Juliette Binoche, daughter of an actress and a sculptor, was only 23 when she first attracted the attention of international film critics with The Unbearable Lightness of Being (1988). Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times film critic with an international following of his books on film and TV reviews, wrote that she was "almost ethereal in her beauty and innocence". That innocence was gone by the time Binoche completed Louis Malle's  Fatale (1992). In an interview after the film was released, Binoche said: "Malle was trying to change my image! He considered it too direct and wanted something more sophisticated". A year later Krzysztof Kieslowski's Trois couleurs: Bleu (1993) was added to her film credits. After a sabbatical from film-making to become a mother in 1994, Binoche was selected as the heroine of France's most expensive ($35 million) movie ever: Hussard sur le toit, Le (1995). More recently she has made The English Patient (1996), for which she won an Oscar for 'Best supporting actress' and Chocolat (2000).