Simone Signoret: The Star as Cultural Sign

by Susan Hayward

Overview

In what may be the most in-depth study yet published of a film star's body of work, Susan Hayward charts the career of Simone Signoret, one of the great Frech actresses of the 20th Century.Signoret- who won an Oscar in 1960 for her performance in Room at the Top- was a key figure in French cinema for 40 years. But it is not so much her longevity that impresses, as it is the quality of work she produced as her career progressed. She started out as a stunningly beautiful woman, winning major international awards five times for her roles, and yet was only moderately in demand during those years. From the 1960s onwards, when her looks began to decline significantly, Signoret was in greater demand, and produced most of her output. She insisted on playing roles consonant with her real age, and often chose to play roles that portrayed wher as even more ugly than she had become.Simore Signoret: The Star as Cultural Sign is a remarkable achievement, a labor of love from one of the world's leading scholars of French cinema.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826413949
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/22/2004
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.63(d)

About the Author

Susan Hayward is Professor of French at the University of Exeter. She is the author of Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (2000) and co-editor of French Film: Texts and Contexts (2000).

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	ix
1	Signoret, a Life--Chronotopes or Topographies of Space and Time	1
2	The Actorly Body and the Body Political	26
3	Signoret's Theater work	55
4	Postwar Films--1946-1951	64
5	Trajectory to International Stardom--1952-1959	88
6	Working the International Scene--1960-1968	129
7	The monstre sacre Returns to the French Screen--1969-1982	165
8	Television Work--1964-1985	227
	Conclusion	237
	Filmography	240
	Audience Figures	253
	Other Work	255
	Notes	257
	Bibliography	277
	Index	279