Michèle Morgan: stardom and popular cinephilia

Abstract

Star studies, the approach that arose from the foundational work of Richard Dyer (1998 [1979], translated into French in 2004) has long been relegated to second-class status in the discipline of film studies in France. French academics have taken an interest in actors and actresses, especially those who have contributed to the work of ‘canonical’ filmmakers, and they have also written about acting from the perspective developed by James Naremore (1988, translated in 2014). However, the study of stars as an ideological, sociological and media phenomenon, associated with popular cinema and the reception practices of a broad, diverse audience, has encountered significant resistance to its recognition as an area of legitimate academic investigation – especially when it comes to French cinema. The first, pioneering studies of this kind were written by English-speaking academics, particularly the works of Ginette Vincendeau on Jean Gabin (1993), the French star system (2000, translated in 2008) and Brigitte Bardot (2013, 2014), as well as Susan Hayward’s work on Simone Signoret (2000, translated in 2013). A new generation of French researchers has endeavoured to pursue this path further: these include Gwénaëlle Le Gras, who published a book on Catherine Deneuve (2010), and Delphine Chedaleux, who wrote about the young leading men and women of French cinema of the German occupation (2016); working together, Le Gras and Chedaleux co-edited a volume on the genres, actors and actresses of French cinema from the 1930s to the 1960s (2012). There have been important contributions from long-term research projects, such as the ANR Cinépop50 programme, which ran from 2012 to 2015 (‘Popular Film and Film-Going in Post-War France, 1945–1958’, Le Gras and Sellier 2015), as well as innovative doctoral dissertations covering the cultural history of stardom (Juan 2014) and stars such as Gérard Philipe (Beaujeault 2018) and Delphine Seyrig (Moussa 2021). The first international conference on Danielle Darrieux, which took place on what would have been her 100th birthday, from 3– 5 May 2017 at Bordeaux Montaigne University, led to the publication of a book edited by Gwénaëlle Le Gras and Geneviève Sellier (2020). This special issue of French Screen Studies, devoted entirely to Michèle Morgan, is the result of a one-day conference organised on 29 February 2020, for the 100th anniversary of her birth. It follows the growing impetus of star studies in France,