Catherine Deneuve

It was 1967 when French actress Catherine Deneuve made history as she played the lead role in Luis Buñuel’s film “Belle de Jour” wearing a pair of black pumps with a large metal buckle – classically elegant shoes that would later carry the same name as the film. This was only the beginning of what will be a lasting relationship between Deneuve and Roger Vivier. “Yves Saint Laurent was dressing me for the film,” Deneuve recalls of this fateful moment in time. “And since Roger Vivier was already doing a lot of work for Yves Saint Laurent, I think the idea came to me quite naturally. After the fact, things often take on an importance that they did not originally have, as you well know.” The Belle de Jour by Roger Vivier became an icon and the rest, as they say, is history. With more than 100 movies and 14 French Cesar Awards nominations under her belt, Deneuve is one of the most recognizable faces in the world. She made her acting debut at the young age of 14 in the film “Les Collégiennes” but her rise to stardom began after she played the female lead in the French musical “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” which earned an Academy Award nomination and won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.

After Belle de Jour made history, Deneuve continued being a woman who embodied the Roger Vivier spirit. And in 2018, to coincide with the launch of its Très Vivier styles for the holiday season, Roger Vivier introduced a film starring the legendary French actress Catherine Deneuve and other colorful characters. “When Gherardo explained the project to me and the ironic plot, I was intrigued immediately,” says Deneuve. “Playing a role according to the tempo of a song is something I had not done yet.” Creative director Gherardo Felloni was inspired by Italian composer Gioachino Rossini’s famous performance piece “Duet for Two Cats.” The film, directed by award-winning filmmaker, writer and music video director Michael Haussman, tells the story of an eccentric Parisian family’s Christmas celebration. Under the watchful eye of their mother, twins turn a pleasant performance, in front of the whole family, into a vicious catfight over a pair of Très Vivier pumps.