PARIS, Nov 9 — French screen legend Catherine Deneuve is recovering well in hospital after suffering a stroke while shooting a film in a hospital, a member of her entourage told AFP yesterday.

"She is responding well to treatment. The stroke was really limited in scale. She was very lucky to be admitted very quickly to hospital where she was taken ill in the middle of filming,” the source said.

The source reiterated that the 76-year-old actress had suffered "no loss of motor function”, adding: "She is resting while further examinations are being carried out.”

The grande dame of French cinema, who made her name in such classic films as Luis Bunuel’s Belle de Jour, Roman Polanski’s Repulsion and Jacques Demy’s The Umbrellas of Cherbourg, fell ill on Tuesday while shooting a scene in a hospital for a film about a mother watching her son battle cancer. 

After initial treatment she was transferred to a Paris hospital, the source said.

On Wednesday, her family said that she had suffered a "very limited stroke which is reversible” but would "of course have to rest for a while”.

Deneuve stars as the mother of a cancer victim in Emmanuelle Bercot’s latest film De son vivant (In her/his Lifetime). 

The nine-week shoot, which began on October 11, has resumed since Deneuve was hospitalised, according to cinema industry sources. 

Deneuve has starred in over 100 films over the course of a glittering career.

In her youth, she was dubbed the "ice queen” for her aloof air and flawless, blonde good looks but in recent years has expanded her range with roles that reveal a more unconventional side.

She caused scandal last year by attacking the #MeToo movement last year as a "puritanical witch-hunt”. — AFP