Insider movie gossip

Ice queen melts with a Sapphic kiss

There are those who claim that Catherine Deneuve is not quite human. Some say she is a creature of ice, others that Deneuve's of steel. So, it is a relief to find her engaging in the sheer frivolity of Francois Ozon's 8 Femmes, along with a number of celebrated French actresses, including Isabelle Huppert, Fanny Ardant and Danielle Darrieux.

With more than 100 films to her credit, plus a face that has become part of the French landscape, so often has it appeared on billboards, magazine covers, screens large and small, Deneuve, 58, is more than just a celebrated actress. She is an institution. Is this just a little bit burdensome?

"After so many years you are part of the furniture," she agrees. "It is a burden, yes. Especially for writers and directors, because you have to challenge the baggage. It started with a handbag, now it's a big lorry. It can be a burden. I think you need the challenge of doing different things. Because I started young I didn't have to make the choice between life and work. They were the same thing. I continue to act out of curiosity."

It takes an actress of nerve to move from the sinister incest of Pola X to the costumed finery of Le Temps Retrouve and thence into Lars von Trier's musical Dancer in the Dark (opposite Bjork) and survive to tell the tale.

"When I think of Dancer in the Dark I think it is more like a trailer than a film," she says with a small frown. "I rehearsed with Bjork for weeks and there were a lot of cameras but there was not as much on the screen as we had done."

Naturally, the prospect of a film containing eight actresses of several generations invites the notion of backstage bitchery. Deneuve laughs out loud. "There was none," she says, anticipating the question before I've finished articulating it. "The French press was very disappointed. There was no bitching. We were like a little army. Four women would have

been more dangerous but with eight it was more like a troupe being in a play."

In 8 Femmes, Deneuve even gets to grapple on the floor with Fanny Ardant. Their graphic Sapphic clinch might be enough to induce a coronary in men of a certain age.

What was it like kissing Ardant? (I really need to know this.) "She was very apprehensive," says Deneuve with a smile. "And so was

I. But it was nice. Very soft ..."

She looks momentarily wistful before fixing me with a stiletto gaze ... "though it was not a scene we did too many times."

The loss of Katrin

The untimely death of British actress Katrin Cartlidge recently robbed not only the home industry but also international cinema of a remarkable talent. Cartlidge had been cast in the new film by Mexican director Alejandro Gonzalez Iarritu, whose debut Amores Perros took the world by storm at the beginning of the year. Cartlidge was to have starred opposite Benicio Del Toro, Sean Penn and Naomi Watts in 21 Grams - a title which, with awful irony, refers to the amount of weight the body loses at the time of death. For believers, 21 grams is the precise weight of the soul.

Seagal drama - like a bad screenplay

Stormin' Steven Seagal, whose acting style is a tribute to the malleability of mahogany, is boldly rising above the flurry of accusations that now beset him.