Veteran actors Juliette Binoche and Ralph Fiennes exchanged teary-eyed tributes as they picked up honorary career achievement awards this evening at the Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.
The veteran duo are two of the headline guests this year in Thessaloniki, and they were presented with the festival’s honorary Golden Alexander award for their respective bodies of work, which now includes three collaborations.
“I’m very grateful and honored to be here with this woman. I’m very grateful for the opportunity to talk about Juliette,” Fiennes told the crowd in Greece. “I want to thank Juliette because working with her is a dream. She is an extraordinary artist to spend your time with. She’s a great woman. She channels a very unusual and unique energy. She’s inspirational to work with. She gives in a way that I have not experienced with any other actor.”
At this point Fiennes began to tear up, telling the audience that he was “full of emotion.”
“I love her very much,” he concluded before stepping away from the mic.
Binoche took the stage and thanked the Thessaloniki Film Festival organizers and shared her admiration for Greece’s rich history. “Your words and thoughts through the great philosophers and saints are feeding my path. Thank you for what you give to the world,” she said before zeroing in on Fiennes.
“Acting with you is a reward in itself and it fills up my heart and mind so much,” she said.
“It feels that I know you yet I still want to know you. Because I don’t know you. You are a mystery full of contradictions. And yet that’s why I love you. When we act, we have nowhere to hide. So showing ourselves is the best choice.”
The pair received a hearty round of applause from the crowd.
Fiennes and Binoche’s first collaboration The English Patient screened in Thessaloniki this evening following the award ceremony. Their other joint credits include Peter Kosminsky’s Wuthering Heights. The pair reunited this year on The Return, an adaptation of Homer’s Odyssey from Italian filmmaker Uberto Pasolini.
The Return follows Odysseus (Fiennes) who washes up on the shores of Ithaca after 20 years away, haggard and unrecognizable. The King has returned from the Trojan War, but much has changed in his kingdom. His beloved wife Penelope (Binoche) is a prisoner in her own home, hounded by suitors vying to be king. Their son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) faces death at the hands of these suitors, who see him as merely an obstacle to their pursuit of the kingdom. Odysseus has also changed—scarred by his experience of the Trojan war, he is no longer the mighty warrior from years past— but he must rediscover his strength to win back all he has lost.
The film also stars Marwan Kenzari, Claudio Santamaria, and Ángela Molina. Producers are Picomedia, Rai Cinema, Heretic, Ithaca Films, Kabo Films, and Marvelous Productions. Redwave and HanWay are handling international sales. John Collee, Edward Bond and Pasolini wrote the script. Bleecker Street has set a Dec. 6 U.S. release for the film.
Thessaloniki runs until Nov 10.