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  • Actor
· French · 1943–

Catherine Deneuve

French actress who became an international star as the umbrella-shop girl in Jacques Demy's sung-through The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), and went on to one of the longest careers in European cinema.

In images

Details

Lived
1943–
Born
22 October 1943
Birthplace
Paris, France
Nationality
French
Roles
Actor

About Catherine Deneuve

Catherine Deneuve was twenty when Jacques Demy cast her as Geneviève, the umbrella-seller's daughter, in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. The film — a melodrama in which every line is sung — won the top prize at Cannes in 1964 and made her a star; her singing voice was dubbed by Danielle Licari, but the face, the poise, and the pale blonde composure were hers, and they defined a screen presence she would keep for decades.

She worked with Demy again on The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967) and moved between the art house and the mainstream on both sides of the Atlantic, in films by Luis Buñuel, Roman Polanski, François Truffaut, and many others. Rooted in the New Wave's second wave, she became one of the enduring faces of French cinema.

In the credits

Works in our catalog that credit Catherine.

People they knew

Documented connections — every one carries its source.

Illustrated portrait of Jacques Demy

Jacques Demy

  • Filmmaker

Collaborated with · 1964

Demy made Deneuve a star as Geneviève in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and cast her again in The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).

— The Criterion Collection — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: A Finite Forever; Encyclopaedia Britannica — Jacques Demy (French director)

Movements

The artistic and literary currents this life ran through.

Young Jean-Luc Godard in dark glasses, cigarette in his mouth, holding a strip of film up to the light with both hands

Film movement · c. 1958–1968

The French New Wave

Deneuve came up through the movement's second wave rather than its criticism, but her breakthrough was Demy's Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), and she remained a face of the cinema the New Wave produced.

— The Criterion Collection — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: A Finite Forever; Encyclopaedia Britannica — New Wave (French film movement)

Sourced claims

Every connection the graph holds for Catherine, with the evidence behind it.

Associated with · 1964

The French New Wave

Deneuve came up through the movement's second wave rather than its criticism, but her breakthrough was Demy's Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964), and she remained a face of the cinema the New Wave produced.

— The Criterion Collection — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: A Finite Forever; Encyclopaedia Britannica — New Wave (French film movement)

Collaborated with · 1964

Jacques Demy

Demy made Deneuve a star as Geneviève in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and cast her again in The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967).

— The Criterion Collection — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: A Finite Forever; Encyclopaedia Britannica — Jacques Demy (French director)

Performed in · 1964

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg

Catherine Deneuve plays Geneviève Émery.

— The Criterion Collection — The Umbrellas of Cherbourg: A Finite Forever