Kristin Scott Thomas has got a double life.
Most English cinephiles who've seen her over the years ('English Patient, 'Four Weddings', 'Gosford Park') have got used to her cool, haughty style and see her as a convincing representative of some sort of upper-class English beauty.
Kristin Scott Thomas in 'Searching for Hortense'
But, long before she confounded all those myths with an unsettling turn in Ryan Gosling's brutal thriller 'Only God Forgives' - where one description of her was as Caligula crossed with Mary Beard' - she has been conducting a very different career on the other side of the Channel, starring in a series of sometimes disturbing, often independent thrillers and dramas, where she speaks French like a native.
This week's French drama 'Looking For Hortense' taps into this alternative life. Scott Thomas plays Iva Delusi, a theatre director who asks her professor husband Damien for a big favour from his estranged father.
WATCH our exclusive clip above.
During one of the scenes, Damien tells his wife that he finds her "beautiful, tragic even" - a fitting description of Scott Thomas in any language. The Hollywood Reporter describes her here as being "in top form".
'Searching For Hortense' is in selected UK cinemas from Friday 9 August. Watch the trailer below...