Today she is celebrating her 80th birthday and is still at the top of the poster for Bernadette by Léa Domenach. And for cinema, her great vocation, Catherine Deneuve has embodied since her debut 64 years ago in Les Collégiennes by André Hunebelle, not the first lady but truly the first actress in France.
On this anniversary of October 22, 2023, it is good to understand how the one who was born Catherine Dorléac knew how to play with a sometimes icy, sometimes sparkling charm, to build a filmography that is both immense and thought of as the accomplishment of a destiny. Because throughout her career, over the course of the films, she will write her journey as an actress alternating with rare happiness and discernment dramatic, tragic and romantic characters. And even the register of frivolity and comedy will not escape his thirst to blend into a new outfit. The critical success of Bernadette is the most recent and the most beautiful proof of this.
Also read: Bernadette: Catherine Deneuve, a lady from hell
You need to know the codes that led Bunuel’s unforgettable Belle de jour to work for such talented filmmakers – in addition to the aforementioned Spanish master – as Jacques Demy, François Truffaut, Roman Polanski, Marco Ferreri, yesterday… and during the last two decades, Lars von Trier, François Ozon, Arnaud Desplechin, without obviously forgetting Emmanuelle Bercot and Léa Domenach. The seventh art, unlike Brigitte Bardot for example, was and still is the great business of her life. In front of a camera, the actress showed herself capable of all excesses and all restraints. And it is perhaps for this, to cover her tracks and not show her true personality, that she has jealously preserved her private life.
By going through the list of her films, the cinephile instantly notices that Catherine Deneuve can change into Mermaid of Mississippi, into Donkey Skin, into Demoiselle de Rochefort. It captures the astonishing chameleonic gift of an actress who above all likes to blend into the multiplicity of her characters.
On this day we had to offer a list of his best films. An almost impossible feat as the choice is so rich, the anthology will therefore have a beginning, Le Vice et la Virtue by Roger Vadim and an end (completely provisional), Bernadette. Between these asymptote points, we will of course find The Mermaid of the Mississippi by Truffaut, The Last Metro still by Truffaut, Potiche by Ozon and many others who will be interspersed. Happy birthday Catherine!
Vadim is a Pygmalion. After Brigitte Bardot And God… Created Woman in 1956, after Annette Stroyberg in Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1960, the young director directed his third wife, Catherine Deneuve, in Vice and Virtue. Les Liaisons was inspired by Choderlos de Laclos, Le Vice, by the Marquis de Sade. As for young Catherine, she embodied virtue. It was just the beginning.
After virtue, the trouble of a beautiful Belgian manicurist who must confront a desire that she does not feel. Deneuve thus shows that she can play anything… to the point of anxiety.
She is wonderful in this role of a carefree young chatelaine lost in the Second World War. She is facing Philippe Noiret, who has a gift for magnifying the most beautiful women. Remember the duo he formed with Romy Schneider in Le Vieux Fusil. Rappeneau will give her the character of an almost indomitable seductress in Le Sauvage a few years later.
They were almost twin sisters. Françoise Dorléac was a year older than Catherine. The two sisters adored each other. Fate stole the destiny of the eldest at the bend of a crossroads near Nice in 1967. It is Demy’s greatest merit to have forever immortalized this beautiful fraternal friendship.
After having embodied virtue with Vadim, she is a bourgeois who prostitutes herself with Bunuel. Adapted from the novel by Joseph Kessel, this sulfurous story is a milestone in Deneuve’s career. After this film and Repulsion, directors will be sure that she is capable of playing anything. Moreover, a few months later, she becomes virginal as Anne de Clécy in Benjamin ou les Mémoires d’un virgin.
Catherine Deneuve turns the head of a sacred monster. Jean-Paul Belmondo, slowly poisoned by the perverse Marion, admits at the end of the film: “Looking at you is a joy… A joy and a suffering”. It took Deneuve’s tangy charm to make people believe in this scenario. We believed it.
In 1969 she faced Belmondo, in 1972 it was Delon in Un Flic, by Melville. In 1975, it was Yves Montand’s turn. This is the blessed time when directors can build a pitch around the stars. In Le Sauvage, by Rappeneau, she plays an incredibly convincing ravishing “pain in the ass”. We end up envying Yves Montand.
Marion Steiner loves her husband and the theater. Times are troubled. It’s World War II, the Germans in Paris control everything. Everything except love. Deneuve therefore fell in love with Gérard Depardieu, then at the height of his talent. The film and the two actors will be Caesarized. One of Truffaut’s greatest successes.
Also read: The film to watch this evening: The Last Metro
An undeniable and undisputed national star, Deneuve has not been widely exported. The Predators, by Tony Scott, is the exception that proves the rule. Despite a prestigious cast -David Bowie and Susan Sarandon-, the film was a failure upon release. With the passage of time, moviegoers have given it back its nobility.
Part of Deneuve’s talent lies in his intuitive ability to divine the vagaries of the times. In Dancer in the Dark, she works for Lars von Trier, one of the most popular directors of the beginning of the century. She also fell in love with Björk, the young Icelandic diva.
Deneuve in the shoes of Jacqueline Maillan? This prodigy, the great actress achieved it. Catherine is anti-Deneuve. Film buffs fully appreciated this acting prowess. The presence of Depardieu and Luchini certainly contributed to Potiche’s success.
Also read: Not really a joke
At the age of being a grandmother, Deneuve still seduces. The story that Emmanuelle Bercot tailor-made for the actress was very positively greeted by critics. Elle s’en va is, for the record, Deneuve’s 137th film. A record.
Here, she transforms into Muriel, a mother, who insidiously sees her son caught up in a terrorist ideology. A film and a role that immerse the viewer in hot news.
Also read: Farewell to the Night: Jihad, the family version
Catherine Deneuve here becomes a Bernadette Chirac as convincing, and sometimes as facetious, as the model. An amused, offbeat “biopic” unanimously praised by critics.
Also readOur review of Bernadette, with Catherine Deneuve: a lady from hell
