Names which may not ring many bells (unless you are a film buff), but names which were synonymous with French Film (and in the case of Singer-Actor Yves Montand; Music) in the 1960s. They are all interviewed by Charles Collingwood for the series Person To Person from April 8, 1960.
Simone Signoret was born Simone Henriette Charlotte Kaminker; (25 March 1921 – 30 September 1985). She received various accolades, including an Academy Award, three BAFTA Awards, a César Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress, in addition to nominations for two Golden Globe Awards.
In 1958, Simone Signoret acted in the English independent film Room at the Top (1959), and her performance won numerous awards, including the Best Female Performance Prize at Cannes and the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was offered films in Hollywood, but turned them down for several years, continuing to work in France and England—for example, with Laurence Olivier in Term of Trial (1962). She earned another Oscar nomination for her work on Ship of Fools (1965), appeared in a few other Hollywood films, and returned to France in 1969.
Yves Montand achieved international recognition as a singer and actor, starring in many films. He is recognized for crooner style songs, with those about Paris becoming instant classics. He was one of the best known performers at Bruno Coquatrix’s Paris Olympia music hall, and toured with musicians including Didi Duprat. In October 1947, he sang “Mais qu’est-ce que j’ai ?” (music by Henri Betti and lyrics by Édith Piaf) at the Théâtre de l’Étoile. Betti also asked him to sing “C’est si bon” but Montand refused. Following the success of the recording of this song by the Sœurs Étienne in 1948, he decided to record it. Montand was also very popular in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, where he did a concert tour in 1956-57.
During his career, Montand acted in American motion pictures as well as on Broadway. He was nominated for a César Award for Best Actor in 1980 for I comme Icare and again in 1984 for Garçon! In 1986, after his international box-office draw power had fallen off considerably, the 65-year-old Montand gave one of his best remembered performances, as the scheming uncle in Jean de Florette, co-starring Gérard Depardieu, and Manon des Sources (both 1986), co-starring Emmanuelle Béart. The film was a worldwide critical hit and revived Montand’s profile in the United States, where he made an appearance on Late Night with David Letterman.
Roger Vadim’s first film as director was based on an original story of his, And God Created Woman (1956). Starring Brigitte Bardot, Curt Jurgens and Christian Marquand and produced by Raoul Levy it was not only a major success in France, but around the world, and established Bardot as a global icon. Vadim followed it with No Sun in Venice (1957) starring Françoise Arnoul and Marquand, produced by Levy, which was considerably less popular than And God Created Woman. Levy, Vadim and Bardot were to make Paris by Night with Frank Sinatra but Bardot refused to spend months in the US and Sinatra felt likewise about filming in France. Instead Vadim made The Night Heaven Fell (1958), starring Bardot and Stephen Boyd. He was one of several writers on Allegret’s popular comedy, Be Beautiful But Shut Up (1958), starring Mylène Demongeot.
Vadims’s next film was an adaptation of the book Les liaisons dangereuses (1959), which he wrote and directed. It starred Moreau, Gérard Philipe (in his final film) and Annette Stroyberg, a Danish model who became Vadim’s second wife. The film became a huge hit in France. Stroyberg was also in the vampire film Blood and Roses (1960). Vadim was reunited with Bardot for Please, Not Now! (1961), a popular comedy. He was one of several directors of the anthology film, The Seven Deadly Sins (1962).
His final years were spent working in TV, where he directed Safari (1991) and wrote and directed Amour fou (1993), starring Marie-Christine Barrault who became his final wife. She was also in La Nouvelle tribu (1996) and its sequel Un coup de baguette magique (1997), which Vadim wrote and directed.
Annette Stroyberg was born on 7 December 1936 in the village of Rynkeby, Kerteminde Municipality, Denmark, and is related to Danish actress Camilla Søeberg as the cousin of Camilla’s mother. Prior to 1958, Strøyberg appeared as a cover girl, most notably in an advertisement for Tuborg beer. In 1959, she appeared in the film Les Liaisons dangereuses, directed by Roger Vadim, starring Gérard Philipe and Jeanne Moreau. During this production, she and Roger Vadim, a recent divorcé from Brigitte Bardot, fell in love and married on 17 June 1958. Before their marriage, on 7 December 1957, she gave birth to Nathalie Vadim, who went on to be a film director. Strøyberg and Vadim divorced in 1961.
Here is that interview with all four, from April 8, 1960 with Charles Collingwood and Person To Person.
