She is one of the great figures of French cinema.
A celebrated beauty who has made than 100 films and has been muse for Yves St Laurent, the face of Chanel No. 5 and her image was used for Marianne, the national symbol of France, in the 1980s.
When Catherine Deneuve made her name playing a sweet salesgirl whose lover heads off to the Algerian war in the 1964 musical The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, she was an ingenue barely out of her teens.
She quickly became famous as a blonde beauty who played characters who were often sexually charged and mysterious, working for such directors as Roman Polanski (Repulsion), Luis Bunuel (Belle de Jour), Francois Truffaut (The Last Metro) and, more recently, Lars von Trier (Dancer in the Dark) and Francois Ozon (8 Women, Potiche).
At 71, Deneuve is still in demand, with three films out last year and another two so far this year.
Her acclaimed career is the focus of the newest addition to Sydney's festival calendar - the Alliance Francaise Classic Film Festival, which runs from September 3 to 6.
It is a spin-off from Alliance's always popular French Film Festival that runs around the country every March.
Festival manager Patricia Noeppel-Detmold says the Alliance wanted to give fans of French cinema the chance to watch classics as well as the contemporary films in the main festival.
"With our festival in March we were only really offering contemporary films to the Australian audience but there are so many classics that deserve to be show on the big screen," she says. "We thought that launching a retrospective of an emblematic actor or actress would provide that chance."
Noeppel-Detmold says Deneuve was chosen ahead of such Gallic acting icons as Gerard Depardieu, Juliette Binoche, Daniel Auteuil, Audrey Tautou and Sophie Marceau.
"She's an audience favourite, she's still on the screen, she's beautiful, she incorporates glamour and class and she's extremely talented," she says.
The festival, at Event George Street in the city and the Hayden Orpheum at Cremorne, includes six films that have rarely been seen in cinemas in recent years.
They are the charming The Umbrellas of Cherbourg (1964) and The Young Girls of Rochefort (1967), the sexually provocative Belle de Jour (1967), crime tale A Cop (1972), epic Indochine (1992), which earned Deneuve an Oscar nomination, and the comedic romp Potiche (2010).
It is a line-up that covers such renowned directors as Bunuel, Jacques Demy, Regis Wargnier, Jean-Pierre Melville and Ozon and such noted co-stars as Depardieu, Alain Delon and Gene Kelly.
"Rather than a festival over three weeks, we wanted to do something small as a first edition," says Noeppel-Detmold. "We wanted to select the best movies showing different stages in her career.
'"That's why we chose the Jacques Demy films [The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and The Young Girls of Rochefort]. They were the ones that really launched her career and they are absolutely beautiful on the big screen.
"And we wanted to show Indochine from when she was a much more established actress, right up to Potiche which was released only five years ago. We chose films from different genres as well, so we have a comedy, musicals, drama and a police thriller."
So how would Noeppel-Detmold compare Deneuve to such veteran American and British actresses as Meryl Streep or Helen Mirren?
"In terms of her versatility, the choice of films, awards and popularity, she definitely fits into a small group of actresses that have been on screen for so long and are still excellent at what they do," she says. "I'd say that Catherine Deneuve is unique. A lot of French actresses have gone to Hollywood but she has stayed very French in what she has done. That's why she's so emblematic. She's very French."
While Deneuve's acting has brought her 13 nominations for two wins at the Cesar Awards - France's Oscars - Noeppel-Detmold thinks her enduring appeal is partly down to her style.
"Even a lot older, she still has this charisma and beauty. She's a strong woman, a great actress who has grown over the years, who has made choices in her life and defended females in the industry. She's an artist more than just a star."
The Alliance Francaise Classic Film Festival - A Catherine Deneuve Retrospective is at Event George Street and the Hayden Orpheum, Cremorne, from September 3 to 6. The writer is patron of the festival.
