Simone Signoret Filmography

Terrorists in Retirement

Des 'Terroristes' a la Retraite

Actors: Jean-Paul Bonnaire

Synopsis: Not just another documentary on the French resistance movement, this film focuses on one particular group of underground fighters in France: those from Eastern Europe. Many were Jews and all had fled their native countries before the war broke out. They were among the most staunch and fearless Read More

Guy De Maupassant

Actors: Claude Brasseur, Jean Carmet, Simone Signoret, Miou-Miou, Anne-Marie Philipe

Synopsis: This fictionalized biography of Guy de Maupassant uses his dying days, suffering under the last ravages of syphilis, to anchor a series of flashbacks that bring his life into view -- though much of that view is tempered by the famed author's passion for sexual encounters. The rest of the vignettes Read More

L'Etoile Du Nord

Actors: Philippe Noiret, Simone Signoret, Fanny Cottençon, Julie Jezequel, Jean Rougerie

Synopsis: This thriller about a mysterious psychopath was based on a novel by Georges Simenon. Edouard Binet (Philippe Noiret), an aimless Frenchman who has spent several years travelling in Northern Africa, is sailing to Belgium when he meets an attractive woman named Sylvie Baron (Fanny Cottencon). Read More

I Sent a Letter to My Love

Actors: Simone Signoret, Jean Rochefort, Delphine Seyrig, Geneviève Fontanel, Dominique Labourier

Synopsis: Based on the novel by Bernice Rubens, I Sent a Letter to My Love stars Simone Signoret as a woman who has reached middle age without truly learning how to live. Responsible for the constant care of her paraplegic brother Jean Rochefort, Signoret seeks a brief respite from her confinement by Read More

L'Adolescente

Actors: Laetitia Chauveau, Simone Signoret, Jacques Weber, Edith Clever, Francis Huster

Synopsis: L'Adolescente (The Adolescent) was the second directorial stint for French film star Jeanne Moreau. This possibly autobiographical piece is set during the early war years. Laetitia Chauveau plays a twelve-year old girl whose future is determined by the events of one long summer holiday in the Read More

Judith Therpauve

Actors: Simone Signoret, Philippe Léotard, François Simon, Robert Manuel

Synopsis: When her old resistance buddies come to her looking for someone to helm a financially troubled liberal newspaper, Judith (Simone Signoret) is at first reluctant, but for this old hero of the French anti-Nazi resistance, challenges are hard to ignore. She takes on the job, mortgaging her house to Read More

La Vie Devant Soi

Actors: Simone Signoret, Claude Dauphin, Sammy Ben Youb, Gabriel Jabbour, Michael Bat-Adam

Synopsis: Madame Rosa (Simone Signoret) is an aging former prostitute who, in her dotage, makes a living by caring for the children of other prostitutes in Paris' Arab community. Haunted by memories of her experiences in a Nazi concentration camp, Rosa is seized with the notion that the Gestapo is still Read More

Police Python 357

Actors: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, François Perier, Stefania Sandrelli, Mathieu Carrière

Synopsis: A tough but honest cop must clear his name after a corrupt colleague implicates him in a murder in this French thriller. Ferrot (Yves Montand) is a hard-as-nails police detective who is attracted to a beautiful woman named Sylvia (Stefania Sandrelli). Sylvia, however, is having an affair with Read More

La Chair de l'Orchidée

Actors: Charlotte Rampling, Bruno Cremer, Edwige Feuillère, Simone Signoret, Hugues Quester

Synopsis: The heiress Claire (Charlotte Rampling) in this movie is the daughter of the Miss Blandish of the film No Orchids for Miss Blandish. She has been raised under the unsympathetic eye of her aunt (Edwige Feuillere), who has no intention of seeing her receive her large inheritance. A somewhat violent Read More

Defense de Savoir

Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Bernadette Lafont, Juliet Berto, Michel Bouquet

Synopsis: The very modest lawyer (Jean-Louis Trintignant) in this case of murder finds much more than he is looking for and then must decide what to do with the unwelcome information. He is defending a woman who is accused of killing her lover. It turns out that the lover was actually killed during a Read More

Les Granges Brûlees

Actors: Fernand Ledoux, Alain Delon, Simone Signoret, Paul Crauchet

Synopsis: In this French film, Rose (Simone Signoret) is the pillar on which her family depends, and against which it pulls. These forces are held in equilibrium until a murdered woman's body is found near their farm, the Les Granges Brulees of the film's title. At first, Police Inspector Larcher (Alain Delon Read More

Rude Journee Pour la Reine

Actors: Simone Signoret, Jacques Debary, Orane Demazis, Olivier Perrier

Synopsis: In this French film, Jeanne (Simone Signoret) is a poorly regarded (and treated) second wife, who serves as more of a servant to her new family than as anyone important. This movie screens both her Thurber-esque fantasies of gaining status and revenge, and her actual activities, which generally do Read More

La Veuve Couderc

Actors: Alain Delon, Ottavia Piccolo, Simone Signoret, Monique Chaumette

Synopsis: Simone Signoret plays the title role in this dark melodrama from writer/director Pierre Granier-Deferre. The Widow Couderc is based on a novel by Georges Simenon. Here Signoret (who also starred in Le Chat, an earlier Granier-Deferre adaptation of a Simenon novel) plays a bitterly independent Read More

Le Chat

Actors: Jean Gabin, Simone Signoret, Annie Cordy, Paul Bonifas

Synopsis: A Georges Simenon novel was the basis for the French Le Chat. Not much happens in the way of plot, nor are many words of dialogue spoken; the character relationships (or lack of same) are the focal point here. Jean Gabin and Simone Signoret, long married, plainly despise one another. Rather than Read More

Comptes a Rebours

Actors: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Charles Vanel, Michel Bouquet

Synopsis: Nolan (Serge Reggiani) was set up to take the fall for a crime committed by his whole gang, and as a result, his brother is dead and he is forced to do a stint in prison. Nolan comes out of prison looking for his former compatriots, and not just to shake their hands. He runs into an old Read More

L'Aveu

Actors: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Michel Vitold, Jean Bouise

Synopsis: This Costa-Gavras thriller stars Yves Montand as an East European government functionary, inexplicably imprisoned by his Communist superiors. He is not told why he has been arrested, nor has his wife (Simone Signoret) been informed of his fate. Undergoing psychological torture, Montand is grilled Read More

Langlois

Actors: Lillian Gish, Ingrid Bergman, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret, Catherine Deneuve

Synopsis: This documentary follows noted film archivist Henri Langlois as he returns to Paris. Over 60,000 prints exist in his Paris museum, with 15,000 in the United States and 6,000 in Russia. Ingrid Bergman, Lillian Gish, Jeanne Moreau, Simone Signoret, Catherine Denueve, Francois Truffaut, and Viva all Read More

Army of Shadows

Actors: Lino Ventura, Paul Meurisse, Simone Signoret, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Serge Reggiani

Synopsis: In this war drama set during the French Resistance of WW II, a courageous fighter escapes Gestapo headquarters and returns to Marseille. There he and his gang capture a traitor and throttle him. They then try to rescue a Resistance fighter in Lyons. As they do so, the hero is again captured and Read More

L'Americain

Actors: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Simone Signoret, Marcel Bozzuffi, Jacques Perrin, Françoise Fabian

Synopsis: A man returns to France after living in America for 11 years to find the old hometown has changed. Bruno (Jean-Louis Trintignant looks up some old friends that he left behind. One man was killed in the war with Algeria, and others are resigned to live out their lives in a sullen acceptance of Read More

Mister Freedom

Actors: John Abbey, Donald Pleasence, Delphine Seyrig, Philippe Noiret, Catherine Rouvel

Synopsis: To help fight the communists, comic-strip superhero Mister Freedom (John Abbey) is sent to France by an American group called Freedom Incorporated. Receiving his orders from Doctor Freedom (Donald Pleasence), he battles the Russian Moujik Man and a fire-breathing dragon named Red China Man in this Read More

The Sea Gull

Actors: James Mason, Vanessa Redgrave, Simone Signoret, David Warner, Harry Andrews

Synopsis: This is one of several film versions of the classic play by Anton Chekhov. The depressing tale of unrequited love begins when an aging actress Arkadina (Simone Signoret) and her arrogant writer companion Trigorin (James Mason) travel to a small Russian town to visit her brother, an ailing public Read More

The Deadly Affair

Actors: James Mason, Simone Signoret, Maximilian Schell, Harriet Andersson, Lynn Redgrave, Harry Andrews

Synopsis: John LeCarre's Call for the Dead was the basis for this gloomy, complex spy story. James Mason plays a British secret agent puzzled by the sudden suicide of Foreign Office higher-up Robert Flemyng. Mason had worked on Flemyng's security clearance himself, and can't fathom what personality quirk he Read More

Games

Actors: Simone Signoret, James Caan, Katharine Ross, Don Stroud, Ken Smith

Synopsis: In this psychological thriller, Paul (James Caan) and Jennifer (Katherine Ross) are a pair of wealthy but blasé socialites with a sadistic streak. Lisa (Simone Signoret), an older woman from France, arrives at their door one day selling cosmetics; the couple invite her in, and when the Read More

Is Paris Burning?

Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Charles Boyer, Leslie Caron, George Chakiris, Gert Fröbe, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Kirk Douglas, Anthony Perkins, Simone Signoret

Synopsis: In 1944, with Paris on the verge of Liberation by the allies, Adolph Hitler ordered that the City of Light be blown up and burned to the ground. General Dietrich Von Choltitz, after much rumination, decided that he didn't want to go down in history as the man who destroyed Paris. His refusal to Read More

The Sleeping Car Murders

Actors: Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Pierre Mondy, Simone Signoret, Catherine Allegret, Jacques Perrin

Synopsis: The first film directed by Costa-Gavras, The Sleeping Car Murders was based on a novel by Sebastien Japrisot. During a Marseilles-to-Paris overnight train trip, a girl is found dead in a sleeping car. As Paris detective Yves Montand steps up his investigation, more and more passengers turn up Read More

Ship of Fools

Actors: Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, José Ferrer, Lee Marvin, Oskar Werner

Synopsis: The first person the audience sees in Ship of Fools is dwarf Michael Dunn, who speaks to viewers directly and acts as a Greek chorus throughout the film. It begins on the deck of an ocean liner travelling from Vera Cruz to Bremerhaven. The time is the 1930s, so close and yet so far from war. The Read More

Dragées Au Poivre

Actors: Guy Bedos, Sophie Daumier, Jean-Pierre Marielle, Francis Blanche, Jacques Dufilho

Synopsis: Director Jacques Baratier's Sweet and Sour is an independently produced project with a surprising amount of European movie-industry input. Guy Bedos, a Brando wannabe, plays one of several young French cineastes who take to the streets to make improvisational movies. The "cinema verite" quality of Read More

The Day and the Hour

Actors: Simone Signoret, Stuart Whitman, Geneviève Page, Michel Piccoli, Pierre Dux, Reggie Nalder

Synopsis: This French/Italian effort travelled under the titles Le Jour Et L'Heure, Il Giorno e L'Ora and Viviamo Oggi in Europe. In Great Britain, it was known as Today We Live. No matter the title, the film stars Simone Signoret as a world-weary French aristocrat who finds a purpose in life by joining the Read More

Le Joli Mai

Actors: Yves Montand

Synopsis: This is an untraditional film documentary that concerns Paris. Instead of covering the usual sights and sounds of the city, writer/director Chris Marks takes his film crew to the street and interviews people on the spot and in their homes. Comments range from the French-Algerian conflict and the Read More

Term of Trial

Actors: Laurence Olivier, Simone Signoret, Roland Culver, Sarah Miles, Frank Pettingell, Terence Stamp, Thora Hird

Synopsis: Based on James Barlow's novel The Burden of Proof, this is a thoughtful drama revolving around the relationship between a schoolteacher and his students, in particular a fifteen year old girl (played by the debuting Sarah Miles, although she was in fact 21 at the time), who has become infatuated Read More

Barabbas

Actors: Anthony Quinn, Silvana Mangano, Arthur Kennedy, Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, Vittorio Gassman, Harry Andrews, Ernest Borgnine

Synopsis: This 1962 Biblical epic was adapted by Christopher Fry from the novel by Pär Lagerkvist. Anthony Quinn stars as Barabbas, the thief who was pardoned in place of Jesus. For the rest of his life, the guilt-ridden criminal tries to justify his existence and to determine his place in the scheme of Read More

Les Amours Celebres

Actors: Jean-Paul Belmondo, Simone Signoret, Alain Delon, Brigitte Bardot

Synopsis: Four different vignettes are featured in this routine anthology of love stories supposedly based on historical truths. In the first tale, King Louis XIV has just acquired a new mistress, but a dashing swashbuckler by the name of Lauzan (Jean-Paul Belmondo) tricks him out of this new conquest. The Read More

Adua e le Compagne

Actors: Simone Signoret, Gina Rovere, Sandra Milo, Emmanuelle Riva, Claudio Gora

Synopsis: Four unemployed prostitutes attempt to open a restaurant in this comedy. They look all over Rome for a restaurant they can afford. When they find a ramshackle cafe. The landlord is willing to let them have it; they can even use his name to buy the food license, but he has one condition: they must Read More

Les Mauvais Coups

Actors: Simone Signoret, Alexandra Stewart, Reginald Kernan, Marcelle Ranson, Marcello Pagliero, Serge Rousseau

Synopsis: Talented actress and writer Simone Signoret carries this drama about an emotionally deteriorating woman, Roberta, who tries everything she can to win back the affection and interest of her husband, Milan (Reginald Kernan). Milan is a moody race-car driver who is now retired, living with Roberta Read More

Room at the Top

Actors: Laurence Harvey, Simone Signoret, Heather Sears, Donald Wolfit, Donald Houston, Ambrosine Phillpotts

Synopsis: Ruthless young working-class Englishman Laurence Harvey takes a job in a North Country village controlled by millionaire Donald Wolfit. Harvey resents Wolfit's class consciousness and vows to rise to the top by wooing the millionaire's daughter, Heather Sears. Meanwhile he has an affair with Read More

Les Sorcières de Salem

Actors: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Mylène Demongeot, Raymond Rouleau, Jean Debucourt

Synopsis: American playwright Arthur Miller was still under an "unfriendly" cloud in 1958, so far as the anti-Communist brigades were concerned. Thus, the film version of Miller's stage play The Crucible was lensed in France. Drawing several parallels to the McCarthy era, Miller dramatizes the Salem Witch Read More

Yves Montand Chante

Crew: Commentary

Actors: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret

Synopsis: This standard documentary follows a 1956 tour by singer-actor Yves Montand through various cities in the USSR as he performs in theaters, sports stadiums, and other venues. Aside from clips of him on stage, there is Soviet newsreel footage of the French star's receptions and public appearances. Read More

La Mort En Ce Jardin

Actors: Simone Signoret, Charles Vanel, Georges Marchal, Michel Piccoli, Michéle Girardon

Synopsis: Recharging his creative batteries with a "commercial" venture, director Luis Bunuel came up with the stylish if undistinguished La Mort en ce Jardin (Death in This Garden). Set in a steaming jungle, the film concerns a disparate group of refugees from a despotic military regime. Among these Read More

Diabolique

Actors: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Pierre Larquey

Synopsis: The greatest film that Alfred Hitchcock never made, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique is set in a provincial boarding school run by headmaster Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse). A ruthless lothario, he becomes the target of a murder plot concocted by his long-suffering invalid wife Christina (Vera Clouzot Read More

Thérèse Raquin

Actors: Simone Signoret, Raf Vallone, Jacques Duby, Roland Le Saffre, Sylvie

Synopsis: The grim Emile Zola "naturalist" novel Therese Raquin has been vividly cinematized by director Marcel Carne. Simone Signoret plays the title character, the long-suffering housewife who dreams of a more romantic life-partner than the bourgeois Camille (Jacques Duby). Therese enjoys a torrid affair Read More

Casque D'Or

Actors: Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Claude Dauphin, Raymond Bussières, Paul Azäis

Synopsis: The Paris demimonde of 1900 is the setting for Casque d'Or. Georges Manda (Serge Reggiani), an honest woodworker, falls in love with Marie (Simone Signoret), the "moll" of minor crook Roland (William Sabatier). Gangster boss Felix Leca (Claude Dauphin) orders Georges and Roland to fight a duel to Read More

Ombre et Lumiere

Actors: Simone Signoret, Maria Casarés, Pierre Dux, Jacques Berthier

Synopsis: Caroline (Maria Casales) and Isabelle (Simone Signoret) are half-sisters with a long history of mutual animosity. Jacques (Jacques Berthier) is Caroline's lover, who jilts Caroline for her pianist half-sister Isabelle while Isabelle recuperates from a nervous breakdown. The envious Caroline tries Read More

Gunman in the Streets

Actors: Simone Signoret, Dane Clark, Fernand Gravey, Robert Duke

Synopsis: Eddie Roback (Dane Clark), an American army deserter turned criminal, is going to trial in Paris after a ten-month delay when he is sprung on his way to court in a pitched gun battle. A manhunt ensues with the police just a few paces behind, including a nicely staged scene in a department store in Read More

Maneges

Actors: Simone Signoret, Jane Marken [Jeanne], Jacques Baumer, Bernard Blier, Frank Villard

Synopsis: Yves Allegret's Maneges was released in English-speaking countries as The Riding School, The Cheat and Riding for a Fall. Allegret and his screenwriter Jacques Sigurd use their melodramatic plotline to skewer several varieties of hypocrisy. Simone Signoret plays a thoroughly mercenary young woman Read More

Time Running Out

Four Days Leave

Actors: Cornel Wilde, Josette Day, Simone Signoret, Richard Erdman, John Baragrey

Synopsis: Cornell Wilde serves as "box office insurance" in this Swiss-filmed romantic comedy. Wilde plays American sailor Stanley Robin, who while vacationing in Switzerland falls in love with Suzanne (Josette Day), the daughter of a local watchmaker. Their romance is threatened by the arrival of French Read More

The Cheat

Synopsis: In this Italian drama, an independent, sensual woman married to the owner of a riding academy has a string of affairs. She is looking for a bigger better husband and is assisted in her endeavors by her mother. Though she succeeds in destroying her marriage and the fortune of her husband, she does Read More

La Ronde

Actors: Anton Walbrook, Simone Signoret, Serge Reggiani, Simone Simon, Daniel Gélin, Danielle Darrieux, Fernand Gravey, Odette Joyeux, Jean-Louis Barrault, Isa Miranda, Gérard Philipe

Synopsis: An exercise in style, La Ronde was one of the few films of the 1950s to contain overtly sexual themes. The story is a series of character vignettes, set in Vienna in the early 1900s and held together by a narrator (Anton Walbrook). As the title implies, both the story and the film's visual motifs Read More

Against the Wind

Actors: Robert Beatty, Simone Signoret, Jack Warner, Gordon Jackson, James Robertson Justice, Paul Dupuis

Synopsis: Set in World War II times, this drama involves a highly trained bunch of British soldiers who must parachute into Nazi-held Belgium on a rescue and destroy mission. Documentary film footage is included in the early parts of the film as the trainees get prepared for the task ahead. Robert Beatty Read More

Impasse des Deux Anges

Actors: Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse, Danièle Delorme, Jacques Castelot

Dedee D'Anvers

Actors: Simone Signoret, Marcello Pagliero, Bernard Blier, Jane Marken [Jeanne]

Synopsis: Originally released in France as Dedee D'Anvers in 1948, this tight little melodrama was both directed and co-written by Yves Allegret. The title character, played by Simone Signoret, lives in near-squalor near the docks of Anvers. Her only companions are practitioners in that left-handed form of Read More

Macadam

Actors: Françoise Rosay, Paul Meurisse, Andrée Clement, Simone Signoret

Synopsis: Generally forgotten today, Macadam opened to good reviews and excellent business when it first came out in 1946. The film takes place in the "demimonde" of Paris' Montmartre district. The incomparable Francoise Rosay heads the cast in this atmospheric, melodramatic yarn about French gangsters Read More

Fantomas

Actors: Simone Signoret, Marcel Herrand, Alexandre Rignault

Le Couple Ideal

Actors: Simone Signoret, Hélène Perdrière, Denise Grey, Raymond Rouleau

Synopsis: Raymond Rouleau stars in Le Couple Ideal as a French movie leading man, circa 1912. Slated to appear at a gala for President Armand Falieres, Rouleau is detained by the police at the behest of a scheming producer. To escape the clutches of the law and make it to the celebration on time, our hero Read More

La Boite Aux Reves

Actors: Simone Signoret, Frank Villard, Marguerite Pierry, Henri Guisol

Adieu Léonard

Actors: Pierre Brasseur, Charles Trenet, Jacqueline Bouvier

Synopsis: Pierre Prevert directed this amusing comedy, one of three which he co-wrote with his better-known brother Jacques Prevert. Pop singer