Catherine Deneuve
Her second love, Francois Truffaut, also Director, spoke of Deneuve, that she is so beautiful in herself that the film, where she plays, should not tell the story: "I am sure that the audience will be happy to see only Catherine's face".
The third main man of her life, the Italian actor Marcello Mastroianni, told how in the beginning of his relationship with Denev daily bought small bouquets of flowers and endlessly guessing at them, loves or dislikes his French beauty.
None of these men Catherine Deneuve ever married. "As long as there are divorces, what could be the meaning of marriage," she invariably answers all questions of journalists.
Catherine Deneuve, biography
Denev was born in an actor's family — both parents played in the theater and thus determined the choice of profession for all their four daughters. The first in this field succeeded Francoise, who began to build a career with seventeen years. She raised the bar high: walked the podium with Christian Dior, starred in Brazil with Belmondo, received dozens of proposals from French Directors. Francoise wore the name of his father-Dorleak, so when it was Catherine's turn to star in the movie, she took the name of his mother — Denev. Directed by Roger Vadim, who noticed the girl, by that time was known as the founder of a New Wave of French cinema, who rejected the old order, scripts and shooting style. He was always in search of a new face, a new Muse. In the ability to see the perfect woman he can not refuse — the first protege of Vadim was herself Brigitte Bardot. The affair with her was already over when Roger met Katrin. She was irritated Bardo, that is often said that a seventeen year old upstart is too simple, too boring and too openly repeats her hairstyle and manner of dress. However, the Amateur shots shot by Vadim on which Brigitte Bardot teaches the young, still brunette Denev to play the guitar have remained. What Brigitte was first pointed out to Vadim, that the plain is not so simple. And it turned out to be right: Catherine completely subjugated the Director, turning once known Casanova and the seeker of life in a quiet family man, ready to do anything for the sake of just one smile of his beloved. But first, Deneuve had to bend the will of their parents: the father could not accept the fact that eighteen-year-old daughter was going to live with a man older than her fifteen years. All was quiet, when Catherine was pregnant.
She calls that period one of the happiest in her life, saying that she experienced the highest degree of harmony when she carried her son under her heart. In the press, rumors about the novel of the famous Director and budding actress almost did not leak — Denev was always an ardent opponent of the demonstration of feelings in public. During appearances with Vadim they still addressed each other as "you" and not betray his true feelings. But with the birth of the son of love slowly began to fade. Roger, who first saw the newborn Christian, said that this is the most ugly child in the world, and no longer showed any interest in him. A little later, he admitted to friends that he is not able to endure the intellectual and domestic dictatorship of Catherine. They split up very naturally and expected. Denev herself, remembering this, says that she still does not understand which of them abandoned whom: "You can leave someone, pretending that you were abandoned."
The first most notable film Deneuve, after which it has been the glory of the stars of French cinema, became "the umbrellas of Cherbourg". The tape was shown in Cannes at the same time as the "Soft skin" Francois Truffaut, where the main role was played by the older sister Deneuve, françoise. This symbolic clash on the screen of the two sisters can be considered a critical moment in the history of French cinema, when it was determined who will be his face.
Classic, slightly cold and distant beauty Catherine won the nervous excitement and variability of Francoise-younger sister eclipsed the older. Francois Truffeau, who was at that time the most popular Director of the country, constantly repeated how he adores françoise (he called her Framboise — "raspberry") and promised to shoot it every six years, making appointments in 1970, 1976 and 1982. But Francoise died in a car accident very soon — in 1967, and another Mademoiselle Dorleak-Catherine Deneuve began to come on dates. Both she and Truffaut fell in love so suddenly and so deeply that neither of them could find a rational explanation.
He wanted to shoot her in the "Siren of the Mississippi" with Jean-Paul Belmondo, who just a few years ago was shot in a film with her dead sister. For Denev, this role was the embodiment of a dream: "I realized the secret desires of all the Actresses of the time — starred at Truffaut with Belmondo. More could not be desired."
The tape, which gives such high hopes, failed critics and viewers, but since then in the minds of the public names Denev and Truffaut were inseparable from each other. Gerard Depardieu, who is associated with Catherine many years of sincere friendship, said that the French cinema — are two names: Truffaut and Deneuve.
She passionately wanted to give birth to Francois child, constantly repeating about how wants daughter. But Francois, for whom the whole meaning of life was concentrated in the work, was not ready for it. At some point, the confrontation broke something between them. The couple lived under one roof for another year and finally broke up during a vacation in Tunisia, when Catherine, unable to stand, gathered for several hours and left his life forever. Truffeau fell into a severe depression, turning into a real ruin. They did not communicate for almost nine years, and only then began a gradual rapprochement, which was the crown of their second joint film, which is now considered a real classic — "the last subway." Critics call the picture not otherwise, as the last love recognition of the Director to his Muse.
This was her way of breaking up abruptly, one movement has become a byword, giving Catherine his cold, calculating beauty that has no feelings and despises weakness. Denev herself says that in reality, the parting takes away all her mental strength. But these forces have to be found and used — and it's better than years to pull the hateful relationship and torment yourself, a man and children: "I always left first, even from the great. These men never forgave me that I was throwing them in the middle of the novel, but they had no idea that I was thus protecting myself from unbearable pain." In one of the last interview Denev admitted that she seems to have found the answer to the question why she always hurries to finish the relationship first: "the Serious illness of the mother, which was barely pulled out of the paws of tuberculosis, filled me with fear that I myself will get sick and die, I will lose someone very expensive. For the same reason, I have relatively few close friends now. I fear relationships that will soon end and leave me with the pain of loss."
Her third man, who gave her such a coveted daughter, became Marcello Mastroianni, the main actor of Italy and the most desirable man in Europe. First, Deneuve appeared to him to be one of those "professional beauties", for whose appearance there is nothing but idle chatter and superficial reasoning. Denev was too cold and fresh for a passionate Italian. But the first impression was deceptive: the actors fell in love with each other on the set of the film "This can happen to anyone", where the spouses who lost their child played. The Director locked Catherine and Marcello in a room for seven days, depriving contacts with the outside world and forcing them to get used to the role. On" freedom " Denev and Mastroianni came madly in love — Marcello immediately offered Catherine a hand and heart, completely forgetting that he is married. His wife flora quite calmly perceived the adventures of her husband, considering the love of Denev another whim that will pass, like the rest. But it was not so simple: who wanted to tie a beautiful Mastroianni gladly accepted Catherine's dreams of her daughter.
She gave him Chiara-a girl who can be called a real Princess of European cinema, the fruit of the love of the most important woman in France and the most beloved man in Italy.
Deneuve went from Mastroianni as accustomed to go dramatically and unexpectedly, a refuge from the piercing pain itself, and condemning to the slow torture of his. She was not afraid of being alone:"I am a mother, and a mother is never alone."
Even now, having exchanged the eighth ten years, Catherine Denev calls his main achievements are not shooting in immortal paintings and novels with the best men of his time: "the greatest success in my life — my children."