She began acting on movies as a teenager. Her first major role is in Jacques Demy's 1964 movie "Les Parapluies de Cherbourg". She has since then worked with some of the greatest movie directors, notably Roman Polanski's in "Repulsion" (1965), and Luis Buñuel's in "Belle de Jour" (1967) and "Tristana" (1970) and François Truffaut's in "Le Dernier Métro" (1982). She made a commercial for the perfume "Chanel No 5". She is a close friend of fashion designer Yves Saint Laurent.