The wet snow that fell on Berlin on Saturday evening had nothing on the froideur of Catherine Deneuve, in town to receive a lifetime achievement prize at the European film awards and not best pleased about it either. "Lifetime achievement – those are not good words," the 70-year-old French actor told the press before the ceremony. "To achieve life is to mean that you are dead. It's not an award you give to someone who is still alive."
Deneuve was honoured for an impressive 50-year back catalogue that stretches from roles in The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Repulsion and Belle de Jour through to more recent work in the likes of Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark and François Ozon's Potiche. Along the way she has been the muse of the designer Yves Saint Laurent and served as the model for Marianne, the national symbol of France.
On stage at the 26th European film awards, the guests lined up to eulogise her. "You are without doubt one of the greatest actresses in the world," said Wim Wenders, European film academy president. "You are the queen of European cinema, if we had royalty, and at the same time the most beautiful woman on earth."
Deneuve received the tributes with an air of pained good grace. Following an extended montage of her greatest roles, she confessed to rarely looking back on her early work because she is too busy working on or watching new films. She is a big fan of US star Jennifer Lawrence and cited the acclaimed coming-of-age love story Blue is the Warmest Colour as one of her favourite recent films. "It's a very effective and powerful film," she said. "The two main actors are just incredible."
Despite winning the Palme d'Or award at Cannes, the film came up short at the ceremony in Berlin. The night was dominated by The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino's opulent satire on Rome's cultural elite, which won four awards, including best film, best director and best actor for its star, Toni Servillo. The best actress prize went to Veerle Baetens for the Belgian film The Broken Circle Breakdown, while Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing was named best documentary. Ari Folman's European co-production The Congress took the animation award. Susanne Bier's Love is All You Need scooped the inaugural comedy prize. Sarah Greenwood, production designer on Anna Karenina, was the evening's lone British winner.
Picking up an honorary award for "European achievement in world cinema", Pedro Almodóvar paid tribute to embattled film-makers in his native Spain, where government cuts brought a 28% drop in domestic movie production. "This has been one of the worst years for our industry … caused by the awful cultural policy of our government," he said.
The financial crisis was the great uninvited guest at this year's European film awards, which were described by Marion Döring, director of the academy, as being "poor but sexy". Presenters fluffed their lines and tripped over their dresses, while the event unfolded in a spirit of mordant humour and merry disarray.
Conceived as a riposte to the Hollywood-dominated Oscars, the 26th EFAs contrived to make a bonus of its ramshackle, unorthodox nature. "Turn on your cellphones really loud," the event host, Anke Engelke, told guests inside the auditorium. "Smoke and drink in your seats."
Deneuve, a defiant smoker who nursed a cigarette throughout the press conference, may have been mollified by that sentiment.
