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Simone Signoret: Top
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In 1958, Signoret went to England to film Room at the Top (1959), which won her numerous awards including the Best Female Performance Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was the only French actress to receive an Oscar until Juliette Binoche in 1997, and the first woman to win the award appearing in a foreign film. She was offered films in Hollywood but turned them down and continued to work in France and England. She played opposite Sir Laurence Olivier in Term of Trial (1962). She did return to America for Ship of Fools (1965) which earned her another Oscar nomination and she went on to appear in several Hollywood films before returning to France in 1969.
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Signoret secured her status as an international star with her intelligent, sensual portrayal of a jilted older woman in Room at the Top (1958), which won her numerous awards, including the British and American Academy Awards. After that success she appeared in a few Hollywood films but preferred working in France. In her later films, such as Le Chat (1971; The Cat) and La Vie devant soi (1977; Madame Rosa, “The Life in Front of You”), she often played a survivor whose battles were evident in her aging, beautifully ravaged face. She brought the same warmth and sincerity to these older characters that she had to her early roles as a radiant beauty, but she often received more attention for her decision not to conceal her age or glamorize her looks than for her actual performances.
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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.
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Alice's sympathetic nature and broken heart brought Miss Signoret best actress awards from the 1959 Cannes Film Festival jury, the British Film Academy and ultimately Hollywood's Motion Picture Academy. Also a contender for best movie, direction (Jack Clayton, who brought years of experience and finesse to a belated first feature), actor (Mr. Harvey), and supporting actress (Hermione Baddeley in a small but scintillating performance as Alice's loyal friend), "Room at the Top" won a second Oscar for screenwriting.
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