Do we like Catherine Deneuve?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A long, respected career and no pattern of harm found, but the 2018 letter is a real stain and the record on LGBTQ+ issues is thin.
Deneuve was born in Paris in 1943 to stage-actor parents and started in films while still at school. Jacques Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) made her a star, and Buñuel's Belle de Jour (1967) made her a legend. Venice gave her a Golden Lion for lifetime achievement in 2022.
Her big public stoush came in January 2018. She was one of 100 French women who signed a Le Monde letter defending a man's right to “bother” women and calling the post-Weinstein wave of accusations a puritanical witch-hunt. Feminists were furious, and Asia Argento accused the signatories of “interiorised misogyny”, while a group of French feminists called them apologists for rape.
Deneuve then wrote her own letter. She apologised to victims who felt hurt, saying it was to them “and them alone” that she offered her apologies. She also said she was standing by the point of the letter and would not have signed anything that praised harassment. Some admired her for apologising without folding. Others thought she hadn't gone far enough, and that's fair.
On the harm test, that letter is the one real mark I found. It's one open letter, not a campaign. I found no sign of her pushing conspiracy theories, attacking trans or gay people, or working with people who do. That's a thin search though: I found almost nothing from her on LGBTQ+ rights, so I can't call her a clear ally. She also says she has backed causes like abortion rights but has “never campaigned for politics”.
The 1971 abortion manifesto she signed is the other side of her record, a risk she took when abortion was still illegal in France. She has said she's backed abortion rights and opposed the death penalty. At the 2016 Lumière Festival, asked if she resembled Trump, she replied “No. Aside from the hair.” She also dedicated that year's award to French farmers.
She's still working at 83. She says she wants to keep reading scripts rather than draw up a “career assessment”. This year she appeared in two Cannes films, and Forty Love opens in late November. I found no court cases, no staff complaints, and no scandal from the last few years.