2023-10-21 05:05:01
The famous actress will celebrate her 80th birthday this Sunday, October 22. The opportunity to immerse ourselves in our memories on the Côte d’Azur, between filming and the Cannes festival.
Born October 22, 1943 in Paris, Catherine Deneuve, the French actress with more than 120 films, will celebrate her 80th birthday this Sunday. In eight decades, she will have marked her time with her numerous feature films and her legendary climbs at the Cannes Film Festival. A look back at the actress’s most memorable moments on the Côte d’Azur.
His first Cannes Film Festival in 1964
In 1964, for her first appearance at the Cannes Film Festival, Catherine Deneuve, aged 21, came to present Umbrellas of Cherbourg by Jacques Demy with the film team. Armed with her playing partner Nino Castelnuovo, she walks the red carpet and climbs the legendary steps. The feature film caused a sensation. The actress plays a young girl, Geneviève, who falls madly in love with a mechanic.
But he leaves for the Algerian War, he then leaves her pregnant but she ends up marrying a rich jeweler. This dramatic love story won the Palme d’Or and became cult.
Catherine Deneuve in the film “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg”, released in 1964. • © PICTURE ALLIANCE
Her role in “La Chamade” filmed in Saint-Tropez
Filmed in June 1968, La Chamade by Alain Cavalier is the adaptation of the eponymous novel by Françoise Sagan released three years previously. The film features a beautiful young girl, Lucile, played by Catherine Deneuve, leading a social life and having a good time in her lover’s luxurious villa nestled in the bay of Saint-Tropez.
Lucile only aspires to love but above all to be loved. A year after the death of Françoise Dorléac, the actress’s sister, in a road accident near Villeneuve-Loubet, Catherine Deneuve returned to the Côte d’Azur, precisely to Pampelonne beach in Saint-Tropez, to interpret this character.
Her filming in “La Sirène du Mississippi” in Nice
The same year, in 1968, Catherine Deneuve returned to the region to shoot the new film by François Truffaut The Mississippi Mermaid. With her acting partner, Jean-Paul Belmondo, the actress creates scenes in the gardens of the Masséna Museum in Nice or in a hotel on Place Jacques Audiberti in Antibes.
It was during this filming that the love story, which had remained secret for a long time, began between the director and the actress. The film will not meet its audience with only 100,000 admissions to its credit.
However, it was very expensive and brought together popular stars.
His notable appearance at the Cannes Film Festival in 1973
After the screening of Feast by Marco Ferreri during the 26th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, the film crews were booed and whistled. The feature film is making a lot of noise. In an INA archivea spectator exclaims “It’s a scandal. A scandal! They’re making money on the backs of the poor people!”
Catherine Deneuve, who came to accompany her partner Marcello Mastroianni playing in the film, remembers this episode in the columns of the former JDD, in 2015: “There were so many whistles. The film caused a real scandal.” A moment that will be remembered.
Catherine Deneuve, who came to accompany her partner Marcello Mastroianni at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival. • © RALPH GATTI / AFP
His vice-presidency of the Cannes jury with Clint Eastwood
In 1994, the most legendary actress in French cinema was appointed vice-president of the jury alongside a legend of American cinema: the actor and director Clint Eastwood. “ It’s an experience. I tell myself that, even if there are difficult times, I will have the opportunity to see films from all over the world several times a day, for two weeks. For someone who loves cinema like me, it’s very exciting, even stimulating. It’s almost the realization of a secret dream to go to the cinema so much. Above all, without having a guilty conscience: in Cannes, I will have nothing more important or more urgent to do than go to the cinema twice a day.”confides Catherine Deneuve for Studio Magazine, a magazine on French cinema.
A great consecration for the one who will receive a Palme d’Honneur, around ten years later, in 2005. This award will highlight her phenomenal career.
American actor Clint Eastwood and French actress Catherine Deneuve during a photocall before the opening of the Cannes Film Festival, May 12, 1994. • © PATRICK HERTZOG / AFP
His career rewarded at Cannes
Catherine Deneuve receives a Special Prize from the President of the jury, Sean Penn, during the 61st edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 2008 for her role in A Christmas story by Arnaud Desplechin where she plays a mother who loses her son to a serious genetic disease, and more generally for her entire career.
During the awards ceremony, Catherine Deneuve declared: “I am very touched, very moved. I would like to thank Arnaud Desplechin thanks to whom I am here this evening. I would also like to thank my partners in the film A Christmas Story, especially Mathieu Amalric and Jean-Paul Roussillon. (…)
I am still happy today to make films like this with so much energy, intelligence, sensitivity, particularity. I always want to continue making films as long as there are a few rare directors like him.
Catherine Deneuve during a photocall after winning a special lifetime achievement award at the closing ceremony of the Cannes Film Festival, May 25, 2008. • © FRED DUFOUR / AFP
His filming of “The Man We Loved Too Much”
In May 2013, Catherine Deneuve set down her bags for several weeks on the Côte d’Azur, between Nice, Menton, Grasse, Cannes, Antibes and even Vence, for the filming of The man we loved too much by André Téchiné.
In this film, the actress shares the stage with renowned actors like Guillaume Canet and the young actress Adèle Haenel. This feature film will be presented at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival in the “Out of competition” category. It was not the first time that the actress played for director André Téchiné. The man we loved too much is his seventh collaboration with the filmmaker, after The girl from the RER in 2009, Changing Times in 2004, The thieves in 1996, My favorite season in 1993, The crime scene in 1986 and Hotel of the Americas in 1981.
His face on the poster of the 76th Cannes Film Festival
For the poster for the 76th edition, the Cannes Film Festival wanted to pay tribute to Catherine Deneuve by choosing a black and white photo of Jack Garofalo taken on the set of La Chamade directed by Alain Cavalier and filmed in 1968. In a press release, the festival explained its decision: “To retell the glorious present of cinema and envisage its future full of promise. Because Catherine Deneuve is what cinema must remember to be: elusive, daring, irreverent. An evidence. A necessity.”
It is a real honor for the actress who launched the festivities during the opening ceremony on May 16, alongside her daughter Chiara Mastroianni, designated mistress of ceremonies this year. The icon of French cinema did not fail to address his thoughts to the Ukrainians: “Tonight we celebrate cinema (…) but that does not prevent us from thinking of those elsewhere who live a completely different life. I think a lot about Ukraine”.
Catherine Deneuve during the opening ceremony of the Cannes festival, May 16, 2023. • © VALERY HACHE / AFP
In 80 years, Catherine Deneuve has accumulated many memories in the region, but she has undoubtedly continued to surprise us with her innate elegance and her charming voice which have seduced the greatest directors, from Jacques Demy to François Truffaut in via André Téchiné or even François Ozon.
She is currently starring in the comedy Bernadette which looks back on the life of one of the iconic First Lady: Bernadette Chirac.
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