Catherine Deneuve in The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967, dir. Jacques Demy)

Catherine Deneuve on the set of The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, dir Jacques Demy) 

Catherine Deneuve in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964, dir Jacques Demy)

”[The Umbrellas of Cherbourg] was a film that existed before it was even shot. I remember that when we heard the music, we were all incredibly moved, even though there were no images yet. Jacques Demy was very demanding but also very shy, and he liked to laugh. I recognized myself completely in his way of working. The making of the film was pretty nonsensical and I found that very attractive: everything seemed extraordinary. And I think that I felt that he regarded me as indispensable.

I realized that cinema had the potential to be like that: meetings between people who want to do very unusual things. If the film hadn’t done well, I think it would have been a different story—it confirmed that the most important thing was to do the things you want to do with people you trust and whose ideas don’t seem too conventional to you. For me, something truly shifted when I worked with Jacques. Something profound happened around the relationship you can have with a film.”

-Deneuve, Film Comment (Nov./Dec. 2008)