Actress Catherine Deneuve redefines age and beauty

Catherine Deneuve may be the grande dame of French cinema, but the 70-year-old - be it out of modesty or pure awkwardness - still gasps when she is reminded of her status as one of the great beauties in film history. "That is …" she pauses for a giggle. "That is another story."

The actress, in town for a screening of her latest film, On My Way, at the 38th Hong Kong International Film Festival, is perhaps a little fatigued from her dinner commitment the previous night - to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Sino-French diplomatic relations - when we sit down for an interview in a spacious suite high up in The Peninsula hotel last Monday.

But while she is in no mood to pose for a portrait shoot, Deneuve, hiding behind a pair of sunglasses that only partly conceal her eyes, is happy to engage in some nerdy film talk. The only time she sounds slightly wistful during our conversation is when the topic of "ageing beauty", the subject of her new film, is brought up.

Written and directed by Emmanuelle Bercot, On My Way is a soul-searching road movie in which Deneuve, who appears in almost every scene, plays a former beauty queen whose life has reached an impasse. The film had its world premiere at last year's Berlin International Film Festival.

"You have to live with it, you know," she says. "It's like [when you're] getting older, it's a little more difficult for an actress than for a normal person, I suppose. But it's not a major concern, frankly. There are so many more interests you have in life, that you don't see things the same way like when you started your career, when you're 30. It's very different."

In a way, it's a testament to her lasting sex appeal that Deneuve finds herself falling in bed not once, but twice in the film. Does it help that a female director is at the helm of this intimate character study? "Certainly, yes," she says. "I worked with different woman directors, [like] Tonie Marshall, Agnès Varda [and] Nadine Trintignant. I suppose women have a different approach to the psychology [of the characters]."