Catherine Deneuve reveals admiration for Marilyn Monroe

Catherine Deneuve unveils her deep admiration for Marilyn Monroe in a photo book, who was a “very good actress” beyond the glamorous myth surrounding the American star born 100 years ago. In Marilyn chérie (Flammarion), set to be released on Wednesday, the French actress explains at length why she cherishes Marilyn, “the most beautiful image ever seen on a screen.”

“As soon as she appears on the screen, something seems to burst from the screen. It’s a whole: the quality of the skin, the gaze, her voice […] a sweet softness, a certain lightness,” she says in this book, where she comments on about a hundred photos of the actress selected by collector Sébastien Cauchon. Catherine Deneuve never met Marilyn Monroe, born on June 1, 1926, but she has “seen all of her films,” including Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Seven Year Itch, and Some Like It Hot, her favorite. “I could never have lived what she lived. I have not been pursued like she was” by the paparazzi, testifies Catherine Deneuve.

Marilyn, who died on August 4, 1962, at the age of 36, “was very aware of her image and how it could be used […] She was very modern in truth,” according to her. “Marilyn Monroe is a burden that I carry everywhere,” confessed the actress to the American journalist W.J. Weatherby, who recounts in Conversations with Marilyn (Editions Seghers) their long discussions in “a bar full of thirsty people” on 8th Avenue in New York in the 1960s.

The most famous photos of the actress are gathered in Marilyn Monroe 100 (Hugo), which includes the main photographers who immortalized the Hollywood icon. The centenary of her birth is also celebrated with a retrospective at the French Cinémathèque until July 26 in Paris, which brings out another aspect of the Marilyn myth shaped by the Hollywood studios.