“Mlle Deneuve does not carry me in her heart”, these are the first words of the journalist Henry-Jean Servat with regard to Catherine Deneuve in his book entitled So Chic! In the latter, the writer recounted his meetings with the great names of French cinema including Brigitte Bardot, Isabelle Adjani, Francis Huster and Catherine Deneuve. However, he who considers her “magnificent and impressive”, considers this “enmity” as “tenacious as unfounded”.
What happened? Henry-Jean Servat gives several answers in the rest of his book. We learn in particular that as a journalist for Paris Match, he had been asked to interview the French star on the occasion of the release of the film Indochine, in 1992. The actress, who was to join him at the hotel bar Lutetia, made him false vouchers at first. “I waited, I waited and ended up calling her home. She had forgotten. It was not flattering for me. I got a postponement of the appointment”, he wrote in his book. Finally, after a new appointment and a conclusive interview, the article was sent for publication. The journalist, who does not write the magazine’s cover titles, later discovered the headline’s catchphrase: “Deneuve: I can behave very badly”.
A magazine cover that would have made Catherine Deneuve furious, as he later explained. “I learned that Miss Deneuve was furious about it. Not a text that suited her admirably. She said she was happy about it, but discovering in large (fiery) letters on one of Paris Match that she was capable of mistaking herself. driving does not delight her and she will not take her mind off it,” he wrote. An episode that seems to have left its mark on the journalist who, as he will tell a few lines later, will pay for it in his own way. During a trip for the 25th anniversary of the release of the film Les Demoiselles de Rochefort, the actress would have refused to pose in front of the photographer of the magazine present expressly for the event. “I don’t want to take pictures!”, She would have told him and added: “Because of the title of the Paris Match article”.
