Catherine Deneuve, 82, Is Still a Blonde Goddess on the Red Carpet 60 Years After ‘Belle de Jour'
Catherine Deneuve is a staple of French cinema, but she's barely changed in the nearly 60 years since her groundbreaking role in Belle de Jour.
Deneuve, 82, rose to stardom as Geneviève Emery in the romantic film musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. A veteran of endless French films, she's most often associated with her role in Luis Buñuel's 1967 psychological erotic drama Belle de Jour. With a career spanning 70 years, Deneuve is a legend of the cinema, no matter what country she's in. But nearly 60 years since she tackled that complex role, the French beauty hit the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival.
Alongside fellow cast members from Parallel Tales, Deneuve and friends gathered at Lucia Cannes to celebrate the film's screening at the festival. At 82, Deneuve is still every bit the blonde goddess she was in 1967!
The beauty also hit the red carpet at the Festival with her castmates.
Deneuve Says She's Not a Big Fan of Nudity Onscreen
Her role in 1967's Belle du Jour, in which she played a housewife who also works as a high-class prostitute, contributed to her sex symbol stereotype. In a new interview in The Hollywood Reporter, Deneuve says shooting some scenes in the film was "difficult. I wasn't ready to do everything exactly as written," she shared. "And Luis Buñuel didn't explain much to actors, so at the beginning, it was complicated. But the film went well, and after that we did another film together [Tristana], which was wonderful."
Her role as a sex worker, as well as several Playboy pictorials, led many to see her as the sex kitten type. But Deneuve said she's really not into nudity in film.
"I'm not a big fan of nudity in films," she said. "When you are naked, you are no longer quite a character - you are just a person, a body. It's difficult to stay in the story of a character."
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This story was originally published May 14, 2026 at 1:53 PM.