Stars and Stardom in French Cinema

by Vincendeau, Ginette

• ISBN13: 9780826447319
• ISBN10: 0826447317
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-12-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

French cinema is second only to Hollywood in the number of its movie stars who have emerged to achieve international fame. France is, in fact, arguably the only country other than the United States to have an international "star system." Yet these glamorous and charismatic stars differ from their U.S. counterparts in that they maintain more freedom to control their own images and often straddle both mainstream and auteur cinema.Ginette Vincendeau, a leading authority on French cinema, analyzes the phenomenon of French film stardom and provides brilliant in-depth studies of the major popular stars of the French cinema: Max Linder, Jean Gabin, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Louis de FunFs, Jean-Paul Belmondo, Alain Delon, Catherine Deneuve, GTrard Depardieu, and Juliette Binoche. This volume analyzes these stars' images and performance styles in the context of the French film industry, but also in relation to national culture and society. In the country where Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve have modeled for Marianne (the effigy of the Republic) and left-wing politicians have held up Jean Gabin as a role model, Vincendeau examines the unusual relationship between French film stars and national identity.Ginette Vincendeau is professor of film studies at the University of Warwick. She is the author and editor of a number of books on cinema.

Author Biography

Ginette Vincendeau is Professor of Film Studies at the University of Warwick

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements	vi
Preface	vii
Conventions	xii
The French Star System	1	(41)
Max Linder: The world's first film star	42	(17)
Jean Gabin: From working-class hero to godfather	59	(23)
Brigitte Bardot: The old and the new: what Bardot meant to 1950s France	82	(28)
Jeanne Moreau and the Actresses of the New Wave: New Wave, new stars	110	(26)
Louis de Funes: le gendarme et les cinephiles	136	(22)
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon One smiles, the other doesn't	158	(38)
Catherine Deneuve From ice maiden to living divinity	196	(19)
Gerard Depardieu: the axiom of contemporary French cinema	215	(26)
Juliette Binoche: The face of neo-romanticism	241	(12)
Bibliography	253	(10)
Index	263