Eight 'Terrible' Women

Actress Catherine Deneuve has been one of France's favorite exports for close to 40 years.

Deneuve visited The Early Show to discuss her latest film, "8 Women." The movie brings together eight of France's top actresses. It's part murder mystery, part soap opera, part comedy, with some musical numbers thrown in.

The plot may be hard to follow, but Deneuve tells The Early Show's Mark McEwen that the director feels the story isn't the focus of the movie. The characters are.

"It was an excuse and good reason to put eight women from the same family together in a room with that plot," said Deneuve. "That allow you to imagine their locked in this castle. They cannot get out … it was a good reason to show different characters, you know, and how would they explode and why they explode, what's their weakness ... And they're all terrible, very selfish women."

One of the things that McEwen liked, and he says the French audiences loved about the movie, are the musical interludes.

"It's not like really a musical," said Deneuve. "It's a sort of … all of a sudden, someone starts to sing instead of talking … it's the moment where you can understand something more about all those women, and there may be weakness that you can — that allow you — to forgive them, you know, for the monsters that they are."

Facts About Catherine Deneuve

• Catherine Deneuve was born on Oct. 22, 1943, in Paris, France.
• Deneuve's is the third of four daughters born to the French actors Maurice Dorléac and Renée Deneuve.
• She made her movie debut in the 1957 film, "The Twilight Girls" ("Les Collégiennes").
• In 1963, Deneuve made her breakthrough performance in the musical "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg."
• Deneuve's few American movies include "The Hunger," a 1983 erotic vampire movie, and "Scene of the Crime," a 1986 psychological thriller.
• The actress earned her first Oscar nomination for "Indochine," in 1992
• Deneuve is currently a spokesperson for cosmetic company L'Oreal