Frenchwomen With Sex Appeal

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30892, 27 October 1965, Page 2

Frenchwomen With Sex Appeal

[By SUSAN VAUGHAN)

Two women who have worked miracles for the international image of the females of France have fascinating similarities and differences.

The first is the actress, Simone Signoret who shows in a -few feet of film reel just how easy it is for a middleaged woman to get the “gladeye” from men half her age. Her new film “Ship of Fools” has taken Paris and America by storm. Now aged 43, and married to the singer and actor Yyes Montand, she can choose for herself when and where to work, and what to work on. It was not always like that. When the Germans took Paris in the Second World War Simone was left with her mother and two young brothers to fend for. She wandered the streets hunting for cast-off clothes, scrounging food off friend and stranger alike. Outspoken Actress With the late 50s and the smash success “Room at the Top,” she finally put all that behind her. Ahead of her: more top roles, Oscars —and a reputation as one of the world’s most outspoken actresses.

“I have to be absolutely honest,” she says. “Otherwise I begin to sound like a tape recorder.” Simone is the symbol of mature sex. “You have to have lived a little to know what you’re talking about when you love, laugh or cry for the cameras. “I no longer have to fake emotions as I did when I was younger. I can now play with the heart. You have to have lived—and people can tell if you haven’t.” She is good-humoured about

the rather hackneyed publicity which emphasises little more than her sex appeal. “The older I grow the less things are important,” she says. “I am serene and happy —more than I have ever been.”

She lives with her husband in a five-storey house, on the He de la Cite in Paris. But she doesn’t work with him. The marriage is a happy one —and they have discovered that one way to keep it so is to ensure their careers don’t meet up.

Her future plans include a new thriller to be directed by Sidney Lumet—the man responsible for the devastating “The HUI.” Simone now has the world at her feet. She doesn’t have to work any more if she doesn’t want to. But she does. “The greatest fun is to act," she says simply. Bardot Changing

If any French girl is able to take the place of Miss Signoret it will probably be Brigitte Bardot. For once, one is not using a cliche when one describes her performances as “torrid.” That is just what they are—or, rather, have been. Where Simone Signoret is restrained and composed, she has been wHd and passionate. Where Brigitte Bardot has been young and carefree, Simone Signoret is mature and responsible. But Brigitte is changing. The little sex kitten, after a string of films that have had the censors’ blue pencils snapping under the strain, has been trying to improve and widen her image. But they both have a unique quality which has helped them in their separate careers. And you can only call it sex appeal. Now Brigitte has been opening her heart to the popular French women’s

magazine. “Elie." She gives us an interesting insight into her life and her attitudes to

other people—especially her husbands'. Former Husbands

Of her former husband. Roger Vadim, she says: “He is my best friend. From time to time he sends me a note signed; ‘Your old Russian who loves you.’ ” Vadim, of course, has just married pretty Jane Fonda, daughter of the film actor, Henry Fonda. What does she think of that? “I’m glad,” she told the magazine. “She is intelligent, and knows what she wants.” Of husband number two, Jacques Chartier, she is vague. “I never see him in St. Tropez.” Jacques is the father of her only child, Nicholas, now being cared for by his new wife. “I don’t mind,” is Brigitte’s only comment. “I know she looks after my son, Nicholas, very well.”

“What I like in life,” she admits, “is to live —that is to say to do nothing, absolutely nothing. “Since I came back from Mexico four months ago I have done nothing. I certainly will not make another film before April or May next year. I like long holidays!”