She is an Oscar nominated and Cesar award winning actress, a former face of Chanel, the muse of Yves St. Laurent and her image was used for Marianne, the national symbol of France. And how many women can make that claim? Happy birthday to Catherine Fabienne Dorleac a.k.a. Catherine Deneuve who turned 67 this past week.
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| Bust of Marianne |
The iconic beauty has appeared in over 100 films and her classic looks are legendary. She rose to stardom in
The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and appeared in a variety of roles ranging from a bisexual vampire opposite Susan Sarandon in cult-classic
The Hunger, an ice maiden in Roman Polanski's
Repulsion and an Academy Award nominated performance in
Indochine. (One role that was not of interest -- the Bond girl in
On Her Majesty's Secret Service). Perhaps one of my favorite Deneuve films was the comedy
The April Fools (1969) where she plays the neglected wife of Peter Lawford and falls in love with stockbroker Jack Lemmon. (Wonderful costumes and a great Burt Bacharach soundtrack too).
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The April Fools
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| Indochine |
As the face of Chanel No. 5 in the seventies, perfume sales soared and eventually she designed a fragrance for herself, aptly known as "Deneuve." Yves St. Laurent designed the costumes for her film
Belle de Jour which marked a long collaboration between the two both on (
The Hunger, Liza and
La Chamade) and off screen. Her romantic collaborations were just as famous -- she married sixties photographer David Bailey and had children with Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni and director Roger Vadim.
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| Chanel Ad circa de 1974 |
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Deneuve with Yves St. Laurent
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Belle de Jour
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A grandmother of four (and perpetual smoker), her looks remain timeless which she attributes to monthly vitamin injections, Pilates and visits to a facial masseuse. I am thinking it is probably in the genes. And perfect bone structure.
You can catch her next in the film
The Big Picture on November 3rd.
