Catherine Deneuve

Deneuve was born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac in Paris,^[7] the daughter of French stage actors Maurice Dorléac and Renée Simonot. Deneuve had two sisters, Françoise Dorléac (21 March 1942 – 26 June 1967) and Sylvie Dorléac (born 14 December 1946),^[8] as well as a maternal half-sister, Daniele, whom their mother had out of wedlock in 1936 with Aimé Clariond. Deneuve used her mother's maiden name, which she chose for her stage name, in order to differentiate herself from her sisters. Deneuve attended Catholic schools.^[9]

1957–1970: Breakthrough and acclaim

Deneuve made her film debut with a small role in André Hunebelle's Les Collégiennes (1957) with her younger sister Sylvie Dorléac who, like their older half-sister Daniele, was an occasional child actress.^[10] She subsequently appeared in several films for director Roger Vadim as well as in L'Homme à femmes (1960), which caught the eye of Jacques Demy, who cast Deneuve as Geneviève Emery in his romantic film musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), the film that brought her to stardom.^[10] The film received critical acclaim winning the Palme d'Or at the 1964 Cannes Film Festival. Variety praised her performance describing her writing, "Catherine Deneuve, a winsome-looking type that other directors have forced to act, here is allowed to be herself. She etches a fine portrait of a 16-year-old in love."^[11] The same year she acted in several films including the anthology film The World's Most Beautiful Swindlers in a segment directed by Claude Chabrol and the comedy Male Hunt directed by Édouard Molinaro.

Deneuve played the cold but erotic persona, for which she would be nicknamed the "ice maiden", in Roman Polanski's psychological horror thriller Repulsion (1965). For her performance she was nominated for the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actress. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote, "Catherine Deneuve's glassy stare of anxiety dominates the movie" comparing her to Janet Leigh in Psycho (1960).^[12] In 1966 she starred in the Agnes Varda fantasy film Les Créatures and Jean-Paul Rappeneau's A Matter of Resistance. The following year, she reunited with Demy for another musical The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) acting alongside George Chakiris and Gene Kelly. She played a twin to her real-life older sister, Françoise Dorléac (as Solange), in what would be their only film together, Dorléac died in a car accident a few months after the movie opened.^[13] That same year she starred in Luis Buñuel's psychological erotic drama Belle de Jour (1967). Deneuve stars as a young woman who spends her midweek afternoons as a high-class prostitute, while her husband is at work. For her performance, she received a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. Melissa Anderson writing for Criterion declared, "Deneuve’s performance in Belle de jour turned out to be one of her most iconic".^[14]

In 1969, Deneuve starred in Stuart Rosenberg's American romantic comedy film The April Fools, starring opposite Jack Lemmon. That same year she acted in François Truffaut's romantic crime drama Mississippi Mermaid acting alongside Jean-Paul Belmondo. The New York Times film critic Vincent Canby praised the film writing, "As in all of Truffaut's films, love leads only to an uncertain future that, at best, may contain some joy along with the inevitable misery. Truffaut's special talent, however, is for communicating a sense of the value of that joy."^[15] She reunited with Buñel for the drama Tristana (1970) acting alongside Fernando Rey and Franco Nero.^[16] Her work for Buñuel would be her best known.^[17][18] That same year, she reunited with Jacques Demy for the musical fantasy Donkey Skin (1970) based off the 1965 fairy tale of the same name by Charles Perrault. Roger Ebert praised the film writing, "It provides a visual feast and fanciful imaginations, and Deneuve was then, as she was before and since, a great beauty with the confidence such beauty requires."^[19]

1971–1989: Established actress

In 1971, Deneuve starred in Nadine Trintignant's It Only Happens to Others opposite Marcello Mastroianni. She also starred in Marco Ferreri's Italian drama Liza (1972), Jean-Pierre Melville's French crime film Un flic (1972), and Jacques Demy's French comedy A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973). She starred in Robert Aldrich's crime film Hustle (1975) with Burt Reynolds. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune awarded a full four stars out of four and wrote that "violence takes a back seat to character development and storytelling techniques that are classical. Hustle is the kind of picture you don't want to see end. It's going to be a cult favorite."^[20] That same year, she acted in Jean-Paul Rappeneau's adventure film Le Sauvage (1975) with Yves Montand. The following year, she acted in Claude Lelouch's Second Chance (1976).

In the 1980s, Deneuve's films included François Truffaut's Le Dernier métro (1980) with Gérard Depardieu for which she won the César Award for Best Actress and the David di Donatello Award for Best Actress. She gained acclaim for her role in Tony Scott's The Hunger (1983) as a bisexual vampire, co-starring with David Bowie and Susan Sarandon, a role which brought her a significant lesbian following, mostly among the gothic subculture.^[21] During this time, she received César Award for Best Actress nominations for her roles in André Téchiné's romantic drama Hotel America (1981), Jean-Pierre Mocky's French drama film Agent trouble (1987), and François Dupeyron's drama Drôle d'endroit pour une rencontre (1988). The later of which she also served as a producer, and starred alongside frequent co-star Gérard Depardieu.

1990–present

In the early 1990s, Deneuve's more significant roles included 1992's Indochine opposite Vincent Perez, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress and won a second César Award for Best Actress; and André Téchiné's two films, Ma saison préférée (1993) and Les Voleurs (1996). In 1997, Deneuve was the protagonist in the music video for the song N'Oubliez Jamais sung by Joe Cocker. In 1998, she won acclaim and the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival for her performance in Place Vendôme. In the late 1990s, Deneuve continued to appear in a large number of films such as 1999's five films Est-Ouest, Le temps retrouvé, Pola X, Belle maman, and Le Vent de la nuit.

Deneuve's part in Lars von Trier's musical drama Dancer in the Dark (2000), alongside Icelandic singer Björk was subject to considerable critical scrutiny. The film was selected for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. She made another foray into Hollywood the following year, starring in The Musketeer (2001) for Peter Hyams. In 2002, she shared the Silver Bear Award for Best Ensemble Cast at the Berlin International Film Festival for her performance in 8 Women. In 2005, Deneuve published her diary A l'ombre de moi-meme ("In My Own Shadow", published in English as Close Up and Personal: The Private Diaries of Catherine Deneuve); in it she writes about her experiences shooting the films Indochine and Dancer in the Dark. She also provided the voice role of Marjane Satrapi's mother in Satrapi's animated autobiographical film Persepolis (2007), based on the graphic novel of the same name.

Her 100th film appearance was in Un conte de Noël released in 2008.^[22] Deneuve's later work includes Potiche (2010) with frequent co-star Depardieu, Beloved (2011), alongside former co-stars Ludivine Sagnier and Chiara Mastroianni, the popular French adventure comedy Asterix and Obelix: God Save Britannia (2012) with Gérard Depardieu and Valérie Lemercier, screenwriter and director Emmanuelle Bercot's On My Way (2013), Palme D'or winning writer/director Pierre Salvadori's comedy drama In the Courtyard (2014), and André Téchiné's drama In the Name of My Daughter (2014). She co-starred alongside Catherine Frot, in writer/director Martin Provost's French drama The Midwife (2017).^[23][24]

Modeling

Deneuve appeared nude in two Playboy pictorials in 1963 and 1965.^[25] Her image was used to represent Marianne, the national symbol of France,^[26] from 1985 to 1989.^[27] As the face of Chanel No. 5 in the late 1970s, she caused sales of the perfume to soar in the United States – so much so that the American press, captivated by her charm, nominated her as the world's most elegant woman.^[28] In 1983, American Home Products retained her to represent their cosmetics line and hired world-renowned photographer Richard Avedon to promote its line of Youth Garde cosmetics, for which she famously proclaimed, "Look closely. Next year, I will be 40."

She is considered the muse of designer Yves Saint Laurent; he dressed her in the films Belle de Jour, La Chamade, La sirène du Mississipi, Un flic, Liza, and The Hunger. In 1992, she became a model for his skincare line.In 2001, she was chosen as the new face of L'Oréal Paris. In 2006, Deneuve became the third inspiration for the M•A•C Beauty Icon series and collaborated on the colour collection that became available at M•A•C locations worldwide in February that year. Deneuve began appearing in the new Louis Vuitton luggage advertisements in 2007. Deneuve was listed as one of the fifty best-dressed over 50s by the Guardian in March 2013.^[29] In July 2017, Deneuve appeared in a video campaign for Louis Vuitton entitled Connected Journeys, celebrating the launch of the brand's Tambour Horizon smartwatch, which also featured celebrities, including Jennifer Connelly, Bae Doona, Jaden Smith and Miranda Kerr.^[30]

Entrepreneurial

In 1986, Deneuve introduced her own perfume, Deneuve.^[31] She is also a designer of glasses, shoes, jewelry and greeting cards.^[32]

• Deneuve was appointed UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Safeguarding of Film Heritage in 1994 until her resignation on 12 November 2003.
• Deneuve asked that the rights owed to her from her representation of Marianne be given to Amnesty International.^[33]
• Louis Vuitton made a donation to The Climate Project, spearheaded by Al Gore, on behalf of Deneuve.
• Deneuve is also involved with Children Action, Children of Africa, Orphelins Roumains and Reporters Without Borders.
• Douleur sans frontiers (Pain Without Borders) – At the end of 2003, Deneuve recorded a radio commercial to encourage donations to fight against the pain in the world, notably for the victims of landmines.^[34]
• Handicap International – In the middle of July 2005, Deneuve lent her voice to the message of radio commercials, TV and cinema, which denounced the use of the BASM (cluster bombs).
• Voix de femmes pour la démocratie (Voice of women for democracy) – Deneuve read the text, "Le petit garçon", of Jean-Lou Dabadie, on the entitled CD, "Voix de femmes pour la démocratie." The CD was sold for the benefit of the female victims of the war and the fundamentalisms that fight for democracy.
• Deneuve has also been involved with various charities in the fight against AIDS and cancer.^[34]

• In 1971, Deneuve signed the Manifesto of the 343. The manifesto was an admission by its signers to have had illegal abortions, and therefore exposed themselves to judicial actions and prison sentences. It was published in Le Nouvel Observateur on 5 April 1971. That same year, feminist lawyer Gisèle Halimi founded the group, Choisir ("To Choose"), to protect the women who had signed the Manifesto of the 343.
• Deneuve is involved with Amnesty International's program to abolish the death penalty.
• In 2001, Deneuve delivered a petition organized by the French-based group, "Together Against the death penalty", to the U.S. Embassy in Paris.^[35]
• In April 2007, Deneuve signed a petition on the internet protesting against the "misogynous" treatment of socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal. More than 8,000 French men and women signed the petition, including French actress Jeanne Moreau.^[36]
• In 2011, among other French celebrities Deneuve signed a petition asking the future President of France to propose a vote at the United Nations General Assembly to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide.^[37]
• In January 2018, Deneuve, along with 99 other French women writers, performers and academics, signed an open letter that argued the #Me Too movement had gone too far, turning into a "witch hunt", and denounced it as a form of puritanism, resulting in a backlash.^[38][39] Although she later apologized to all the victims who might have felt assaulted by the letter, she still supported it saying there was "nothing in the letter" to Le Monde that said "anything good about harassment, otherwise I wouldn't have signed it".^[40]

Besides her native French, Deneuve speaks fluent Italian and English and has some knowledge of Spanish, though she does not fluently speak the language. Her hobbies and passions include gardening, drawing, photography, reading, music, cinema, fashion, antiques and decoration.^[34] According to a 1996 article published by The New York Times, Deneuve is a practising Roman Catholic.^[41]

Marriage and family

Deneuve has been married once:^[42] to photographer David Bailey from 1965 to 1972,^[8] though they separated in 1967.^[43] She has lived with director Roger Vadim,^[44] actor Marcello Mastroianni,^[8] cinematographer Hugh Johnson,^[45] and Canal+ tycoon Pierre Lescure.^[8]

Deneuve has two children: actor Christian Vadim (born 18 June 1963), from her relationship with Roger Vadim, and actress Chiara Mastroianni (born 28 May 1972), from her relationship with Marcello Mastroianni. She has five grandchildren. Deneuve has not had a public relationship since her breakup with Lescure in 1991, with whom she remains friends and her two children consider him their stepfather. According to Gala, in late 2019 Deneuve relied on Lescure while she recuperated from a stroke,^[46] and in 2020, Lescure told Paris Match that they still talk to each other every day.^[47]

Relationships

Throughout her 20s and 30s, Deneuve reportedly dated actors Sami Frey,^[48] Clint Eastwood,^[49] Franco Nero,^[50] Burt Reynolds,^[51] and John Travolta^[52] as well as directors Roman Polanski,^[53] Jerry Schatzberg,^[54] François Truffaut^[55] and Milos Forman,^[56] talent agent Bertrand de Labbey [fr],^[57] singer Serge Gainsbourg,^[58] though she denies an intimate relationship with Gainsbourg. She is also rumored to have had a brief relationship with TV host Carlos Lozano [es].^[59][60][61]

In recent decades, Deneuve's highly private life has prompted speculation about her sexual orientation, which she acknowledged in a 2002 interview with Knack magazine: "Now that people know nothing about my private life, they start guessing: is there still a man in her life and who is he then? When they see me two or three times with a female friend they say: we've always known that."^[62] Reports from 2000 claimed her beau was a 25-year-old technician she'd met on a recent film, but no writers could identify him.^[63] In 2006, Deneuve told The Daily Telegraph that she was in a relationship, though she did not disclose his name.^[64]

A 2020 biography of Johnny Hallyday by Gilles Lhote claims that the singer maintained a carefully hidden, 56-year affair with Deneuve that started when they were teenagers in 1961 and continued until Hallyday's death in 2017.^[65][66] Deneuve is a close friend of the artist Nall and owns some of his works.^[67]

Health

On 6 November 2019, BBC News reported that Deneuve suffered a mild stroke and was recuperating in a Paris hospital. Despite the health scare, there was no damage to her motor functions.^[68] Five weeks later, she was released from the hospital and spent the remainder of 2019 recuperating at her Paris home.^[69]

Deneuve began smoking in 1960 at age 16, and was known to smoke up to three packs a day.^[70] She quit in 1985 with the aid of hypnotherapy,^[71] but started again in 1996.^[72] In 2020, French actress and recent co-star Juliette Binoche told Vanity Fair that Deneuve has stopped smoking since her stroke.^[73]

Film

Television

Deneuve has received numerous accolades including two César Award for Best Actress for her performances in The Last Metro (1980), and Indochine (1992). A 14-time César Award nominee, she won for her performances in Truffaut's The Last Metro (1980), for which she also won the David di Donatello for Best Foreign Actress, and Régis Wargnier's Indochine (1992). She received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress for Indochine and a BAFTA Award for Best Actress for Belle de Jour (1968). She received the Venice Film Festival's Volpi Cup for Best Actress for her role in Place Vendôme (1998). She also received numerous honorary accolades including the Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear in 1998 and the Venice Film Festival's Golden Lion in 2022.

In 2000, a Golden Palm Star on the Palm Springs, California, Walk of Stars was dedicated to her.^[74] In 2013, she was honored for her lifetime achievement at the 26th European Film Awards.^[75] In 2015, she received the Lifetime Achievement Golden Orange Award from International Antalya Film Festival, Turkey. In 2020, The New York Times ranked her number 21 in its list of the 25 Greatest Actors of the 21st Century.^[76]

• 1980:
  • Dieu fumeur de havanes – by and with Serge Gainsbourg (original film soundtrack Je vous aime by Claude Berri)
  • Quand on s'aime – duet with Gérard Depardieu, for a television programme
• 1981: Her first and only album issued – Souviens-toi de m'oublier written by Serge Gainsbourg

1. Digital delay
2. Depression au-dessus du jardin
3. Epsilon
4. Monna Vanna et Miss Duncan
5. Marine bond tremolo
6. Ces petits riens (duet with Serge Gainsbourg) – original version performed by Gainsbourg and Juliette Gréco (1964)
7. Souviens-toi de m'oublier (duet with Serge Gainsbourg)
8. Overseas telegram
9. What tu dis qu'est-ce tu say
10. Oh Soliman
11. Alice helas

• 1993: Paris Paris – by and with Malcolm McLaren
• 1997: Allo maman bobo – by Alain Souchon, during an evening with Les Enfoirés in 1997 with Alain Souchon, Jean-Jacques Goldman and Laurent Voulzy
• 1999: Joyeux anniversaire maman – by Stomy Bugsy (original film soundtrack Belle-maman by Gabriel Aghion)
• 2000: Cvalda – by and with Björk (included in Selmasongs, the soundtrack for Dancer in the dark by Lars von Trier)
• 2001: Toi jamais – original film soundtrack Huit Femmes by François Ozon (original version performed by Sylvie Vartan en 1976)
• 2006: Ho capito che ti amo – original film soundtrack Le héros de la famille by Thierry Klifa
• 2010: C'est beau la vie by Jean Ferrat – original film soundtrack Potiche by François Ozon
• 2011: Tout est si calme with Clara Couste, Ludivine Sagnier and Chiara Mastroianni, Une fille légère in duet with Chiara Mastroianni, Je ne peux vivre sans t'aimer – original film soundtrack Beloved by Christophe Honoré
• Audiobooks for Éditions des Femmes:
  • Cendrillon by Charles Perrault
  • Bonjour tristesse by Françoise Sagan
  • Les Petits Chevaux de Tarquinia by Marguerite Duras
  • Les Paradis aveugles by Duong Thu Huong
  • La Marquise d'O by Heinrich von Kleist
  • Lettres à un jeune poète by Rainer Maria Rilke
  • Letters Home by Sylvia Plath

• Cinema of France
• History of cinema

Notes

Citations

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Catherine Deneuve.

• Catherine Deneuve at IMDb 
• Catherine Deneuve at AllMovie
• Catherine Deneuve at filmsdefrance.com
• Catherine Deneuve on Charlie Rose
• Catherine Deneuve collected news and commentary at The New York Times
• Catherine Deneuve interview (21 September 2005)