Word: signoret
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...once lovely face, she gave some of her most memorable performances in the roles of older women. She also scored unexpected triumphs with her pen, publishing three best-selling books since 1976. When she died last week at 64, of cancer, in the Normandy village of Autheuil-Authouillet, Simone Signoret had attained far more than movie stardom. "For more than 40 years," declared President Francois Mitterrand, "she spoke to the hearts of the French people...
Morreau on the one hand paints a pastoral landscape with all the interwoven relationships of a small, isolated community. Marie's grandmother (Simone Signoret) acts as an omniscient narrator, lyrically introducing all the characters and explaining all the village's social intricacies. All sorts of representative characters abound--star crossed lovers, old hags doubling as witches, and dumb country bumpkins. Marie meets all these characters and is swept along into their mundane lives until the volcanic outset of her maturity...
...Morreau leaves questions unanswered that might explain the mother's passionate nature. The movie's only believable relationship--between Marie and her grandmother--develops because of the sensitive performance of the actresses. Signoret and Chauveau present experience and youth naturally. Their closeness blossoms during their midnight escapades into a lush garden for magical powders. But Morreau spoils even this relationship by miring the girl in an ambiguous ending. Left with a distraught vision of Marie and her grandmother standing by, helpless and confused. We don't know whether Marie's unhappiness will prove transitory or permanent...
...love and melancholy, which seem, as he describes them, to be one and the same. Most audiences, moreover, will almost certainly know a bit of his history: his early romance with Edith Piaf, his brief affair with Marilyn Monroe and his long and enduring marriage to Actress Simone Signoret. Montand does not stand alone. He is surrounded by ghosts, memories and the soft, dusky glow of nostalgia...
...show that runs without intermission, only once is he offstage. And even then his image is on: a giant screen descends, and in a skit written by Simone Signoret, Montand dictates to an unseen and unfeeling telephone operator a telegram of love to his mistress. The dialogue is hilarious, a reminder that Montand, the chanteur extraordinaire, is also a gifted actor and comedian, the star of such films as The Wages of Fear, Z and La Guerre Est Finie...