atherine Deneuve is looking for her
cigarettes—her Marlboro slims. She
lights one and, as we speak, it’s not long
until she reaches for another.
“I smoke too much,” she says.
I would love it if that could be erased
from me.” But in the meantime,
Deneuve says she might just switch to
vapour cigarettes.
Perhaps a more realistic approach
than having something erased from a
celebrated fixture of French culture,
one who was the actual model for
Marianne, the figure of the French
Republic appearing for years on coins
and stamps nationwide.
At 74, the sovereign of French
cinema has preserved a global image as
the undisputed embodiment of French
chic and is an icon of style, still very
much present in the fashion world.
She made controversial headlines last
January when she joined 99 other
women in signing an open letter that
challenged the #MeToo movement
and its French counterpart,
#BalanceTonPorc, claiming that the
public campaigns infantilise women
and contribute to a climate of sexual
puritanism and totalitarian thinking.
A strong backlash ensued, and
Deneuve responded with a letter stating
that while she stood by the original
statement published in the French daily
newspaper Le Monde, she did not
condone sexual abuse or misconduct.
“I’m a free woman and I will remain
one,” Deneuve said in her follow-up
letter to the French newspaper
Libération. “I fraternally salute allwomen victims of odious acts, who
may have felt aggrieved by the letter in
Le Monde. It is to them, and them
alone, that I apologise.”
Today she says she does not have
much to add and stands by her words.
“I’ve done my part and I have no more
to say than what I said in my letter.”
But she also believes there is work to
be done in order to productively address
the debate and the blurred line that
exists between power and seduction.
“[Whether] a photographer,
a painter, or a singer,” says Deneuve,
“there is a part of seduction and desire
in [the profession]. But the problem is
to know where is the limit and what is
the difference between seducing
someone and going too far. I think the
best thing would be to force all
companies to have a code of conduct,
and people who are in the company—
no matter how small it is—agree that
they will behave respectfully with both
men and women. That is part of their
contract. And I think it’s time to start
in schools. It should be part of the
education. Boys try to seduce girls, and
sometimes they are too forceful, so it is
very much a question of education.”
Deneuve has spoken about women’s
issues in the past, and back in 1971 she
had signed a pro-choice petition
written by feminist writer Simone de
Beauvoir, in which she revealed she
had an abortion when it was still illegal.
“I felt like a woman who thought
that being prosecuted for that is
something really unfair,” says Deneuve.
“That’s why so many people signed“Whether it’s a photographer, a painter, or a singer,
there is a part of seduction and desire in the profession.
The problem is to know the limit and the dierence
between seducing someone and going too far.”
➤