Name: Catherine Deneuve
Date of Birth: 22 October 1943 Catherine Deneuve was born in 1943, in Paris, France. Her parents were actors. She made her movie debut in 1957, when she was a teenager and continued with small parts in minor films, until 'Roger Vadim' (qv) gave her a meatier part in _Le vice et la vertu (1963)_ (qv). But her breakthrough came with the excellent musical _Les parapluies de Cherbourg (1964)_ (qv) in which she gave an unforgettable performance as a romantic middle-class girl who falls in love with a young soldier but gets impriso... ned in a loveless marriage with another man; the director was the gifted 'Jacques Demy' (qv) who also cast Deneuve in the less successful _Les demoiselles de Rochefort (1967)_ (qv). She then played a schizophrenic killer in 'Roman Polanski' (qv)'s _Repulsion (1965)_ (qv) and a married woman who works as a part-time prostitute every afternoon in 'Luis Bu?uel' (qv)'s masterpiece _Belle de jour (1967)_ (qv). She also worked with Bu?uel in _Tristana (1970)_ (qv) and gave a great performance for 'Fran?ois Truffaut' (qv) in _La sir?ne du Mississipi (1969)_ (qv), a kind of apotheosis of her "frigid femme fatale" persona. In the 1970s, she didn't find parts of that caliber, but her magnificent work in Truffaut's _Le dernier m?tro (1980)_ (qv) as a stage actress in Nazi-occupied Paris revived her career. She was also very good in the recent epic drama _Indochine (1992)_ (qv) for which she earned her first Academy Award Nominaton (Best Actress). Although the elegant and always radiant Deneuve has never appeared on stage, she is universally hailed as one of the "grandes dames" of French cinema, joining a list that includes such illustrious talents as 'Simone Signoret' (qv), 'Jeanne Moreau' (qv), 'Isabelle Huppert' (qv), and the younger 'Juliette Binoche' (qv).Read more Catherine Deneuve movies (actor)User Comments |
