's win for Room at the Top in 1960. After this international hit, Binoche returned to France and began work opposite Daniel Auteuil on Claude Berri's Lucie Aubrac, the true story of a French Resistance heroine. Binoche was released from the film six weeks into the shoot due to differences with Berri regarding the authenticity of his script.^[59] Binoche has described this event as being like "an earthquake" to her.^[5]

Binoche at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival.

Next Juliette Binoche was reunited with director André Téchiné for Alice et Martin (1998), the story of a relationship between an emotionally damaged Parisian musician and her younger lover who hides a dark family secret. The film failed to find an audience in France, although it was critically acclaimed in the UK.^[60] In February 1998 Binoche made her London stage debut in a new version of Luigi Pirandello's Clothe the Naked retitled Naked and adapted by Nicolas Wright. The production, directed by Jonathan Kent, was very favorably received.^[61][62] Following this acclaimed performance, she returned to French screens with Children of the Century (1999), a big budget romantic epic, in which she played 19th-century French proto-feminist author George Sand. The film depicted Sand's affair with the poet and dandy Alfred de Musset played by Benoit Magimel. This lavish costume drama was filmed on location in Paris and Venice and featured couture costumes by the renowned fashion designer Christian Lacroix.^[63] The following year saw Binoche in four contrasting roles, each of which enhanced her reputation. La Veuve de Saint-Pierre (2000) by Patrice Leconte, for which she was nominated for a César for Best Actress, was a period drama which saw Binoche appear opposite Daniel Auteuil in the role of a woman who attempts to save a condemned man from the guillotine.^[64] The film won favourable reviews, particularly in the U.S.^[65] where it was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. The film won the Audience Award at the 2000 Toronto Film Festival^[66] Next she appeared in Michael Haneke's Code Unknown, a film which was made following Binoche's approach to the Austrian director.^[67] The film premiered in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.^[68] This critically acclaimed role was a welcome change from playing the romantic heroine in a series of costume dramas.^[69] Later that year, Binoche made her Broadway debut in an adaptation of Harold Pinter's Betrayal for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. Staged by the Roundabout Theatre Company and directed by David Leveaux, the production also featured Liev Schreiber and John Slattery.^[70] Back on screen, Binoche was the heroine of the Lasse Hallström film Chocolat from the best selling novel by Joanne Harris. For her role Binoche won a European Film Audience Award for Best Actress and was nominated for an Academy Award and a BAFTA.^[71] Chocolat is the story of a mysterious stranger who opens a chocolaterie in a conservative French village in 1959. The film was a worldwide hit.^[72]

Between 1995 and 2000, Binoche was the advertising face of the Lancôme perfume Poème, her image adorning print campaigns photographed by Richard Avedon^[73] and a television advertising campaign,^[74] including an advert directed by Anthony Minghella and scored by Gabriel Yared.^[75]

By the end of this period and following roles in a number of prestige productions, critics were wondering if Binoche was typecast as the tragic, despairing muse. In a feature article entitled "The Erotic Face" in the June 2000 edition of British film criticism magazine Sight and Sound, Ginette Vincendeau pondered Binoche's persona; Vincendeau suggested that the fixation of numerous directors upon her face had led to an erasure of her body, and to her being perceived only as a romantic icon rather than a versatile actress.^[28]

2001–2006[link]

Juliette Binoche and Jean Reno at Cannes, 2002

Following the success of Chocolat, the early 2000s saw Juliette Binoche internationally recognized as an A-list movie star.^[28] However, her persona seemed to be somewhat fixed following a series of period roles where she played the always stoic heroine facing tragedy and desolation.^[28] Ever keen to try something new, Binoche returned to French cinema in 2002 in an unlikely role; Jet Lag opposite Jean Reno saw Binoche play a ditzy beautician.^[76] The film, directed by Daniele Thompson, was a box-office hit in France and saw Binoche once again nominated for a César for Best Actress.^[77] The film tells the story of a couple who meet at an airport during a strike. Initially the pair despises each other, but, over the course of one night, they find common ground and maybe even love. This playful spirit continued when Binoche featured in a 2003 Italian television commercial for the chocolates Ferrero Rocher. The advertisement played upon her Chocolat persona featuring Binoche handing out the chocolates to people on the streets of Paris.^[78]

In a more serious vein, Binoche travelled to South Africa to make John Boorman's In My Country (2004) opposite Samuel L. Jackson. Based on the book Country of My Skull by Antjie Krog, the film examines The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) hearings following the abolition of Apartheid in the mid 1990s.^[79] Although the film premiered at the 2004 Berlin Film Festival, it received much criticism for the inclusion of a fictional romantic liaison and for its depiction of black South Africans.^[80] Despite the negative reception, Binoche was extremely enthusiastic about the film and her connection with Boorman.^[81][82] Her sister, Marion Stalens, also travelled to South Africa to shoot a documentary, La reconciliation?, which explores the TRC process and follows Binoche's progress as she acts in Boorman's film.^[13] Next, Binoche re-teamed with Michael Haneke for Caché. The film was an immediate success, winning best director for Haneke at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival,^[83] while Binoche was nominated for a European Film Award for Best Actress for her role.^[84] The film tells the story of a bourgeois Parisian couple, played by Binoche and Daniel Auteuil, who begin to receive anonymous videotapes containing footage shot over long periods, surveying the outside of their home. Caché went on to feature in the number one position on the "Top 10 of the 2000s" list published by The Times at the end of the decade.^[85] Binoche's next film, Bee Season, based on the celebrated novel by Myla Goldberg, cast her opposite Richard Gere. The film was not a success at the box office taking less than $5 million worldwide.^[86] For many critics the film, although intelligent, was "distant and diffuse".^[87] Bee Season depicts the emotional disintegration of a family just as their daughter begins to win national spelling bees. Mary (2005) featured Binoche in a somewhat unlikely collaboration with the controversial American director Abel Ferrara for an investigation of modern faith and Mary Magdalene's position within the Catholic Church.^[88] Featuring Forest Whittaker, Matthew Modine and Marion Cotillard, Mary was an immediate success, winning the Grand Prix at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. Despite these accolades and favorable reviews, particularly from the influential cultural magazine Les Inrockuptibles,^[89] Mary failed to secure a distributor in key markets such as the U.S. and the U.K.^[90]

The Cannes Film Festival in 2006 saw Binoche feature in the anthology film Paris, je t'aime appearing in a section directed by the Japanese director Nobuhiro Suwa. Suwa's Place des Victoires is the story of a grief stricken mother who manages to have a final brief moment with her dead son. The segment also features Willem Dafoe and Hippolyte Girardot. Paris, je t'aime was a popular success, taking over $17 million, at the world box-office.^[91] In September 2006, Binoche appeared at the Venice Film Festival to launch A Few Days in September, written and directed by Santiago Amigorena. Despite an impressive cast including John Turturro, Nick Nolte and up-coming French star Sara Forestier, the film was a failure. A Few Days in September is a thriller set between 5 and 11 September 2001, in which Binoche plays a French secret service agent, who may, or may not, have information relating to impending attacks on the U.S.^[92] The film was the recipient of harsh criticism from the press for its perceived trivialization of the events of 11 September 2001.^[93] While promoting the film in the U.K., Binoche told an interviewer she believed the CIA and other government agencies must have had foreknowledge of the 11 September attacks, as depicted in the film.^[94] Next Binoche traveled to the 2006 Toronto Film Festival for the premiere of Breaking and Entering, her second film with Anthony Minghella in the director's chair, based on his first original screenplay since his break-through film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991). In Breaking and Entering, Binoche played a Bosnian refugee living in London, while Jude Law co-starred as a well-to-do businessman drawn into her life via an act of deception. In preparation for her role, Binoche travelled to Sarajevo where she met women who had survived the war of the 1990s.^[95] Lushly photographed by Benoît Delhomme, Breaking and Entering portrays intersecting lives amongst the flux of urban renewal in inner-city London.^[96] Despite the fact that Binoche was praised for her performance, the film did not ring true for critics and failed to find an audience.^[97] In a review in Variety, Todd McCarthy writes that, "Binoche, physically unchanged as ever, plays Amira's controlled anguish with skill".^[98] Breaking and Entering also featured Robin Wright, Vera Farmiga, Juliet Stevenson, Rafi Gavron and Martin Freeman.

Although Binoche began the decade on a professional high with an Academy Award nomination for Chocolat, she struggled at the beginning of the 2000s to secure roles that did not confine her to the tragic, melancholic persona developed in the 1990s.^[99] Despite the huge success of Caché, other high profile films such as In My Country, Bee Season and Breaking and Entering failed critically^[100] and commercially,^[101] Binoche seemed to be at a crossroads in her career.^[102]

2007–present[link]

Binoche at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival

2007 was the start of a particularly busy period for Juliette Binoche, one that would see her take on diverse roles in a series of critically acclaimed international movies giving her film career a new impetus, as she shed the restrictions that seemed to have stifled her career in the early part of the decade.^[99] The Cannes Film Festival saw the premiere of Flight of the Red Balloon (2007) by the widely acclaimed Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-Hsien. It was originally conceived as a short film to form part of a 20th anniversary tribute to the Musée D'Orsay, to be produced by Serge Lemoine president of the museum. When that idea failed to find sufficient funding, Hou developed it into a feature length film and secured the necessary financing.^[103] The film was well received by international critics and went on to debut around the world early in 2008. Paying homage to Albert Lamorisse's 1957 short The Red Balloon, Hou's film tells the story of a woman's efforts to juggle her responsibilities as a single mother with her commitment to her career as a voice artist. Shot on location in Paris, the film was entirely improvised by the cast.^[104] The film was number one on the influential critic J. Hoberman's "Top 10 List" for 2008 published in The Village Voice.^[105]

Disengagement by Amos Gitai premiered out-of-competition at the 2007 Venice Film Festival. Co-starring Liron Levo and Jeanne Moreau, Disengagement is a political drama charting the story of a French woman, of Dutch/Palestinian origin, who goes in search of a daughter she abandoned 20 years previously on the Gaza strip. She arrives in Gaza during the 2005 Israeli disengagement.^[106] The film won the prestigious Premio Roberto Rossellini^[107] and was critically acclaimed, particularly by the eminent Cahiers du Cinema.^[108] However the film proved more controversial in Israel where state television station Channel 1 withdrew financial support for the film citing the "left-wing nature of Gitai's films".^[109]

In stark contrast, Peter Hedges co-wrote and directed the Disney produced Dan in Real Life, a romantic comedy featuring Binoche alongside Steve Carell. It was released in October 2007, becoming a popular commercial success in the US, before debuting around the world in 2008. The film grossed over $65 million at the worldwide box-office.^[110] Dan in Real Life is the story of a widowed man (Carell) who meets, and instantly falls for, a woman (Binoche), only to discover she is the new girlfriend of his brother. The film also features Dane Cook, Emily Blunt and Diane Weist^[111]

Back in France, Binoche was seen to popular and critical success in Paris directed by Cédric Klapisch. Paris is Klapisch's personal ode to the French capital and features an impressive ensemble of French talent, including Romain Duris, Fabrice Luchini and Mélanie Laurent. Paris was one of the most successful French films internationally in recent years, having grossed over $22 million at the world box office.^[112] Binoche and Klapisch had originally met on the set of Mauvais Sang in 1986, where Klapisch was working as a set electrician.^[113]

Also in France, Summer Hours (2008), directed by Olivier Assayas, is the critically acclaimed story of three siblings who struggle with the responsibility of disposing of their late mother's valuable art collection. The film premiered in France in March 2008 and had its U.S. debut at the 2008 New York Film Festival, before going on general release in the U.S. on 19 May 2009. Widely acclaimed, the film was nominated for the Prix Louis Delluc in France and appeared on numerous U.S. "Top 10 lists", including first place on David Edelstein's "Top 10 of 2009" list in New York Magazine, and J.R. Jones's list in the Chicago Reader.^[114] Summer Hours also features Charles Berling, Jérémie Renier and Édith Scob.

In the autumn of 2008, Binoche starred in a theatrical dance production titled in-i, co-created with renowned choreographer Akram Khan. The show, a love story told through dance and dialogue, featured stage design by Anish Kapoor and music by Philip Sheppard. It premiered at the National Theatre in London before embarking on a world tour.^[115] Writing in The Australian, John McCallum wrote that, "Binoche has radiant presence as an actor, her dancing is relaxed and naturalistic",^{[citation needed]} while The Sunday Times in the UK commented that, "Binoche's physical achievement is incredible: Khan is a master mover". The production was part of a 'Binoche Season' titled Ju'Bi'lations, also featuring a retrospective of her film work and an exhibition of her paintings, which were also published in a bilingual book Portraits in Eyes.^[116] The book featured ink portraits of Binoche as each of her characters and of each director she had worked with up to that time. She also penned a few lines to each director.^[117]

In April 2006 and again in December 2007, Binoche travelled to Tehran at the invitation of Abbas Kiarostami.^[118] While there in 2007, she shot a cameo appearance in his film Shirin (2008) which he was shooting at the time. Binoche's visit proved controversial when two Iranian MPs raised the matter in parliament, advising more caution be exercised in granting visas to foreign celebrities which might lead to "cultural destruction".^[119] In June 2009 Binoche began work on Certified Copy directed by Kiarostami.^[120] The film was an Official Selection in competition at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival.^[121] Binoche won the Best Actress Award at the festival for her performance. The film went on general release in France on 19 May 2010 to very positive reviews.^[122] Her win at the 2010 Cannes Film festival makes Binoche the first actress to win the European "best actress triple crown": Best Actress at Venice for Three Colors: Blue, Best Actress at Berlin for The English Patient and Best Actress at Cannes for Certified Copy. The September 2010 UK release of the film was overshadowed when French actor Gérard Depardieu made disparaging comments about Binoche to the Austrian magazine Profil, "Please can you explain to me what the mystery of Juliette Binoche is meant to be?" he said. "I would really like to know why she has been so esteemed for so many years. She has nothing – absolutely nothing".^[123] In response, while promoting Certified Copy, Binoche spoke to movie magazine Empire saying, "I don't know him. I understand you don't have to like everyone and you can dislike someone's work. But I don't understand the violence [of his statements]... I do not understand why he is behaving like this. It is his problem."^[124] Certified Copy proved to be controversial in Kiarostami's homeland when Iranian authorities announced on 27 May 2010 that the film was to be banned in Iran, apparently due to Binoche's attire; Deputy Culture Minister Javad Shamaqdari is quoted as saying, "If Juliette Binoche were better clad it could have been screened but due to her attire there will not be a general screening."^[125]

Following the success of Certified Copy, Binoche appeared in a brief supporting role in The Son of No One for American writer and director Dito Montiel. The film also stars Channing Tatum, Al Pacino and Ray Liotta. The Son of No One premiered at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival to fairly negative reaction.^[126] It was acquired by Anchor Bay Entertainment for distribution in the US and other key territories arriving in selected US cinemas on 4 November 2011.^[127] As of December 2011, according to film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, The Son of No One is Juliette Binoche's least critically successful film, with only 18% of critics giving it a positive review.^[128] In June 2010, Binoche started work on Elles for Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska. Elles, produced under the working title Sponsoring,^[129][130] is an examination of teenage prostitution with Juliette Binoche playing a journalist for ELLE. The film was released in France on 1 February 2012.^[131] On 12 January 2011, Variety announced that Juliette Binoche would star in The Life of Another loosely based on the novel by Frédérique Deghelt.^[132] The film is the directorial debut of the French actress Sylvie Testud and co-stars actor/director Mathieu Kassovitz. In the film, a young woman falls in love, then wakes up 15 years later, the mother of a young boy and on the verge of a divorce. The film began shooting on 4 April 2011 and was released on French screens on 15 February 2012. On 17 February 2011, Screendaily announced that Juliette Binoche has been cast in David Cronenberg's film Cosmopolis with Robert Pattinson, Paul Giamati, Mathieu Amalric and Samantha Morton.^[133] The film, produced by Paulo Branco, began principal photography on 24 May 2011.^[134] In October 2011 Binoche began work on A Cœur Ouvert opposite Edgar Ramirez and directed by Marion Laine. Based on the novel by Mathias Énard, the film is the story of the obsessive relationship between two wildly successful surgeons. When addiction and an unexpected pregnancy almost destroys their relationship, they embark on a cathartic journey to the Orinoco.^[135] In 2012 Juliette Binoche is slated to take the lead in Bruno Dumont's La Créatrice, a drama which recounts three days during the thirty years French artist Camille Claudel spent in a mental asylum despite the fact that she had not been diagnosed with any malady. The film will examine Claudel's fight to maintain her sanity and find creative inspiration. Following this, Binoche will shoot A Stormy Summer Night based on the classic French novel Dix heures et demie du soir en été by Marguerite Duras. The film is to be directed by first time helmer Fabrice Camoin for release in early 2013.^[136]

"I don't look back on the past because I like to live in the present. I know this makes some people think I probably never cared, but I need my freedom and I like to keep moving." - Juliette Binoche^[137]

Personal life[link]

Binoche has two children: a son Raphaël (born on 2 September 1993), whose father is André Halle, a professional scuba diver, and a daughter Hana (born on 16 December 1999), whose father is actor Benoît Magimel, with whom Binoche starred in the 1999 film Children of the Century. Her sister, Marion Stalens, born 1960, is a professional photographer with Corbis, as well as a director of documentary films, including; La réconciliation?, a documentary shot on the set of John Boorman's film In My Country,^[13] The Actress and the Dancer, exploring the genesis of Binoche's dance show in-i^[138] and Juliette Binoche - Sketches for a Portrait a documentary which follows Binoche as she paints the portraits that would later appear in her book Portraits in Eyes.^[139] Her half brother Camille Humeau (born 1978) is an acclaimed musician and has been part of the line-up of Oncle Strongle,^[140][141] before top-lining the group Artichaut Orkestra.^[142] In 2007, he appeared in a stage production of Cabaret directed by Sam Mendes.^[45] Stage director Pierre Pradinas is married to her sister Marion.^[7]

Charitable work[link]

Since 1992, Binoche is a patron of the French Cambodian charity Enfants d'Asie (previously ASPECA). Through this charity she is godmother to five Cambodian orphans, and has funded the construction of a children's home in Battambang.^[143] Starting in 2000, Juliette Binoche has been involved with the organization Reporters Without Borders. In 2002, she presided over "Photos of Stars" with Thierry Ardisson. Nearly 100 French stars were given disposable cameras, which were then auctioned, the buyer then having the exclusive photos taken by the star developed.^[144]

Political views and activism[link]

• She supported José Bové in the 2007 French presidential elections which were won by Nicolas Sarkozy.^[145] She has disclosed on a number of occasions that she does not approve of the Sarkozy administration, stating that the president is creating a monarchic republic.^[146][147]
• In April 2002, Binoche and several other French stars including Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Kassovitz attended a "protest picnic" to object to the firing of Canal+ chairman Pierre Lescure by the Vivendi Universal company.^[148]
• On 7 February 2006, Binoche attented a high profile demonstration organised by Reporters Without Borders in support of Jill Carroll and two Iraqi journalists who had been abducted in Baghdad.^[149]
• Binoche and numerous other French personalities including Isabelle Adjani, Yvan Attal, Jane Birkin and Josiane Balasko joined Réseau Education Sans Frontieres (RESF) on 7 January 2010 with a symbolic "cake of solidarity" to highlight the taxation and legitimacy issues being faced by undocumented workers in France.^[150]
• Binoche was a signatory to a June 2010 petition organized by Reporters Without Borders and Shirin Ebadi to protest against the detention of numerous people, including members of the press, who were protesting the occasion of the first anniversary of disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.^[151]
• At the 2010 Cannes Film Festival Binoche spoke out against the detention of Iranian director Jafar Panahi, incarcerated in Teheran's Evin Prison since 1 March 2010 without charge or conviction. At the press conference following the press screening of Copie Conforme, Binoche was informed that Panahi had begun a hunger strike.^[152] The following day Binoche attended a press conference called especially to demand the release of Panahi. Also in attendance were Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Gilles Jacob. Binoche read a letter which pointed out that Panahi's detention was "unwarranted and intolerable".
  When Binoche was awarded the Best Actress award at the festival, brandishing his name on a placard, she used her speech as an opportunity to raise Panahi's plight once again.^[153] On 25 May it was announced that Panahi had been released on bail. It was generally agreed that the publicity Binoche and Kiarostami elicited for his case was a strong factor in his release.^[152] On 20 December 2010 Panahi, after being prosecuted for "assembly and colluding with the intention to commit crimes against the country's national security and propaganda against the Islamic Republic," was handed a six-year jail sentence and a 20-year ban on making or directing any movies, writing screenplays, giving any form of interview with Iranian or foreign media as well as leaving the country. Binoche continues to lobby on his behalf.^[154]

Filmography and awards[link]

Other awards[link]

Won[link]

• 1986 – Prix Romy Schneider
• 1992 – European Film Award – Best Actress – Les Amants du Pont-Neuf
• 1993 – Berlin International Film Festival – Berlinale Camera^[155]
• 1993 – Venice Film Festival – Best Actress – Three Colors: Blue
• 1996 – National Board of Review – Best Supporting Actress – The English Patient
• 1997 – Berlin International Film Festival – Best Actress – The English Patient^[156]
• 1997 – European Film Award – Best Actress – The English Patient
• 1997 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Best Supporting Actress – The English Patient
• 2010 – Cannes Film Festival – Best Actress – Certified Copy
• 2010 – Kerry Film Festival – Maureen O'Hara Award^[157]
• 2010 – Cairo International Film Festival – Lifetime achievement^[158]

Nominations[link]

• 2001 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Best Actress – Chocolat
• 2001 – Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role – Chocolat
• 2001 – Screen Actors Guild Award – Outstanding Cast – Chocolat
• 2005 – European Film Award Best Actress; – Caché
• 2005 – London Critics Circle Film Awards – Best Actress – Caché
• 2006 – British Independent Film Award – Best Actress – Breaking & Entering

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Juliette Binoche

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Juliette Binoche

• Juliette Binoche at the Internet Movie Database
• Juliette Binoche at Yahoo! Movies
• Juliette Binoche at AllRovi
• Juliette Binoche at filmsdefrance.com
• Juliette Binoche Interview at AMCtv.com

Awards for Juliette Binoche v t e Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress (1981–2000) Maureen Stapleton (1981) Jessica Lange (1982) Linda Hunt (1983) Peggy Ashcroft (1984) Anjelica Huston (1985) Dianne Wiest (1986) Olympia Dukakis (1987) Geena Davis (1988) Brenda Fricker (1989) Whoopi Goldberg (1990) Mercedes Ruehl (1991) Marisa Tomei (1992) Anna Paquin (1993) Dianne Wiest (1994) Mira Sorvino (1995) Juliette Binoche (1996) Kim Basinger (1997) Judi Dench (1998) Angelina Jolie (1999) Marcia Gay Harden (2000) Complete list (1936–1940) (1941–1960) (1961–1980) (1981–2000) (2001–2020) v t e BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role (1985–2009) Rosanna Arquette (1985) Judi Dench (1986) Susan Wooldridge (1987) Olympia Dukakis (1988) Michelle Pfeiffer (1989) Whoopi Goldberg (1990) Kate Nelligan (1991) Miranda Richardson (1992) Miriam Margolyes (1993) Kristin Scott Thomas (1994) Kate Winslet (1995) Juliette Binoche (1996) Sigourney Weaver (1997) Judi Dench (1998) Maggie Smith (1999) Julie Walters (2000) Jennifer Connelly (2001) Catherine Zeta-Jones (2002) Renée Zellweger (2003) Cate Blanchett (2004) Thandie Newton (2005) Jennifer Hudson (2006) Tilda Swinton (2007) Penélope Cruz (2008) Mo'Nique (2009) Complete list (1968–1984) (1985–2009) (2010–2034) v t e Festival de Cannes (Cannes Film Festival) Prix d'interprétation féminine (Best Actress) 2000–2019 Björk (2000) Isabelle Huppert (2001) Kati Outinen (2002) Marie-Josée Croze (2003) Maggie Cheung (2004) Hana Laszlo (2005) Penélope Cruz/Carmen Maura/Lola Dueñas/Chus Lampreave/Blanca Portillo/Yohana Cobo (2006) Jeon Do-yeon (2007) Sandra Corveloni (2008) Charlotte Gainsbourg (2009) Juliette Binoche (2010) Kirsten Dunst (2011) Complete list (1946–1959) (1960–1979) (1980–1999) (2000–2019) v t e César Award for Best Actress 1976 Romy Schneider 1977 Annie Girardot 1978 Simone Signoret 1979 Romy Schneider 1980 Miou-Miou 1981 Catherine Deneuve 1982 Isabelle Adjani 1983 Nathalie Baye 1984 Isabelle Adjani 1985 Sabine Azéma 1986 Sandrine Bonnaire 1987 Sabine Azéma 1988 Anémone 1989 Isabelle Adjani 1990 Carole Bouquet 1991 Anne Parillaud 1992 Jeanne Moreau 1993 Catherine Deneuve 1994 Juliette Binoche 1995 Isabelle Adjani 1996 Isabelle Huppert 1997 Fanny Ardant 1998 Ariane Ascaride 1999 Élodie Bouchez 2000 Karin Viard 2001 Dominique Blanc 2002 Emmanuelle Devos 2003 Isabelle Carré 2004 Sylvie Testud 2005 Yolande Moreau 2006 Nathalie Baye 2007 Marina Hands 2008 Marion Cotillard 2009 Yolande Moreau 2010 Isabelle Adjani 2011 Sara Forestier 2012 Bérénice Bejo v t e National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress Nina Foch (1954) Marjorie Rambeau (1955) Debbie Reynolds (1956) Sybil Thorndike (1957) Kay Walsh (1958) Edith Evans (1959) Shirley Jones (1960) Ruby Dee (1961) Angela Lansbury (1962) Margaret Rutherford (1963) Edith Evans (1964) Joan Blondell (1965) Vivien Merchant (1966) Marjorie Rhodes (1967) Virginia Maskell (1968) Pamela Franklin (1969) Karen Black (1970) Cloris Leachman (1971) Marisa Berenson (1972) Sylvia Sidney (1973) Valerie Perrine (1974) Ronee Blakley (1975) Talia Shire (1976) Diane Keaton (1977) Angela Lansbury (1978) Meryl Streep (1979) Eva Le Gallienne (1980) Mona Washbourne (1981) Glenn Close (1982) Linda Hunt (1983) Sabine Azéma (1984) Anjelica Huston (1985) Dianne Wiest (1986) Olympia Dukakis (1987) Frances McDormand (1988) Mary Stuart Masterson (1989) Winona Ryder (1990) Kate Nelligan (1991) Judy Davis (1992) Winona Ryder (1993) Rosemary Harris (1994) Mira Sorvino (1995) Juliette Binoche / Kristin Scott Thomas (1996) Anne Heche (1997) Christina Ricci (1998) Julianne Moore (1999) Lupe Ontiveros (2000) Cate Blanchett (2001) Kathy Bates (2002) Patricia Clarkson (2003) Laura Linney (2004) Gong Li (2005) Catherine O'Hara (2006) Amy Ryan (2007) Penélope Cruz (2008) Anna Kendrick (2009) Jacki Weaver (2010) Shailene Woodley (2011)

J. J. Johnson (born James Louis Johnson; January 22, 1924, Indianapolis, Indiana – February 4, 2001) was a United States jazz trombonist, composer and arranger. He was sometimes credited as Jay Jay Johnson.

Johnson was one of the first trombonists to embrace bebop music. He has long been regarded as one of the leading trombonists of the post-swing era, exerting a pervasive influence on other jazz musicians.^[1]

Biography[link]

Big bands[link]

After studying the piano beginning at age 9, Johnson decided to play trombone at the age of 14. In 1941, he started his professional career with Clarence Love, and then played with Snookum Russell in 1942. In Russell's band he met the trumpeter Fats Navarro, who influenced him to play in the style of the tenor saxophonist Lester Young. Johnson played in Benny Carter's orchestra between 1942 and 1945, and made his first recordings in 1942 under Carter's leadership, recording his first solo (on Love for Sale) in October, 1943. In 1944, he took part in the first Jazz at the Philharmonic concert, presented in Los Angeles and organized by Norman Granz.^[2] In 1945 he joined the big band of Count Basie, touring and recording with him until 1946.

Bebop[link]

While the trombone was featured prominently in dixieland and swing music, it fell out of favor among bebop and later jazz fusion musicians, largely because instruments with valves and keys (trumpet, saxophone) were believed to be more suited to bebop's often rapid tempos and demand for technical mastery. In 1946, Bebop "co-inventor" Dizzy Gillespie encouraged the young trombonist's development with the comment, "I've always known that the trombone could be played different, that somebody'd catch on one of these days. Man, you're elected."^[3]

After leaving Count Basie in 1946 to play in small bebop bands in New York clubs, Johnson toured in 1947 with Illinois Jacquet. During this period he also began recording as a leader of small groups featuring Max Roach, Sonny Stitt and Bud Powell. He performed with Charlie Parker at the 17 December 1947 Dial Records session following Parker's release from Camarillo State Mental Hospital.^[4]

In 1951, with bassist Oscar Pettiford and trumpeter Howard McGhee, he toured the military camps of Japan and Korea before returning to the United States and taking a day job as a blueprint inspector. Johnson admitted later he was still thinking of nothing but music during that time, and indeed, his classic Blue Note recordings as both a leader and with Miles Davis date from this period. Johnson's compositions Enigma and Kelo were recorded by Davis for Blue Note and J. J. was part of the Davis studio session band that recorded the jazz classic Walkin' (1954).

Jay and Kai[link]

In 1954 producer Ozzie Cadena, then with Savoy Records, convinced Johnson to set up a combo with trombonist Kai Winding: the "Jay and Kai Quintet." The trombone styles and personalities of the two musicians, although very different, blended so well^[1] that the pairing, which lasted till August, 1956, was a huge success both musically and commercially. They toured U.S. nightclubs constantly and recorded numerous albums before parting amicably, satisfied that they had fully explored (and exploited) their novel group. The duo reunited again in 1958 for a tour of Great Britain, an Impulse! studio album in 1960 and in 1968-1969 (two albums for CTI/A&M Records). In January 1967, Johnson and Winding were in an all-star line-up (alongside the likes of Clark Terry, Charlie Shavers and Joe Newman) backing Sarah Vaughan on her last-ever sessions for Mercury Records, released as the album Sassy Swings Again, with three of the cuts, including Billy Strayhorn's "Take the "A" Train", being arranged by Johnson himself. The duo also made some jazz festival appearances in Japan in the early 1980s, the last shortly before Winding died in May, 1983.

Solo success[link]

Following the mid-1950s collaboration with Winding, J. J. Johnson began leading his own touring small groups for about 3 years, covering the United States, United Kingdom and Scandinavia. These groups (ranging from quartets to sextets) included tenor saxophonists Bobby Jaspar and Clifford Jordan, cornetist Nat Adderley, trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, pianists Tommy Flanagan and Cedar Walton, and drummers Elvin Jones, Albert "Tootie" Heath, and Max Roach. His classic quartet albums First Place and Blue Trombone, with Tommy Flanagan, Paul Chambers and Max Roach, were recorded in 1957. He also toured with the Jazz at the Philharmonic show in 1957 and 1960, the first tour yielding a memorable live album featuring Johnson and tenor saxophonist Stan Getz. In 1958-59 Johnson was one of three plaintiffs in a court case which hastened the abolition of the cabaret card system.^[3]

This period overlaps a bit with the beginnings of Johnson's serious forays into Third Stream music (see below). Periods of concentrating on writing and recording his music would alternate with tours demanding attention to his playing.

Following the six months he spent writing Perceptions (see below), late 1961 found J. J. in the studio for a date which at first might have seemed an odd pairing on paper. Andre Previn's trio (adding Johnson as the only horn) recorded an entire album of the music of Kurt Weill. The inventive arrangements and inspired playing of both stars bore out the producer's foresight, yet this is one of few J. J. Johnson albums which remains unreleased on CD. In 1962 J. J. toured for a number of months with Miles Davis' sextet of that year, which went unrecorded.

Johnson's 1963 solo album J. J.'s Broadway is an excellent example of both his mature trombone style and sound, and his arranging abilities. 1964 saw the recording of his last working band for a period of over 20 years- Proof Positive. Beginning in 1965 Johnson recorded a number of large group studio albums under his name, featuring many of his own compositions and arrangements. The late 1960s saw a radical downturn in the fortunes of many jazz musicians and Johnson was consequently heard almost exclusively on big band-style studio records, usually backing a single soloist.

The composer[link]

From the mid-fifties, but especially the early sixties on, J. J. Johnson dedicated more and more time to composition. He became an active contributor to the Third Stream movement in jazz music, (which included such other notable musicians as Gunther Schuller and John Lewis), and wrote a number of large-scale works which incorporated elements of both classical and jazz music. He contributed his Poem for Brass to a Third Stream compilation titled Music for Brass in 1957, and composed a number of original works which were performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival in the late fifties and early sixties. In 1961, he composed a suite in six movements, titled Perceptions, with Dizzy Gillespie as soloist. The First International Jazz Festival, held in Washington, D.C. in 1962, featured another extended work. In 1965 he spent time in Vienna to perform and record his Euro Suite with a jazz-classical fusion orchestra led by Friedrich Gulda. In 1968, a Johnson work titled Diversions was commissioned by the American Wind Symphony and performed in Pittsburgh.

Hollywood[link]

In 1970, Quincy Jones convinced Johnson to move from New York to California to compose for cinema and television, where he eventually scored movies such as Across 110th Street, Cleopatra Jones, Top of the Heap and Willie Dynamite, as well as TV series such as Starsky & Hutch, Mike Hammer and The Six Million Dollar Man. Despite his small level of success, Johnson acknowledged that racism and other prejudices kept a black jazz musician such as himself from securing the amount and quality of work he was qualified to perform. During this period, he played almost no concerts, except in 1977 and 1982 in Japan, and in 1984 in Europe. Despite the low profile, he did record six albums as a leader between 1977 and 1984 (including a 1984 trombone duo album with Al Grey) and a few albums as a sideman, two with Count Basie, and on The Sting II soundtrack. During the California period he also played in the Coconut Grove orchestra of Sammy Davis, Jr. and the TV orchestra of Carol Burnett.

Return to performing[link]

Johnson returned to performing and recording in November 1987, with an engagement at the Village Vanguard in New York City. Tours of the United States, Europe and Japan followed as well as a return engagement to the Vanguard in July, 1988 which yielded two albums worth of material.

While on tour of Japan in December, 1988, Johnson's wife Vivian suffered a stroke which incapacitated her for her remaining three and a half years of life. During this period Johnson cancelled all work, devoting his energy to caring for his ailing wife. After her death in 1991, he dedicated an album to her on Concord. A year later the former Carolyn Reid became his second wife, and Johnson began actively performing once again. Following this second "comeback" in 1992, Johnson's contracts with a variety of record labels, including Verve and Antilles, resulted in five albums as a leader, from small groups to separate brass orchestra and string orchestra recordings, as well as sideman appearances with his leading disciple, trombonist Steve Turre and the vocalist Abbey Lincoln. He earned several Grammy nominations during this period. He retired from active performing and touring in late 1996, after having performed his last concert at William Paterson College on November 10, 1996, then choosing to stay at his home in Indianapolis where he could indulge his passion of composing and arranging music with computers and MIDI.

Later, diagnosed with prostate cancer, he maintained a positive outlook and underwent treatment. He wrote a book of original exercises and etudes for jazz musicians, published later by Hal Leonard. A biography, titled The Musical World of J. J. Johnson, was published in 2000. On February 4, 2001, he committed suicide by shooting himself.^[5] His funeral in Indianapolis drew jazz musicians, friends and family from around the country.

Influence[link]

Johnson's work in the 1940s and 1950s demonstrated that the slide trombone could be played in the bebop style. Contemporary trombonist Steve Turre has summarized, "J. J. did for the trombone what Charlie Parker did for the saxophone. And all of us that are playing today wouldn't be playing the way we're playing if it wasn't for what he did. And not only, of course, is he the master of the trombone — the definitive master of this century — but, as a composer and arranger, he is in the top shelf as well."^[6]

The two-trombone jazz combo setup pioneered by Johnson and Winding has been imitated by more recent trombonists, with such combinations as Jim Pugh/Dave Taylor, Conrad Herwig/Steve Davis, and Michael Davis/Bill Reichenbach.

Several of his compositions, including "Wee Dot", "Lament", and "Enigma" have become jazz standards.

From the mid-1950s on, Johnson was a perennial polling favorite in jazz circles, even winning "Trombonist of the Year" in Down Beat magazine during years he wasn't active. In 1970 he ceased performing in public before making a comeback in the late 1980s. He was voted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame in 1995.

Discography[link]

Bibliography[link]

• The Musical World of J. J. Johnson by Joshua Berrett and Louis G. Bourgois (Rowman & Littlefield). ISBN 0-8108-3648-3
• Exercises and Etudes for the Jazz Instrumentalist by J. J. Johnson (Hal Leonard Corporation, February 1, 2002). ISBN 0-634-02120-6

References[link]

External links[link]

• A tribute page on www.trombone.org with links to numerous interviews
• An article on a very busy month early in Johnson's career- December, 1947
• YouTube video of J. J. Johnson, Sonny Stitt and Howard McGhee on Now's The Time.
• YouTube video of J. J. Johnson and Jamey Aebersold on Just Friend's
• Album cover gallery
• An obituary on The Dead Musician Directory
• J. J. Johnson at Find-A-Grave
• "The Incredible Kai Winding, His Official Site" - has some photos of J.J. and information on the music partnership between J. J. and Kai, as well as a pictorial discography on their recordings.
• J. J. Johnson at Trombone Page of the World

Pete Townshend
Townshend in concert
Background information
Birth name	Peter Dennis Blandford Townshend
Also known as	Bijou Drains
Born	(1945-05-19) 19 May 1945 (age 67) London, England
Genres	Rock, art rock, hard rock, power pop, progressive rock, British beat, jazz
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, musical arranger, author
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, harmonica, keyboards, banjo, tin whistle, mandolin, ukulele, fiddle, accordion, organ, piano, drums
Years active	1962–present
Labels	Track, Polydor, Atlantic, Atco, Decca, Rykodisc
Associated acts	The Who, Deep End, Ronnie Lane, Thunderclap Newman
Website	The Who's official webpage
Notable instruments
Rickenbacker 330 Fender Stratocaster Gibson SG Special Gibson Les Paul Gretsch 6120 Gibson J-200

Peter Dennis Blandford "Pete" Townshend (born 19 May 1945) is an English rock guitarist, vocalist, songwriter and author, known principally as the guitarist and songwriter for the rock group The Who, as well as for his own solo career. His career with The Who spans more than 40 years, during which time the band grew to be considered one of the most influential bands of the 1960s and 1970s,^[1] and, according to Eddie Vedder, "possibly the greatest live band ever."^[2]

Townshend is the primary songwriter for The Who, having written well over 100 songs for the band's 11 studio albums, including concept albums and the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia, plus popular rock and roll radio staples like Who's Next, and dozens more that appeared as non-album singles, bonus tracks on reissues, and tracks on rarities compilations like Odds & Sods. He has also written over 100 songs that have appeared on his solo albums, as well as radio jingles and television theme songs. Although known primarily as a guitarist, he also plays other instruments such as keyboards, banjo, accordion, synthesiser, bass guitar and drums, on his own solo albums, several Who albums, and as a guest contributor to a wide array of other artists' recordings. Townshend has never had formal lessons in any of the instruments he plays.

Townshend has also been a contributor and author of newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews, essays, books, and scripts, as well as collaborating as a lyricist (and composer) for many other musical acts. Townshend was ranked No. 3 in Dave Marsh's list of Best Guitarists in The New Book of Rock Lists,^[3] No. 10 in Gibson.com's list of the top 50 guitarists,^[4] and No. 10 again in Rolling Stone magazine's updated 2011 list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.^[5] Townshend was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Who in 1990.

Early life[link]

Born in Chiswick, London into a musical family (his father Cliff Townshend was a professional saxophonist in The Squadronaires and his mother Betty (née Dennis) was a singer), Townshend exhibited a fascination with music at an early age. In the mid-1950s he was drawn to American rock and roll; his mother recounts that he repeatedly saw the 1956 film Rock Around the Clock. When he was 12, his grandmother gave him his first guitar, which he has described as a "cheap Spanish thing". Townshend's biggest guitar influences include Link Wray, John Lee Hooker, Bo Diddley and Hank Marvin of The Shadows.

Townshend's brother Simon (who also became a musician) was born in 1960. In 1961, Townshend enrolled at Ealing Art College, with the intention to become a graphic artist and a year later, he and his school friend from Acton County Grammar School John Entwistle founded their first band, The Confederates, a Dixieland duet featuring Townshend on banjo and Entwistle on horns. From this beginning they moved on to The Detours, a skiffle/rock and roll band fronted by Roger Daltrey, another former schoolmate. With the encouragement and assistance of his old classmate Entwistle, Daltrey invited Townshend to join as well. In early 1964, because another band had the same name, The Detours renamed themselves The Who. Drummer Doug Sandom was replaced by Keith Moon not long afterwards. The band (now comprising Daltrey on lead vocals and harmonica, Townshend on guitar, Entwistle on bass guitar and french horn, and Moon on drums) were soon taken on by a mod publicist named Peter Meaden who convinced them to change their name to The High Numbers to give the band more of a mod feel. After bringing out one failed single ("I'm the Face/Zoot Suit"), they dropped Meaden and were signed on by two new managers, Chris Stamp and Kit Lambert, who had paired up with the intention of finding new talent and creating a documentary about them. The band anguished over a name that all felt represented the band best, and dropped The High Numbers name, reverting to The Who.

Music career[link]

Breakthrough[link]

Townshend (with Moon, rear right) backstage before a gig in Ludwigshafen, Germany in 1967

After The High Numbers once again became The Who, Townshend wrote several successful singles for the band, including "I Can't Explain", "Pictures of Lily", "Substitute", and "My Generation". Townshend became known for his eccentric stage style during the band's early days, often interrupting concerts with lengthy introductions of songs.^{[citation needed]} He developed a signature move in which he would swing his right arm against the guitar strings in a style reminiscent of the vanes of a windmill. He became one of the first musicians known for smashing guitars on stage and would repeatedly throw them into his amplifiers and speaker cabinets. The first incident of guitar-smashing happened when Townshend accidentally broke the neck of his guitar on the low ceiling of an early concert venue at the Railway Tavern in Harrow. The stage, only about a foot high, nevertheless brought the ceiling to within 7 feet. After smashing the instrument to pieces, he carried on by grabbing another guitar and acting as if the broken guitar had been part of the act. Drummer Keith Moon was delighted; he loved attention and destruction on any level, and smashed his drum kit as well. The press sensationalised the incidents. The on-stage destruction of instruments soon became a regular part of The Who's performances. This was further dramatised with pyrotechnics, an idea which came from Moon, who incorporated it in his exploding drum kits. At a concert in Germany, a police officer walked up to Townshend, pointed his gun at him, and ordered him to stop smashing the guitar. Townshend, always a voluble interview subject, would later relate these antics to German/British artist Gustav Metzger's theories on auto-destructive art, to which he had been exposed at art school. However, on several occasions, he admitted that the destruction was a gimmick that set the band out apart from the others and gave them the publicity edge that they needed to be noticed.

Daltrey (left) and Townshend, 1976

The Who thrived, and continue to thrive, despite the deaths of two of the original members. They are regarded by many rock critics as one of the best^[7][8] live bands^[9][10] from a period of time that stretched from the mid-1960s to the 2000s, the result of a unique combination of high volume, showmanship, a wide variety of rock beats, and a high-energy sound that alternated between tight and free-form. The Who continue to perform critically acclaimed sets in the 21st century, including highly regarded performances at The Concert For New York City in 2001, the 2004 Isle of Wight Festival, Live 8 in 2005 and the 2007 Glastonbury Festival.

Townshend remained the primary songwriter and leader of the group, writing over one hundred songs which appeared on the band's eleven studio albums. Among his most well-known accomplishments are the creation of Tommy, for which the term "rock opera" was coined,^[11] and a second pioneering rock opera, Quadrophenia; his dramatic stage persona; his use of guitar feedback as sonic technique; and the introduction of the synthesiser as a rock instrument. Townshend revisited album-length storytelling throughout his career and remains the musician most associated with the rock opera form. Many studio recordings also feature Townshend on piano or keyboards, though keyboard-heavy tracks increasingly featured guest artists in the studio, such as Nicky Hopkins, John Bundrick or Chris Stainton.^[12]

Townshend is one of the key figures in the development of feedback in rock guitar. When asked who first used feedback, Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore said, "Pete Townshend was definitely the first. But not being that good a guitarist, he used to just sort of crash chords and let the guitar feedback. He didn't get into twiddling with the dials on the amplifier until much later. He's overrated in England, but at the same time you find a lot of people like Jeff Beck and Hendrix getting credit for things he started. Townshend was the first to break his guitar, and he was the first to do a lot of things. He's very good at his chord scene, too."^[13] Similarly, when Jimmy Page was asked about the development of guitar feedback, he said, "I don't know who really did feedback first; it just sort of happened. I don't think anybody consciously nicked it from anybody else. It was just going on. But Pete Townshend obviously was the one, through the music of his group, who made the use of feedback more his style, and so it's related to him. Whereas the other players like Jeff Beck and myself were playing more single note things than chords."^[14]

Many rock guitarists have cited Townshend as an influence, among them Slash,^[15] Alex Lifeson^[16] and Steve Jones.^[17]

Solo career[link]

Pete Townshend performing in Hamburg, Germany in August 1972

In addition to his work with The Who, Townshend has been sporadically active as a solo recording artist. Between 1969 and 1971 Townshend, along with other devotees to Meher Baba, recorded a trio of albums devoted to his teachings: Happy Birthday, I Am, and With Love. In response to bootlegging of these, he compiled his personal highlights (and "Evolution", a collaboration with Ronnie Lane), and released his first major-label solo title, 1972's Who Came First. It was a moderate success and featured demos of Who songs as well as a showcase of his acoustic guitar talents. He collaborated with The Faces' bassist and fellow Meher Baba devotee Ronnie Lane on a duet album (1977's Rough Mix). Townshend's solo breakthrough, following the death of Who drummer Keith Moon, was the 1980 release Empty Glass, which included a top-10 single, "Let My Love Open the Door". This release was followed in 1982 by All the Best Cowboys Have Chinese Eyes, which included the popular radio track "Slit Skirts". While not a huge commercial success, noted music critic Timothy Duggan listed it as "Townshend's most honest and introspective work since Quadrophenia." Through the rest of the 1980s and early 1990s Townshend would again experiment with the rock opera and related formats, releasing several story-based albums including White City: A Novel (1985), The Iron Man: A Musical (1989), and Psychoderelict (1993). Townshend also got the chance to play with his hero Hank Marvin for Paul McCartney's "Rockestra" sessions, along with other respected rock musicians such as David Gilmour, John Bonham and Ronnie Lane.

Townshend has also recorded several concert albums, including one featuring a supergroup he assembled called Deep End, who performed just two concerts and a television show session for The Tube, to raise money for a charity supporting drug addicts. In 1993 he and Des McAnuff wrote and directed the Broadway adaptation of the Who album Tommy, as well as a less successful stage musical based on his solo album The Iron Man, based upon the book by Ted Hughes. McAnuff and Townshend later co-produced the animated film The Iron Giant, also based on the Hughes story.

A production described as a Townshend rock-opera and titled The Boy Who Heard Music debuted as part of Vassar College's Powerhouse Summer Theater program in July 2007.

Recent Who work[link]

From the mid-1990s through the present, Townshend has participated in a series of tours with the surviving members of The Who, including a 2002 tour that continued despite Entwistle's death.^[18]

In February 2006, a major world tour by The Who was announced to promote their first new album since 1982. Townshend published a semi-autobiographical story The Boy Who Heard Music as a serial on a blog beginning in September 2005.^[19] The blog closed in October 2006, as noted on Townshend's website. It is now owned by a different user and does not relate to Townshend's work in any way. On 25 February 2006, he announced the issue of a mini-opera inspired by the novella for June 2006. In October 2006 The Who released their first album in 26 years, Endless Wire.

The Who performed at the Super Bowl XLIV half-time show on 7 February 2010, playing a medley of songs that included "Pinball Wizard", "Who Are You", "Baba O'Riley", "See Me Feel Me" and "Won't Get Fooled Again".^[20]

Hearing loss[link]

Townshend suffers from partial deafness and tinnitus believed to be the result of noise-induced hearing loss; in other words, his extensive exposure to loud music. Some such incidents include a Who concert at the Charlton Athletic Football Club, London, on 31 May 1976 that was listed as the "Loudest Concert Ever" by the Guinness Book of Records, where the volume level was measured at 126 decibels 32 metres from the stage. Townshend has also attributed the start of his hearing loss to Keith Moon's famous exploding drum set during The Who's 1967 appearance on The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

In 1989, Townshend gave the initial funding to allow the formation of the non-profit hearing advocacy group H.E.A.R. (Hearing Education and Awareness for Rockers). After the Who performed at half-time at the Super Bowl XLIV, Townshend stated that he is concerned that his tinnitus has grown to such a point that he might be forced to discontinue performing with the band altogether. He told Rolling Stone, "If my hearing is going to be a problem, we’re not delaying shows. We're finished. I can’t really see any way around the issue." Neil Young introduced him to an audiologist who suggested he use an In-ear monitor, and although they cancelled their spring 2010 touring schedule, Townshend used the device at their one remaining London concert on 30 March 2010, to ascertain the feasibility of Townshend continuing to perform with The Who.^[22]

In March 2011, Roger Daltrey said in an interview with the BBC that Townshend had recently experienced gradual but severe hearing loss and was now trying to save what remained of his hearing.

"Pete's having terrible trouble with his hearing. He's got really, really bad problems with it...not tinnitus, it's deterioration and he's seriously now worried about actually losing his hearing."

Referring to that, in July 2011, Townshend wrote at his blog: "My hearing is actually better than ever because after a feedback scare at the O2 Indigo in December 2008 I am taking good care of it. I have computer systems in my studio that have helped me do my engineering work on the forthcoming Quadrophenia release. I have had assistance from younger forensic engineers and mastering engineers to help me clean up the high frequencies that are out of my range. The same computer systems work wonderfully well on stage, proving to be perfect for me when The Who performed at the Super Bowl and doing Quadrophenia for TCT at the Royal Albert Hall in 2010. I'm 66, I don't have perfect hearing, and if I listen to loud music or go to gigs I do tend to get tinnitus."

Interviews[link]

Townshend leaping into air in concert

From The Who's emergence on the British musical landscape, Pete Townshend could always be counted upon for a good interview. By early 1966 he had become the band's spokesman, interviewed separately from the band for the BBC television series A Whole Scene Going admitting that the band used drugs and that he considered The Beatles' backing tracks "flippin' lousy". In a 1967 interview, however, Townshend complimented one of The Beatles' songs: "I think "Eleanor Rigby" was a very important musical move forward. It certainly inspired me to write and listen to things in that vein."^[23] Throughout the 1960s Townshend made regular appearances in the pages of British music magazines, but it was a very long interview he gave to Rolling Stone in 1968 that sealed his reputation as one of rock's leading intellectuals and theorists.^[24]

Townshend gave interview after interview to the newly risen underground press, not only providing them with a star for their covers, but firmly establishing his reputation as a commentator on the rock 'n' roll scene. In addition, he wrote his own articles, starting a regular monthly column in Melody Maker, and contributing to Rolling Stone with an article on his guru Meher Baba and a review of The Who's album Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy.^{[citation needed]}

Townshend has withdrawn from the press on occasion. On his 30th birthday, Townshend discussed his feelings that The Who were failing to journalist Roy Carr, making unflattering comments on fellow Who member Roger Daltrey and other leading members of the British rock community. Carr printed his remarks in the NME causing strong friction within The Who and embarrassing Townshend. Feeling betrayed, he stopped interviews with the press for over two years.^{[citation needed]}

Nevertheless, Townshend has maintained close relationships with journalists, and sought them out in 1982 to describe his two-year battle with cocaine and heroin. Some of those press members turned on him in the 1980s as the punk rock revolution led to widespread dismissal of the old guard of rock, Townshend attacked two of them, Julie Burchill and Tony Parsons, in the song "Jools And Jim" on his album Empty Glass after they made some derogatory remarks about Who drummer Keith Moon. Meanwhile several journalists denounced Townshend for what they saw as a betrayal of the idealism about rock music he had espoused in his earlier interviews when The Who participated in a tour sponsored by Schlitz in 1982 and by Miller Brewing in 1989. Townshend's 1993 concept album Psychoderelict offers a scathing commentary on journalists in the character of Ruth Streeting, who attempts to scandalise the main character, Ray High.^{[citation needed]}

On 25 October 2006, Townshend declined at the last minute to do a scheduled interview with Sirius Satellite Radio star Howard Stern after Stern's co-host Robin Quivers and sidekick Artie Lange made joking references to his 2003 arrest. Stern conducted an interview instead with Roger Daltrey and repeatedly expressed regret about the utterances of his on-air colleagues, stating that they did not reflect his own feelings of respect for Townshend.^[25]

Later in 2006, Townshend appeared on the Living Legends radio show in an exclusive interview with Opal Bonfante. The interview, broadcast worldwide on Radio London,^{[clarification needed]} was his first live interview in 15 years. Townshend spoke about his forthcoming UK tour, his online novella and his memories of the old pirate radio stations.^{[citation needed]}

Also in late 2006, Townshend granted an interview with author Mark Wilkerson, which led to Wilkerson's 2008 biography Who Are You: The Life of Pete Townshend.^{[citation needed]}

In a BBC Radio 4 interview, first broadcast on 27 October 2009, Townshend informed the audience that from the time he was involved in writing the music for the Who's first album, he has been influenced by the works of the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell.^[26]

In BBC 6 Music's inaugural John Peel Lecture, Townshend urged Apple to use its power to help new bands instead of "bleeding" artists like a "digital vampire". He also argued against unauthorised file-sharing, saying the internet was "destroying copyright as we know it".^[27]

Musical equipment[link]

Throughout his solo career and his career with The Who, Townshend has played (and destroyed) a large variety of guitars – mostly various Gibson and Fender models. He has also used Guild, Takamine and Gibson J-200 acoustic models, with the J-200 providing his signature recorded acoustic sound in such songs as "Pinball Wizard".

In the early days with The Who, Townshend played an Emile Grimshaw SS De Luxe and 6-string and 12-string Rickenbacker semi-hollow electric guitars primarily (particularly the Rose-Morris UK-imported models with special f-holes). However, as instrument-smashing became increasingly integrated into The Who's concert sets, he switched to more durable and resilient (and sometimes cheaper) guitars for smashing, such as the Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster and various Danelectro models. On The Who's famous The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour appearance in 1967, Townshend used a Vox Cheetah guitar, which he only used for that performance; and the guitar was smashed to smithereens by Townshend and Moon's drum explosion. In the late 1960s, Townshend began playing Gibson SG models almost exclusively, specifically the Special models. He used this guitar at the Woodstock and Isle of Wight shows in 1969 and 1970, as well as the Live at Leeds performance in 1970.

By 1970, Gibson changed the design of the SG Special which Townshend had been using previously, and thus he began using other guitars. For much of the 1970s, he used a Gibson Les Paul DeLuxe, some with only two mini-humbucker pick-ups and others modified with a third pick-up in the "middle position" (a DiMarzio Superdistortion / Dual Sound). He can be seen using several of these guitars in the documentary The Kids Are Alright, although in the studio he often played a '59 Gretsch 6120 guitar (given to him by Joe Walsh), most notably on the albums Who's Next and Quadrophenia.