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Catherine Deneuve attended the Venice International Film Festival in August
French actress Catherine Deneuve is in hospital in Paris after suffering a mild stroke, her family has said.
A statement released by her agent to news agency AFP on Wednesday said there had been no damage to her motor function, but that she would need time to recuperate.
A legend of French cinema, Deneuve, 76, was nicknamed the “Ice Maiden” because of her beauty and detached manner.
She is best known for her performance in 1967’s Belle de Jour.
The film, directed by Luis Bunuel, was considered raunchy at the time for its portrayal of a housewife who took to prostitution to fill her afternoons.
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Deneuve filming Belle de Jour in 1967
The French newspaper Le Parisien reported on Wednesday morning that the actress had succumbed to “an illness on Tuesday night that continued into Wednesday morning”.
In recent weeks, the French cinema icon has been filming De Son Vivant for director Emmanuelle Bercot.
Deneuve’s career was launched in the 1964 Jacques Demy film The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. She went on to work with some of Europe’s leading directors including Roman Polanski, Andre Techine and Lars von Trier.
Her career continued to prosper over the decades, and she starred as a vampire alongside David Bowie in 1983’s The Hunger, and was nominated for an Oscar in 1993 for Indochine.
In 2018, she was the recipient of the Japan Art Association’s prestigious Praemium Imperiale prize for theatre and film.
Last year, she apologised to victims of sexual assault after signing an open letter arguing that the campaign against sexual harassment had gone too far.
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