Playing Bernadette Chirac, Catherine Deneuve delivers a sharp performance in The President’s Wife (2023). She embodies the former French First Lady with a unique mix of irony and vulnerability, revealing the side of a woman accustomed to wielding power behind the scenes in politics. The film highlights Deneuve's ability to create multifaceted characters, capturing the subtleties of a public figure struggling to assert herself in a male-dominated world.
Luis Buñuel found the perfect actress in Catherine Deneuve for Belle de Jour (1967), where she brings the enigmatic Séverine to life. In this work, Deneuve elegantly explores repressed desire and sexual transgression, playing a bored housewife who finds an escape for her fantasies in a brothel. With her subtle and provocative performance, Deneuve turns the film into a work of art, immersing the audience in a world where reality and imagination blur.
In one of the most delicate moments of her career, Deneuve portrays Geneviève in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), a French musical that is both a celebration of love and a romantic tragedy. Deneuve’s performance, marked by her character’s sweetness and silent suffering, is one of the film’s emotional pillars. Her portrayal captivates by expressing the pain of separation and the power of fate, in a role that launched the young actress to stardom.
In the iconic The Hunger (1983), Catherine Deneuve stands out as Miriam Blaylock, an immortal vampire who exudes sensuality and mystery. The film, which blends horror with eroticism, finds in Deneuve the perfect embodiment of the cold and lethal beauty of a nocturnal predator. Her presence alongside David Bowie and Susan Sarandon adds a sophisticated atmosphere to the vampire genre, and her performance carries a quiet intensity that suggests hidden dangers.
In The Truth (2019), Catherine Deneuve’s portrayal of Fabienne, a veteran actress, brings the complexity of family relationships to the surface. Directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, Deneuve dives into the role of a woman who, behind the glory of the screen, harbors insecurities and regrets. Her interaction with Juliette Binoche, who plays her daughter, reveals a dynamic full of tension and unspoken affections, in a performance rich with nuance that unveils deep layers of the character.