"Hollywood didn’t click for me"

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: Yves Saint Laurent’s muse, the face of Chanel No. 5 in the 1970s, her image was used to represent Marianne, the national symbol of France, from 1985 to 1989. Noted French actress Catherine Deneuve, best known as Luis Bunuel’s blue-eyed star, graced the latest edition of India’s leading film festival at Goa, where she was felicitated by IFFI and the Entertainment Society of Goa (ESG). She shared experiences of working with some of the masters of global cinema, from Bunuel to François Truffaut to Manoel de Oliviera with Pradip Biswas. Excerpts:

Can you recollect your first appearance in a routine film like Les Portes Claquent (1960)? You were not noticed in your maiden film...

I don’t remember very much of my first movie, a passable one, except that I was approached by the director to play a role suitable for me. Well, that was just the beginning.

Jacques Demy’s musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) turned you into an international star. How was it to work with him?

I remember Jacques Demy as a free-mixing kind but he was tough while tackling artists in his films. He is very serious on the set though he allowed free space for actors and actresses to find their feet. He is one director from whom we could learn a lot.

How was it work with Luis Bunuel, who made you famous with his two films, The Golden Bowl (1967) and Tristana (1970).

I was only 25 when the great Bunuel, then a citizen of France, called me to meet him. He was planning to make The Golden Bowl but was in quest of a new face, not very familiar on the screen. A screen test was done and I passed the ordeal. It is a difficult character of a call-girl, strewn in many images. There was so much contrast in the character and to do it the way the maestro wanted was hard for me. Several takes followed and I was fired. But at the day’s end he patted me and said “perfect”. That was Bunuel.

Bunuel was a known task-master. But he also loved to scandalise the pastors, the Church and the bourgeoisie. How was it to work in Tristana?