They called her ‘ice queen’, unaware that to portray
detachment you require deep passion. From the start, she displayed the tension
between vulnerability and control. Catherine Deneuve made a career of letting
her beauty distract an audience while she performed from the side.
It is this high-wire act, balancing impatience with serenity, condemnation with acceptance, that led her through the 60s, having little in common with her cohort Brigitte Bardot, a braising blonde having fun in the sun.
Her sensuality was somehow divorced from the corporeal. Never, ever was there to be sweat.
Ghost white and frail, she projected the strength that comes
from an ironic intimacy, protecting her from the madding crowd. She rarely
laughed aloud, just a slight smile here, a tilt of the head there, just enough
to keep her in the scene.
Slim shoulders, pearls, Yves Saint Laurent held her in his clothes, feminine, understated, confident without aggression (how rare), the last to show up at the party and the first to leave, not condescending but distracted.
Never mind the year, the lighting, or the script, when
needed, she could make her face a beguiling mask, which always suggested that it
wished to be somewhere else.
#catherinedeneuve #french #actress #brigittebardot
#francoisdorleac #1960s #pop #popular #culture #ianclarke #letsplaysomethingelse