Michèle Morgan and Henri Vidal as star couple (1949–1959): an unusual case of gender and class imbalance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Both on and off screen, the Michèle Morgan–Henri Vidal star couple was a pair of opposites. Morgan personified an ethereal femininity on screen, but she chose as her partner the most athletic and virile actor in France, and they became one of the most glamorous French couples of the time. The quintessence of ‘quality’ cinema, Morgan accumulated successes, while Vidal was often consigned to B-movies and supporting roles. Both publicly and on screen, Vidal was perceived as Michèle Morgan’s husband more than she was seen as his wife, a role reversal that was rare for the era. The films’ mise en abyme of their real-life relationship widened the gap between them, reproducing it as class difference punished by death, the loss of a child or alcoholism, all of which strangely echoed their private lives. The relative failure of these films is certainly related to the way that the actors’ image as a couple and the fictional stories built around it clashed with the dominant representations of the time. In order to understand these paradoxes, this article will study the couple’s bittersweet relationship in fact and in fiction, both in their films and via their reception in the media.