that letter. Because you have to be able
to choose what you want, and not to
always think that sex means having to
give birth. I’ve always been on the side
of women. I do what I think is right in
my opinion.”
Whether one agrees or disagrees
with Deneuve, she undeniably speaks
with arresting candour. And with that
same candour, she talks about her
success in cinema.
“It’s not so much about talent at the
beginning,” says Deneuve. “It has a lot
to do with your physical appearance.
When you have a pretty or nice-
looking woman entering a room, she
appeals to people. It’s unfair but it’s life.”
It was her late sister Françoise
Dorléac, who tragically died at the age
of 25 in a car accident, who inspired
Deneuve to start acting.
“My sister was an actress before me.
It was during the holidays that they
asked me to do a test for a film where
she was going to have a sister,” recalls
Deneuve. “That’s how I started. I was
not sure I would go on making films
when I did that film with her.”
With an acting career that spans over
50 years and more than a hundred
films, and a discerning choice of
unconventional filmmakers, Deneuve
originally gained recognition at the age
of 21 in Jacques Demy’s musical
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg.
“It has to do with luck but also the
choices you make,” she says. “And it’s
true that I was very lucky to start
working with very good directors.
Until I met Jacques Demy for
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, I was not
sure I was going to stay in films.”
She continued to mesmerise
audiences with her portrayal of
mysterious beauties in various
celebrated films, including Luis
Buñuel’s Belle de Jour, François
Truffaut’s The Last Metro, and Roman
Polanski’s Repulsion, proving a skillful
ability to tackle complex characters.
On screen and off, Deneuve
fascinated the world, including the
fashion arena. A special relationship
developed between her and designer
Yves Saint Laurent, which began
when he famously dressed her for Belle
de Jour.
“My relationship with fashion has
been there for a very long time, and
began with Yves Saint Laurent himself.
I started to go to his couture house
very, very young, which is quite
amazing when I think about it today.
The relationship lasted, and it was
something I really cared about,” says
Deneuve. “More than clothes, I like
materials. I like fabrics, colours....
When you follow someone for such a
long time, when you wear his clothes,
there is something that doesn’t come
across in words. You know the quality
and sensation of having the silk against
your skin, because everything is done
by hand; the inside is as beautiful as the
outside. So it gives you a taste for that.
And you learn to see, to look at things
a little differently.”
Through that relationship, and her
advertising campaigns for Yves Saint
Laurent, Chanel, and later Louis
Vuitton, Deneuve’s image rose publicly
and globally as a symbol of elegance
and femininity.
While maintaining her standing in
the fashion world to this day, she also
remains very much involved with themovie industry. And even though
aging can seem amplified on the silver
screen, Deneuve is not at all deterred.
“When you grow older, it’s true that
the [film] parts are different; you are
not always at the centre of the story.
It’s more difficult, but you can find
interesting parts,” she says. “You’re
always compared to what you were in
the other films. It’s hard for actors [to
grow old], even for men. I’m doing
my best. I’m not fighting to stay in
shape. What I want to keep, is the
energy, which I think is very important.
But I have children. I have a life.
I suppose if I was an actress without
children, without grandchildren,
my relation to age and getting older
would be different. But when you have
children and grandchildren, it’s a very
different story.”
Deneuve is successful at preserving
that vitality, balancing work with
weekends in the countryside, which
she says are essential to her. Gardening
and spending time in nature are some
of her great pleasures, as well as
watching Mad Men, Breaking Bad,
Homeland, and other French TV series.
She is currently shooting a new
movie with French director André
Téchiné to be released at the end of the
year, and speaks of her new project
with pure excitement.
“There’s always a bit of fear, a bit of
stage fright,” she says. “It’s truly an
adventure; not only acting but to live
for a couple of months with people
you do not know. It’s an adventure that
is very important to me.”
And it seems that it is this very sense
of adventure that continuously propels
Deneuve to surprising new heights. ■“It’s not so much about talent at the beginning.
It has a lot to do with your physical appearance.
It’s unfair but it’s life.”