Simone Signoret

Susan Hayward charts the career of Simone Signoret, one of the great French 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 her as even more ugly than she had become.

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).