Shy, not retiring Catherine Deneuve

Such is the power of celebrity that Catherine Deneuve can’t shake the rap that she’s something of a cold fish, and not just on screen. In interviews too, she’s known to proffer short, perfunctory answers to questions while keeping a wide berth between herself and journalists. She insists that characterization is unfair.

Though the French actress of “Umbrellas of Cherbourg,” “Belle de Jour” and “The Last Metro” fame has been a star for over 40 years, Deneuve says she still battles shyness. So she may not be a chatterbox, but she’s professionally pleasant during a recent interview in Hollywood.

At 60, she’s still one of cinema’s reigning beauties, and unlike a lot of her peers, Deneuve manages to find meaty roles, albeit in European films and now even television.

“I get great roles because I work in France and with interesting directors,” she explains.

Her latest project to hit American shores is a French miniseries version of “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” based on the 1782 novel by Choderlos de Laclos. Retitled “Dangerous Liaisons” for the U.S., the melodrama airs tonight and Tuesday on WE: Women’s Entertainment cable station. It’s also available on DVD from Wellspring.

Though the book, the successful ‘80s stage version and the 1988 theatrical version, “Dangerous Liaisons,” and the 1989 feature “Valmont” are all set among the rich and bored in pre-revolution France, this version moves the intrigue to the 1960s. (In 1959, Roger Vadim made a modern version as well.)

In this classic tale of wealth, sex, seduction, betrayal and suicide, Deneuve plays the glacially beautiful, manipulative Maquise de Merteuil, and Rupert Everett plays the equally cynical Valmont, who have both made sport of seducing and jilting lovers. Valmont, though, has never been able to seduce Merteuil.

Initially, this production was going to be set in the 21st century, but Deneuve urged the producers to rethink their concept. “I don’t think it would be possible for the characters to behave like that now,” she says. “I think the film very much has to be set in [the ‘60s]. You wouldn’t care for women behaving like that now, and also with contraception, there’s much more freedom for women.”

“Dangerous Liaisons” is Deneuve’s first television venture, and it’s been an adjustment. “They want things to be done fast,” she says. “Speedy is the major thing.”

The actress, who has worked with such legendary directors as Francois Truffaut and Luis Bunuel, says that while American films dominate in France, there are still plenty of talented directors working in her country. “The problem is the money and the fact that people go less to the cinema because they buy DVDs and there is television. It’s becoming very difficult.”

As for her own dealings with Hollywood, Deneuve has made just two films here: the 1969 romantic comedy “The April Fools” with Jack Lemmon and the 1975 Burt Reynolds thriller “Hustle,” neither of which set the world or the critics on fire. She hasn’t worked here since and not necessarily by her own choice.

“To tell you the truth,” she says. “I think if the films had been very successful, I would have been proposed here for other parts.”

Or maybe she was too shy to ask.

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‘Dangerous Liaisons’

Where: WE: Women’s Entertainment

When: Tonight and Tuesday, 8 to 10 p.m.