Timeless Beauty Catherine Deneuve is “On My Way”
By Skip Sheffield
In the constellation of beautiful movie stars, Catherine
Deneuve has been one of the fairest of all for more than half a century.
At age 70 Deneuve is still quite beautiful. In her latest
film, “On My Way,” she almost seems to be playing herself.
Bettie (Deneuve) is a former Miss Brittany who missed the
Miss France finals because of a car accident. Widowed by a man she never really
loved, Bettie has settled in the routine of running her family restaurant. The
rather dull routine is spiced up by an ongoing affair with a married man her
age. As we meet Bettie she has just learned her lover has jilted her for a
25-year-old chick.
Bettie lives with her crabby, domineering mother (Claude
Gensac). Things are going none too well at the restaurant. Bills are piling up
and creditors are threatening.
When Bettie’s estranged daughter Muriel (singer Camille) calls
with an urgent request that would entail a road trip, Bettie figures what does
she have to lose?
The assignment is to take her surly grandson, Muriel’s son
Charly (Nemo Schiffman), to his grandfather’s so Muriel can interview for an
internship that could turn her life around.
Bettie hasn’t seen Charly in several years, and he is not
too keen on travelling with his grandmother. The relationship is rocky at
first. At one point Charly tries to run away, but eventually a mutual bond
develops, and it is sealed when Bettie decides to attend a reunion event of
former Miss France
candidates at a lakeside resort.
Director Emmanuelle Bercot was born three years after
Deneuve shot to stardom in “The Umbrellas of Cherbourg” in 1964, but she is
keenly in sync with the prospect of a woman whose life has been built upon her
physical appearance and is facing the inevitable aging process.
There is an underlying melancholia to “On My Way,” adapted
from a screenplay written expressly for Deneuve by Jerome Tonnerre, but it is
never defeatist. It is often funny and yes, sexy. Bettie never gives in to
self-pity or forces that would dominate her. Catherine Deneuve is a poster girl
for women facing old age without fear or regret.
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