Catherine Deneuve

• Share on Facebook
• Share on Twitter

Yellow printed mohair knit coat LOUIS VUITTON

stardust memory

interview by OLIVIER ZAHM
photography by JUERGEN TELLER

The French film icon, and française par excellence, is an anti-star who refuses to play the absurd game of celebrity on social media. She retains a true love for art and risk-taking — in cinema, of course, but also in the fashion world.

She is most comfortable working with artists, as she does in this fashion story, wearing Nicolas Ghesquière’s stunning Fall/Winter collection for Louis Vuitton, and photographed for the first time, without a moment’s hesitation, by the enfant terrible of fashion photography, Juergen Teller.

Catherine Deneuve suggested the shoot take place in the beautiful gardens of the Château Saint-Jean de Beauregard, outside of Paris. Even the rain didn’t dampen her enthusiasm. It was a moment filled with the memory of her international debut in Jacques Demy’s famous musical film, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964).

Yellow printed mohair knit coat and a leather-trimmed skirt LOUIS VUITTON

OLIVIER ZAHM — Let’s talk about the star Catherine Deneuve, icon of French cinema.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Oh, no. Let’s not use that word to refer to me… Besides, there are no more stars in the Instagram era!

OLIVIER ZAHM — Are you saying that social networks deprive actresses of their charisma?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes. Everyone says I ought to have an Instagram account or a Facebook page. You’re suggesting it yourself right now! [Laughs] But no! All those pointless photographs, photos of daily life — they make an actress’s image utterly commonplace. There’s no more mystery, no more charm, no more fantasy… Why get rid of the mystery? Also, my private life is my own. I share it with my loved ones, and that’s enough for me. Why would I share it publicly and end up destroying it?

OLIVIER ZAHM — To achieve even greater levels of fame, to have people following you at all times.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It means nothing to have 500,000 followers or a million. It’s senseless. I like people to be interested in my movies, in my characters, and not in my daily life or public outings. All those images of actresses out and about in daily life are ugly and utterly commonplace. Seeing pictures of an actress every which way, in every situation, at fashion shows, at advance screenings, at festivals, on evenings out, at parties, in her kitchen, or with her friends — there’s just nothing interesting about it. I find it very harmful to our artistic profession.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Maybe it’s just the new form that media has taken today, replacing magazines and television.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, perhaps. In fact, the traditional press is doing the same thing. It, too, is publishing pointless images from the daily lives of actresses.

Yellow embroidered shirt and skirt, gold chain belt, and gold metal Serrure cuff LOUIS VUITTON

OLIVIER ZAHM — Isn’t making your own images a way of controlling your image, rather than having it stolen by the paparazzi or working with photographers you can’t choose for yourself?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — At least that’s not the case with Juergen Teller and the shoot we did for your magazine. I love Juergen’s photographs. At any rate, social networks are a very peculiar form of media, when you think about it. There’s no actual content. It’s as if people were talking intimately with hundreds or thousands of people they don’t know. It creates a sort of false rapport. Also, I have trouble seeing what exactly it is that we control. What’s really going on is that other people, the masses, are controlling us, by obliging us to reveal moments of our personal lives.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Instead of having your image stolen, you yourself distribute your image in accordance with what you want to say.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Well, when you get your image stolen, at least you’re not looking at the camera. It’s obvious that your picture’s been taken in the midst of your private life and without your knowledge. When you yourself take pictures of yourself in every situation, in your bed, in your kitchen, in your car, at an exhibition, you are a party to it. You are complicit in the distribution, in the voyeurism. I happen to think we’re overdosing on images these days. It’s getting out of control. I like film images or fashion images — real images. Instagram doesn’t go very far. It’s immediate and futile. It’s not art… Even if you think so, Olivier! [Laughs]

OLIVIER ZAHM — So you’re in favor of maintaining a certain mystery?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It’s not that I cultivate secrecy. It’s rather that I prefer a certain reserve. I don’t seek to preserve mystery artificially by hiding or staying off social networks. I just prefer to keep certain moments of my private life for myself and my loved ones, and not reveal everything to a crowd of strangers. What could be more normal? The rest seems to me to signal a sort of inner void or a lack of recognition or an obsession with recognition that I myself just feel no need for.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It’s becoming an obsession for everybody, artist or not, actor or not, to appear in images.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes. It’s unsettling. A romp of narcissism. The Japanese were roundly derided 30 years ago when they’d come to Paris and take pictures of cultural things before they’d even looked at them. “They don’t even look at things anymore,” we said. “They just take pictures of what they’re supposed to look at.” Now it’s happening to us with our daily lives: people don’t live in the moment anymore; they take a picture of the moment they’re supposed to live. They can already see themselves in the picture they’re going to send. They live their lives through a filter of images.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Isn’t it normal life for an actress to live in film images?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — When I’m not filming, when I’m off the soundstage or outside the photography studio, I have a personal life, which is quite fulfilling, thank you very much… [Laughs] What I mean, though, is that it’s no longer a matter of the eye making a spontaneous discovery. Now the eye is trained to record the moment and send it to others. It’s a frightful ocular disorder. [Laughs]

Beige sheepskin coat and black wool drawstring pants LOUIS VUITTON

OLIVIER ZAHM — Right now, for instance, I’m restraining myself from posting an Instagram image of Catherine Deneuve doing an interview!
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, thankfully. And, besides, I don’t see the point. [Laughs]

OLIVIER ZAHM — So you’re steering clear of social networks these days.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It’s not that I’m steering clear of them. It’s that I’m just not interested. The people I like or esteem or admire — I have no need to see pictures of them coming out of a restaurant or attending an advance screening. I’d rather meet them and see them face-to-face. I find nothing’s personal anymore. Nothing’s private. There’s nothing left.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Or maybe the private realm is being crowded into increasingly confidential and obscure areas.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — I remember when we used to go out. We could goof off and tipple and act silly. Whatever you did would stay with the people you’d gone out with, the people who were present and having fun. My friends can’t live that way anymore. You can sense in them a slight apprehension about being photographed. And when you’re having fun, there’s always someone who tries to capture the moment in a picture. It’s as if everyone were always serving as an audience for everyone else, and always onstage. You can tell people are toeing the line. They don’t dare have too much fun. They know all too well that we’re always being filmed or photographed.

Gold metal Serrure cuff LOUIS VUITTON

OLIVIER ZAHM — Right. And so the night has lost some of its…
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It’s lost its charm, yes, very much so.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Since actors and actresses no longer like to go out much, Paris nights, as well as Hollywood nights, are not much fun anymore.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — And so everything happens in private, in houses. It’s rather depressing for nightlife, certainly. Even what you say can be recorded and taken out of context … and twisted. Look what happened with John Galliano. What struck me about all that was that the only subject of discussion was what Galliano had said, which of course was very…

OLIVIER ZAHM — Violent.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — … and anti-Semitic and inexcusable. But nobody’s asked why he said it. What did somebody say that led him to say those things? Nobody’s talked about that, and we don’t know. He must have been provoked. Everything’s out of context. And that’s the danger with these new media that can so easily twist reality.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Do you think it’s more difficult now for a young actress to succeed than it was in the early ’70s or late ’60s, when you started out?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Definitely.There’s no longer any time to settle into a career over the long term or to get better. These days we leap right into the now. Everything’s become very ephemeral.

Oriental Jacquard zipped dress and gold metal and resin cuff LOUIS VUITTON

OLIVIER ZAHM — But isn’t it the condition of the actress to walk that fine line of the ephemeral?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No, because the idea, after all, is to have the time in one’s career to try things, to take risks, and to make the occasional mistake without paying for it for all time. I, for instance, built my career over the long term and on the good fortune I had to meet some great directors.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Fashion, too, has taken on greater importance in actresses’ lives.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — All those pictures from the festivals and the Oscars and all that — it’s nothing but fashion nowadays. Descriptions of dresses, clothes, jewelry — nothing but that. “What are you wearing?” Even the shoemaker and the jeweler get mentioned! [Laughs] I find it pretty distressing, frankly. It’s like that even at the Cannes Film Festival now. We speak less and less about cinema and films, and far too much about clothes, make-up, hairstyles, and jewelry. It’s a rather saddening slant in the media.

OLIVIER ZAHM — But you yourself have always loved fashion and designers, like Yves Saint Laurent in the past. Now you are close to Nicolas Ghesquière at Louis Vuitton, which you’re wearing for this shoot.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — I love and admire Nicolas Ghesquière — from the time he started. He is extremely talented, and he’s a friend now. It’s one thing to love fashion and designers, but to go from that to having the press and the newspapers instantly transform you into a model… As if actresses had become models for a day. It boggles the mind.

Beige sheepskin coat over a white sheepskin coat with black wool drawstring pants and blue and black glazed calf leather pumps LOUIS VUITTON

OLIVIER ZAHM — Let’s talk about Catherine Deneuve, then. Because it turns out Catherine Deneuve is not Catherine Deneuve. Catherine Deneuve always remains hidden behind her double. Right from the start, you took a stage name.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, it’s true. It’s not a scoop! [Laughs] My name is Dorléac. My sister went into acting before I did, so I had to take another name, and I took my mother’s.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Isn’t it a burden to bear your mother’s name?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No more than to bear your father’s. But now on my passport, I have to be called Dorléac again. Before I was always Deneuve-Dorléac. Now I’m forced to have the name Dorléac-Deneuve on my passport. So I’ve recovered the name Dorléac, which I’ve always had on my papers, of course, but it’s become my primary name again.

OLIVIER ZAHM — But Deneuve is a beautiful name. The “De” is sort of like a noble particle.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Oh, I actually don’t care much for that. In fact, I prefer Dorléac. And there are too many E’s in Deneuve.

OLIVIER ZAHM — But there’s also the French adjective neuf [new]. The eternally new Catherine Deneuve…
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, so I’ve heard, but frankly, not so! [Laughs] Back when I took the name, none of that was very important. I had no plans to stay in cinema… But once I’d taken it, the deed was done.

OLIVIER ZAHM — What about your blonde hair? It’s a pretty significant change of identity to become a blonde — and to become the image of blondness in cinema.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes. It’s been so long now that it’s become a part of who I am. I no doubt felt a need to change, to undergo some sort of transformation. It must be linked to an inner need for change.

OLIVIER ZAHM — But you’ve always kept your hair long.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Actually, no. I’ve cut it in the past. I cut it for the film Indochine, where I wore it very short. It’s no problem for me to cut my hair. I’ve cut it before. But I’ve always stayed blonde.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Why blonde? Is it more erotic? More cinematic?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It was an act of love. I was in love with a man and had the impression that he was a man who liked blondes.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Who was it?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It was my son’s father.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Change in hair color and name aside, an actress is always between two identities: her own personality and the character she’s going to play.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — For me, they are not two separate identities. In truth, it’s my own identity that stretches or extends, that leans more this way than that. But it’s still the same person — the same heart, the same head, the same brain, the same sensibility…

OLIVIER ZAHM — You don’t feel that you’re disconnected from yourself or depersonalized in certain roles?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Never. They’re aspects of me that go in different and unexpected directions, depending on the film. But it’s not a truly separate identity, a complete reinvention… No, I’m always myself, at the core of the character. When I act, I feel that I’m entering into different situations, but also that it remains an act. I enter into a different character. I say words that are not mine, and it’s great fun. It’s great fun to live different things, to live situations where the dialogue’s been laid out for you. It’s a separate reality, but it’s never disconnected from me.

OLIVIER ZAHM — How does a film shoot with Catherine Deneuve work? Are you at ease, or are you a little anxious
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Oh, I’m always anxious before shooting a film, yes. But once we get started, I take great pleasure in it. It’s something that demands concentration, so it can get intense. Even now, and even when things go well on a shoot, certain scenes might make me more apprehensive than others. There might also be scenes that become difficult for reasons that can’t be pinned down.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Much of your work as an actress occurs in dialogue with the director.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Oh, yes. For me, it’s totally indispensable.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Do you enjoy taking direction?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, because if I weren’t directed, I’d feel as if I were doing something I already knew how to do, as if I were repeating myself. I’m not sure that actors can find new things by themselves. You can’t always be aware of what you’re doing. You need help from the outside. Actresses do not have 100% of their inner resources on tap. What’s expected of us is not necessarily what people think is expected, and what the director sees is not what we think he sees. No, you absolutely need a trusty advisor, and for me it’s the director.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Is the director critical to your decision as to which film to make?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes.

OLIVIER ZAHM — How do you handle it when it’s a young filmmaker who hasn’t necessarily established a track record? Because you often do first films.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, I’ve done it and will undoubtedly do it again. But in that situation, you’ve got to have confidence in yourself, in your intuition. The main thing for me is to meet the director, to meet him several times before making a film. We talk about all sorts of things, not just about the film. I try to determine through the way he speaks about the film, the character, her motivations — whether it all seems interesting to me or not. But it’s always a risk with a director who’s never done anything before. The quality of the script can also play into my decision.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Do you read the scripts, or does your agent do it?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — My agent, as well, but I read almost all of them. It takes a lot of time, although certain scripts do read faster than others. It always takes too long when you don’t like it and know you’re not going to end up doing the film, but you have to get to the end just to make sure. Because time is the most precious of things. But I do it anyway because when it comes to cinema, my curiosity always runs high.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Is it hard to picture a film just from the script?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No.

OLIVIER ZAHM — No? But a script isn’t exactly a novel. It’s pretty dry.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — You get used to it. And since scripts tend to be heavy on dialogue, I can tell pretty quickly whether I find it true and original or not.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Has your passion for cinema flagged any after all these years?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No. I think I’d even say that I wasn’t as passionate about it at 20 as I am now.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Really?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No, because I knew a lot less at the time. I had far less experience. I couldn’t analyze things as well. I couldn’t feel things in the same way. Cinema has matured within me through the years — the films, the encounters, the adventures.

OLIVIER ZAHM — There are very few actresses of your level who continue to commit to first films or auteur films.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Or who go to the movies as often as I do. [Laughs] I’m astonished to see that so many actors no longer go to the cinema. It’s astounding to me, but that’s the way it is. There are also actors who don’t want to see themselves on screen, who don’t want to see what they’ve shot. That I can understand. But not go to the cinema to see the new and interesting films of the day? I don’t understand it.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Have you become a cinephile?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes. Well, not as much as a real cinephile, but enough for an actress, certainly. I can’t do anything but go see films [laughs], which does take up a lot of my time, it’s true.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And perhaps the secret of your longevity is that you put yourself on the line every time…
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Ah, well, I don’t know about that.

OLIVIER ZAHM — … that you take risks.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — You know, the real risk is not to take any. It’s not to take the risk of making a mistake. There are always doubts when it comes to films, necessarily so. Even films that seem bound to succeed and attract a broad audience can end up not working. On the flip side, auteur films and films that are rather modest at the outset can become huge hits. You never know — fortunately, you never can tell in advance. But those aren’t what I would call risks. For me, that’s simply part of the profession, an indispensable part.

OLIVIER ZAHM — I think you underestimate your own audacity in that sense because many actors with your level of notoriety will commit only to sure things or to more commercial things.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — I don’t know whom you have in mind, but, frankly, I don’t see… Well, in any case, we’re not going to discuss that with your microphone on because I don’t like to bad-mouth other actresses or actors.

OLIVIER ZAHM — No, but I was thinking more of American actresses.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Sure, but you have to remember that the American system is very different. You’ve got an objective. You’ve made a film with such-and-such a budget. A film with such-and-such a budget has to bring in so much money. Once you reach a point where the film has to bring in such-and-such an amount — the higher the budget, the greater the chances you’ll have to water things down and be forced, unfortunately, to make something for a very large audience. Things are at the very least clear, but it’s not my favorite way of doing things.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Perhaps it’s your devotion to French cinema or to European cinema that’s allowed you to retain your artistic freedom.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — The truth is, no one in Hollywood has offered me films or American scripts that have seemed particularly thrilling or interesting to me. Some have perhaps been important roles on paper, in terms of screen time or the cast, but neither the film nor the director has interested me much. I’m not going to do films in English that I wouldn’t do in French just because they’d be for Hollywood.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Yet you have filmed in the United States.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, but very little. I made a film with Burt Reynolds, and a film with Jack Lemmon, and another with Gene Hackman: March or Die. But in truth I haven’t had too many interesting proposals.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And you love the French language, too.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — I think that in any case it’s very difficult for an actor to work in another language. There are many who more or less get by, with more or less happy results. You can’t really think in another language. You can speak it very well, but it’s a whole other thing to act in that other language. Maybe after 30 years, if you live with both languages simultaneously — maybe then you could pull it off.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Despite your life in England for two or three years with David Bailey, despite your love for Mastroianni and the Italian career you’ve had as well, you’re essentially a French actress, the French actress par excellence.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — I’ve done a fair amount of work in Italy as well. There used to be many co-productions with Italy, but it’s done less often nowadays.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And have you perhaps developed an attachment to Paris?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Not necessarily. I don’t think so. I think if I’d done an American film that turned out to be a huge hit, things would undoubtedly have been different.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It might happen, Catherine, one of these days.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — What might happen?

OLIVIER ZAHM — A hit in the United States.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — But they don’t need actresses like me in the United States, you see? There’s that as well.

OLIVIER ZAHM — I don’t know. There’s always a new generation of directors coming up, with new things they want to do.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Well, when it comes to actors, they’ve got everything they need in America.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It still seems to me that you love Paris, that you have an attachment to Paris, because you’ve never thought of leaving it.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, I love Paris, but the real attachment is to my family, to my friends. I don’t see myself going abroad. To make a film, for shooting, I’d certainly go, but not to live abroad or go work some-where else.

OLIVIER ZAHM — And an attachment to the sixth arrondissement.

CATHERINE DENEUVE — Ah, but there are other arrondissements. There are many that I like. It’s just that I’ve lived here for a very long time, and I don’t see why I’d move. In addition, there are so many cinemas right around the corner.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Yes, it’s true. You’re always going to the cinema, always seeing things on the big screen.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — I love watching things on the big screen. I don’t watch films on DVD at home, like my grandchildren. Many people nowadays are discovering films on very big screens at home. They say it’s just as good. But it’s not enough for me because it’s not just the size of the screen that counts; it’s also the sound. And even if you’ve got great sound at home, you don’t have the kind of sound that resonates in a big theater. And then, most especially, there’s the physical presence of other people, which makes for a different atmosphere. This counts in your perception of a film and adds to the film. The intensity, the silence, the murmur… The audience has a physical presence in the movie theater, even when they don’t speak.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It’s true.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — And you feel something, physically. I don’t know — I find it’s pleasant to watch a film with people. You feel things differently.

OLIVIER ZAHM — People sort of mute the expression of their emotions.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — You’re truly in the dark. The telephone ceases to exist. The sound is different. You really listen. Ah, but it’s true! How many times when you’re watching on a little screen do you say, “I’m going to go smoke a cigarette”? You hit pause, and off you go. It’s not the same at all. It demands sustained attention.

OLIVIER ZAHM — In an interview with Arnaud Desplechin, you said something I found very beautiful: “We never get what we deserve.” Do you think you deserve better?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No. [Laughs] What I meant was that I don’t believe in the idea of merit. I believe more in work and also in luck. After all, the luck I’ve had meeting great directors has counted for a lot in my life. The proof is in all those actors you see who are terrific and yet never have a career. So, alas, you need more than talent to have a career in acting. It’s the same in all the artistic professions. Talent isn’t enough. And that’s why the idea of merit just seems restrictive to me. Focusing on merit — frankly, I find it a bit toilsome.

OLIVIER ZAHM — [Laughs] A final topic, on your love of singing, because it’s been with you since the beginning.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — I love to sing, yes.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Where does your taste for it come from? You were a singer at one point.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No, I was never a singer. I’ve sung, but it’s not the same thing. Serge Gainsbourg, a friend of mine, made me an album. But I’ve always loved to sing, always. It was part of my childhood, part of my upbringing. My parents used to listen to a lot of music, a lot of songs. My mother used to sing as well, in the car.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Do you still sing?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes, yes, yes. On days when I’m in good form, yes. I like to hit the road with some music, or listen to a singer’s album for the first time while I’m out on the road, because it’s a time when you’re stuck. It gives you time to listen to a whole album for real. I absolutely love to listen to an album for the first time in the car. It’s so nice.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Just a word on your encounter with Gainsbourg, something that’s always intrigued me.
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It was through the Claude Berri film Je Vous Aime. That’s how we met. He was going through a rough time in his life.

OLIVIER ZAHM — That’s when Jane [Birkin]…
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Jane had left, yes. So he was feeling pretty low. We’d take turns dropping in on him, so he wouldn’t be alone in the evening after the day’s shoot. At first everybody went by, but in the end it was me who’d go most often [laughs]…

OLIVIER ZAHM — Babysitting Serge!
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It started like that, during the film shoot, and then we started seeing each other afterwards. I adored him. He made me laugh a lot. He was very, very charming, and very funny. He loved women, and it was a friendly relationship that lasted a long time. I continued to see him and go out with him. We had fun.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Was there a love affair?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No, but I understand that it was ambiguous, people seeing Serge and me, a man with a woman, out like that in the evening, at night, at parties, out and about, but it really was a peculiar friendly relationship.

OLIVIER ZAHM — It was the kind of love — how shall we put it…?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — It was friendship.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Platonic love?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — No, it wasn’t platonic love. He wasn’t in love with me, and I wasn’t in love with him. I was used to going out, going to bed late and, indeed, drinking a bit. It wasn’t a problem. I could never drink as much as he drank, but I could keep up with him at a party without drinking as much and have fun regardless, until very late at night.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Was it his idea to make an album for you?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Well, it wasn’t exactly his first time doing that! [Laughs] As soon as he’d meet an actress… It’s like directors who want to give film roles to women they’ve met and found interesting. I think it’s a logical thing to do. But it wasn’t his films that most interested me. I saw him above all as a songwriter, as a poet — as an artist, in fact, a very sweet, very crazy, very talented artist with a great sense of humor.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Was it easy for him to get you to sing?
CATHERINE DENEUVE — Yes. But it’s easy with actresses. Just ask them. They all want to be singers. There isn’t a single one who doesn’t love to sing.

END