Description
TitleTrouver sa voi(e)(x) sur grand écran
Date Created2018
Other Date2018-10 (degree)
Extent1 online resource (178 pages) : illustrations
DescriptionThis dissertation proposes a chronological and historical study of the works, careers, and place within the music and film industry of a group of French film artists, the actor-singers who were a striking presence from the beginning of the "talkies" to the late 1950s.
These actor-singers were an important cultural phenomenon in France because they were developing their singing career as well as their cinematographic career at the same time and with the same success rate in both industries, a feat that has not been done again since them. This work aims to reinstate the actor-singers as such and to show how they embodied a unique and long-lasting cultural phenomenon that was sustainable thanks to their relationship between them and their very own audience who first were listeners and then became spectators because they were eager to watch their favorite singers on a big screen. Each actor-singer attracted a distinct audience because, as singers and so as actors, their public was exclusively loyal to them. And because these artists were now part of the cinematographic life, magazines such as Pour Vous, Cinémonde, Ciné-Miroir welcomed them in their pages at the same rank as full-time actors. With this multiple-industry collaboration and the demonstrated dedication from the audience, a sort of artisanal stardom was experimented through the actor-singers and it proved to be quite effective as it lasted almost three decades.
The dissertation examines the careers and works of the six most important of these performers, two from each "generation"--actor-singers who began in the cinema in the early talkies, in the later 1930s, and immediately after world war II. These actor-singers are analyzed comparatively, each one contrasted with one or several others, and chronologically, as their star images develop, or fail to do so, over time. Aside from the films themselves, the primary historical source, used extensively, is fan magazines, such as Pour Vous. Also employed are popular biographies of the performers. The novelty of the dissertation lies, in part, in its systematic use of such "popular" materials, which are normally neglected in academic studies of French cinema.
NotePh.D.
NoteIncludes bibliographical references
Noteby Bénédicte France Lebéhot
Genretheses, ETD doctoral
Languagefre, eng
CollectionSchool of Graduate Studies Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Organization NameRutgers, The State University of New Jersey
RightsThe author owns the copyright to this work.