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Catherine Deneuve (October 22, 1943, in Paris, France), is an Academy
Award-nominated French actress.
A model of French elegance, cultivated lust object for art house filmgoers
everywhere, and one of the best-respected actresses in the French film industry,
Catherine Deneuve made her reputation playing a series of beautiful ice maidens for
directors such as Luis Buñuel and Roman Polanski.
The daughter of French stage and film actor Maurice Dorléac and actress Renée
Deneuve, Deneuve was born Catherine Fabienne Dorléac, in Paris on October 22, 1943.
She made her screen debut at the age of 13, with a role in the 1956 film Les
Collegiennes, and went on to make a string of films with directors such as Roger
Vadim (with whom she had a child) before getting her breakthrough role in Jaques
Demy's charming musical, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964).
The burst of stardom that accompanied her portrayal led to two of her archetypal
ice maiden roles, first in Roman Polanski's terrifying Repulsion in 1965 and then
in Buñuel's 1967 Belle de Jour. Deneuve's startling portrayal of an icy, sexually
adventurous housewife in the latter film helped to establish her as one of the most
remarkable and compelling actresses of her generation. She further demonstrated her
talent that year in Demy's Umbrellas musical follow-up, Les Demoiselles de
Rochefort, which she starred in with her sister, Françoise Dorléac.
Deneuve as Séverine with Pierre Clementi in Luis Buñuel's Belle de Jour. This
character turned her into an international movie superstar and beauty icon.Deneuve
continued to work steadily through the 1960s and 1970s in films such as the 1970
Tristana (her second collaboration with Buñuel) and A Slightly Pregnant Man (1973),
in which she starred with her lover at the time, Marcello Mastrioanni. Despite or
perhaps because of her stardom, Deneuve chose to avoid Hollywood, limiting her
appearances in American films to The April Fools (1969) and Hustle (1975). Deneuve
also did prolific work through the 1980s, appearing in such films as François
Truffaut's Le Dernier Métro (1980) and Tony Scott's The Hunger (1983). The latter
film saw Deneuve playing a bisexual vampire alongside David Bowie and Susan
Sarandon, and her performance won her an indelible cult status in the States among
lesbians, goths, and artistically inclined teenage boys.
In the 1990s, Deneuve garnered further international acclaim for her roles in
several films, including the 1992 film Indochine (for which she won a César Award
and received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress) and two films directed
by André Téchiné, Ma Saison Préférée (1993) and Les Voleurs (1995). In 1996, she
paid homage to the director who had first given her fame by taking part in the
documentary L'Univers de Jacques Demy. Closing out the final years of the 1990s
Deneuve remained consistently working in numerous films; in 1999 alone she appeared
in no less than five films: Est-ouest, Le temps retrouvé, Pola X, Belle-maman, and
Le vent de la nuit, continuing to turn in compelling performances.
In 2000 Deneuve received much critical attention when cast alongside eccentric
Icelandic singer Björk in the Lars von Trier's melancholy musical Dancer in the
Dark. Though it polarized critics and audiences alike, Dancer in the Dark
nevertheless won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
 Awards
She
won the César Award for Best Actress in 1981 for her performance in The Last
Metro (1980). She won the César Award for Best Actress a second time for her
starring role in the 1992 film, Indochine and was nominated for an Academy
Award for Best Actress for the same performance. In 1998 she won the Volpi Cup
for best actress at the Venice Film Festival for her role in Place Vendôme by
Nicole Garcia.
Source : Some of the information on this page came
from a Wikipedia article and is licensed under the GNU Documentation
License. ©2008 www.geneticmatrix.com.
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Catherine
Deneuve - Generator - Biography
