Selfie-hating French acting legend Catherine Deneuve says real stars are 'discreet'

French actress Catherine Deneuve posing during a photocall at last year's Canne Film Festival. -- PHOTO:  AFP 
French actress Catherine Deneuve posing during a photocall at last year's Canne Film Festival. -- PHOTO:  AFP 

PARIS (AFP) - Selfies and social media have been the death of film stars, iconic French actress Catherine Deneuve said in an interview published Sunday.

"There are no more stars in France," the 71-year-old bemoaned just days before her latest film La Tete Haute (Standing Tall) opens this year's Cannes Film Festival out of competition.

The doyenne of French cinema was speaking to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper about her glittering film career, which has made her one of her country's best known actresses abroad.

Deneuve gave short shrift to a new generation of celebrities addicted to social media.

"A star is someone who must show themselves only a little and remain discreet. With the introduction of the digital age there is an intrusion of everything, everywhere, all the time," she said. "We see a tremendous amount of people who are very famous, with millions of followers, and who have done absolutely nothing."

Deneuve said she had a very "limited" relationship to technology.

"It's wonderful to be able to take photos (with your cellphone) but I detest selfies, photographing yourself all the time ... it makes everything banal," she told the newspaper. "And this idea that we are looking at ourselves doing things, without actually experiencing them, is horrible."

In her latest movie Deneuve plays a children's magistrate working on the case of a troubled adolescent.

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