One of the first lessons Catherine Deneuve has to impart is perhaps every aspiring actor’s route: going to the cinema at a very early age and embracing the sound and images of film as if it were a second skin.

Deneuve claimed her work with Jacques Demy in Les Parapluies de Cherbourg was the turning point for her career and the education she received from him gave her a solid foundation with which to draw back upon later in her career. As a young actress she admitted to being open to the suggestions of directors but confided that had she met Roman Polanski today she would not have been as open to his ideas.

Perhaps one reason why Deneuve is a perfect example of sophistication is her regard of scenes of intimacy in film. Naked actors, she claims, cease to be actors but are the people they are in real life. She believes there are certain directors that convey far more intimacy : the love scenes of Ingmar Bergman, and the kisses in the films of Alfred Hitchcock and Eliah Kazan.

The magnifique French actor revealed another reason why her career has sustained itself: early on she chose to work in art cinema, and claims that roles only in mass entertainment in the long run deplete an actor. As such, the public learned to identify with her in a variety of roles and her versatility has established her as a great actor.

Catherine Deneuve's master class was augmented with film clips from her work with two French directors: André Téchiné's Ma saison préférée (1993) and Philippe Garrel Vent de la nuit (1999) . She also showed scenes with her sister, Françoise Dorléac in François Truffaut's La Peau douce .

Deneuve favourite actors were honored by examples of their best work: Louise Brooks (Loulou), Judy Holliday (It Should Happen to You), Marilyn Monroe (Bus Stop), and Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth).

Moira Sullivan