ÉCU-The European Independent Film Festival

ÉCU SPOTLIGHT: CATHERINE DENEUVE – THE QUEEN OF FRENCH CINEMA

Catherine Deneuve: The queen of French cinema that winks at the Independent cinema
by Alessia Massa

If you have a love for film, you must have a certain appreciation for French cinema. From the Lumière brothers to today, the French cinema has contributed many masterpieces that have helped to write cinematography history. Independent cinema is able to strike the heart’s chords; it can make you smile, touch you, and move you to tears. Catherine Deneuve, an actress born and raised in Paris, made her mark in French Cinema.

Miss Deneuve has worked with the greatest independent names of cinema around the world: Roger Vadim, Jacques Demy, Agnès Varda, Roman Polaski, Claude Chabrol, Louis Bunuel, François Truffaut, Raul Ruiz, Marco Ferreri, Claude Berri, Alain Corneau, Dino Risi, Philippe Garrel, Mauro Bolognini, Tony Scott; Claude Lelouch, Andrè Techine, Règis Wargnier, Arnaud Deplechin, Alain Cavalier, Manoel de Oliveira, Eric Lartigau, and many more. The Marianne of France also loves to work with directors of the most contemporary independent cinema: Thierry Klifa, François Ozon, Christian Honore, Gael Morel and Lars Von Trier. Her interpretative skills and self-assurance contribute to her range of roles, from dramatic and engaged to comic and light.

Every character is studied in depth, and as a good actress she doesn’t study only her persona but also the supporting characters who help build the story, giving her films a certain depth. For more than 50 years, she has devoted herself with an incredible passion to cinema, and when she loves a project she completely immerses hefself into the work. As a great lover of independent film schools, she has agreed to participate in a documentary devoted to the tragedy of the war in Lebanon. Deneuve is a real icon of the cinema, not only for her talent that has allowed her to collaborate with great directors, but for her style and elegance. A muse of Yves Saint Laurent; she has never hidden her great love for fashion, culture, photography and art. The independent cinema, for Deneuve, is not only a job but it is her life. She is an assiduous frequenter of the Parisian independent cinemas… so much that she has even furnished the restaurant of the Pantheon Cinema.

She is one of the few actresses that is still on the crest of the wave and in October will be in the cinemas with four films: Les Lignes de Wellington by Valeria Sarmiento, God Loves Caviar by Yannis Smaragdis, Astérix and Obélix: God save Britannia by Laurent Tirard (Astérix and Obélix Au Service de Sa Majesté) and Elle s’en va by Emmanuelle Bercot. This fall, French style icon Catherine Deneuve will help Le Bon Marché celebrate its 160th anniversary. The famous Parisian department store from September 15-21 will showcase Deneuve in 3D versions of illustrations by graphic novelist and illustrator Marjane Satrapi and will also be showing a new documentary of Loïc Prigent capturing her musings on the store’s historic neighborhood. The ground floor for the occasion will be transformed into a little cinema where there will be a screening of some of Deneuve’s films: The Mississippi Mermaid (La sirène du Mississipi) by François Truffaut, Le Bon Plaisir by Francis Girod, and more.