French Costume Drama of the 1950s

Susan Hayward

Description

When political and civil unrest threatened France’s social order in the 1950s, French cinema provided audiences a unique form of escapism from such troubled times: a nostalgic look back to the France of the nineteenth century, with costume dramas set in the age of Napoleon and the Belle Époque. Film critics, however, have routinely dismissed this period of French cinema, overlooking a very important period of political cultural history. French Costume Drama of the 1950s redresses this balance, exploring a diverse range of films including Guitry’s Napoléon (1955), Vernay’s Le Comte de Monte Cristo (1943), and Becker’s Casque d’Or (1952) to expose the political cultural paradox between nostalgia for a lost past and the drive for modernization.

Part One

Contexts

Setting out the terrain: Genre and history

Setting out the terrain: Technologies, technicians and stars

 

Part Two

Belle Epoque Mania: Paris, the Provinces and Biopics

Belle Epoque films: An overview

Parisian society of the Belle Epoque through film

Truth and lies and the pursuit of marriage: Love-intrigues outside Paris

Making li(v)es: Belle Epoque biopics

 

Part Three

Representing History: Epics, Courtesans and Master Narratives 1796-1888

Setting the terrain: France 1796-1888

Representing History: 1796-1814 Napoléon Bonaparte/Napoleon

Restoration-July Monarchy: 1814-1848

Epic Grandeur: Part One, Philanthropists

Epic Grandeur: Part Two, Avengers

From the Second and the Third Republic: Innovation, Corruption and New Identities

The Second Empire in the Pink

The Second Empire in the Raw

From Empire to Republic: A Modernised France Emerging

Censoring the Classics: Bel-Ami Louis Daquin (1954; released 1957)

 

Part Four

Fairytales, Foxy Women and Swashbuckling Heroes

Costume Drama from late-Medieval to the Eighteenth Century: An Overview

Mysterious Microcosms: Three Fairytales

Foxy Women: Queens, Mistresses and Minxes

Swashbuckling Heroes

 

Conclusion

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Película fotográfica
• Reference
• General officer
• Fashion
• General
• Mode (habillement)
• Film

Informations

• Publié par: Intellect Books
• Date de parution: 27 avril 2011
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781841504346
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

French Costume Drama of the 1950s
This book is in memory of my father William Andrew Hayward (1912-1997) - a tailor and clothes designer whose knowledge of fabric and cut has inspired my writing here .
During the writing of this book, my mother, Kathleen Elizabeth Hayward (n e Arnold) died suddenly (1916-2009). It is to her also that I dedicate this scholarship. After all if she had not passed onto me her love of French culture I might never have specialized in French cinema .
French Costume Drama of the 1950s
Fashioning Politics in Film
Susan Hayward
First published in the UK in 2010 by Intellect, The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First published in the USA in 2010 by Intellect, The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street, Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2010 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved. No part of this publication maybe reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover designer: Holly Rose Copy-editor: Rebecca Vaughan-Williams Typesetting: Mac Style, Beverley, E. Yorkshire
ISBN 978-1-84150-318-9 / EISBN 978-1-84150-434-6
Printed and bound by Gutenberg Press, Malta.
Contents
List of Figures and Illustrations
Acknowledgements
Part I: Contexts
Chapter 1:
Introduction
Chapter 2:
Setting Out the Terrain: Genre and History
Chapter 3:
Setting Out the Terrain: Technologies, Technicians and Stars
Part II: Fairytales, Foxy Women and Swashbuckling Heroes
Chapter 4:
Costume Drama from Late-Medieval to the Eighteenth Century: An Overview
Chapter 5:
Mysterious Microcosms: Three Fairytales
Chapter 6:
Foxy Women: Queens, Mistresses and Minxes
Chapter 7:
CSwashbuckling Heroes
Part III: Representing History: Epics, Courtesans and Master Narratives 1796-1888
Chapter 8:
Setting the Terrain: France 1796-1888
Chapter 9:
Representing History: 1796-1814 Napoleon Bonaparte/Napoleon I
Chapter 10:
Representing the Social: Restoration-July Monarchy (1814-1848)
Chapter 11:
Epic Grandeur: Part One, Philanthropists
Chapter 12:
Epic Grandeur: Part Two, Avengers
Chapter 13:
From the Second to the Third Republic: Innovation, Corruption and New Identities
Chapter 14:
The Second Empire in the Pink: Violets, Waltzes, and the Pursuit of Knowledge
Chapter 15:
The Second Empire in the Raw: Martine Carol s Celebrity Courtesans
Chapter 16:
From Empire to Republic: A Modernized France Emerging
Chapter 17:
Censoring the Classics: Bel-Ami , Louis Daquin (1954; released in France 1957)
Part IV: Belle Epoque Mania: Paris, the Provinces and Biopics
Chapter 18:
Belle Epoque Films: An Overview
Chapter 19:
Parisian Society of the Belle Epoque through Film
Chapter 20:
Truth and Lies and the Pursuit of Marriage: Love Intrigues outside Paris
Chapter 21:
Making Li(v)es: Belle Epoque Biopics
Conclusion
Bibliography
Appendix: French Costume Drama of the 1950s
Index
List of Figures and Illustrations
1.1
Percentages of costume dramas to total film industry production (1940s-50s)
1.2
Most frequently adapted great authors for 1950 s costume dramas
1.3
Number of adaptations and breakdown into type
1.4
Truffaut s first list of offenders
1.5
Truffaut s second list of offenders
2.1
Distribution of the costume drama over epochs
2.2
Audience figures for big-success costume dramas
3.1
French costume drama of the 1950s (output and colour)
3.2
Number of co-produced costume dramas compared to total output
3.3
France s production during 1950s compared to co-productions
3.4
Total number of co-productions during 1950s
3.5
Co-production figures 1953-59
3.6
Breakdown of costume drama films according to colour process
3.7
Leading costume drama set designers
3.8
Gouache by L on Barsacq for set in Bel-Ami
3.9
Still from Lola Mont s
3.10
Max Douy set for Le Rouge et le Noir
3.11
Rosine Delamare s sketches for characters in Le Rouge et le Noir
3.12
Number of costume dramas by lead designers
3.13
Chart of top three female stars
3.14
Figure of Martine Carol in the nude
3.15
Danielle Darrieux as prim and proper
3.16
Mich le Morgan in Les Grandes manoeuvres
3.17
Chart of top three male stars
3.18
G rard Philipe as handsome cad in Les Grandes manoeuvres
3.19
Jean Marais as the elegant Comte de Monte-Cristo
3.20
The virile Georges Marchal
4.1
Costume dramas set in late medieval times to eighteenth century
4.2
Films by generic type
4.3
Films by Rouleau, Delannoy and Renoir
5.1
Bluebeard s castle
5.2
Bluebeard s ball
5.3
Poster for Notre-Dame de Paris
5.4
Renoux sets for houses in Notre-Dame de Paris
6.1
Star vehicles, audience figures
6.2
Caroline (Martine Carol) cross-dressed as young man
6.3
Lucr ce Borgia-Martine Carol in her nude bath scene
6.4
La Mole as a floppy body
6.5
The four periods of the twenty-year span of Marie-Antoinette Reine de France
6.6
Period time-line and average sequence length for Marie-Antoinette Reine de France
6.7
La Montespan and Voisin in lesbian clinch
7.1
Audience figures for the swashbuckler films
7.2
Swashbuckler films according to century
7.3
Categories of swashbuckler films
7.4
Poster for La Bigorne caporal de France
7.5
Poster for Les Trois Mousquetaires
7.6
Photo still for Les Aventures de Till l Espi gle
7.7
Poster for Fanfan la tulipe
7.8
Photo still for La Tour, prends garde!
7.9
Poster for Le Vicomte de Bragelonne
7.10
La Tour being stripped ready to run the gauntlet
7.11
D Artagnan wounded
7.12
D Artagnan the lover
8.1
Time-line of constitutional systems of governance 1796-1940
8.2
Costume dramas allocated according to r gime
8.3
Audience averages for great authors adapted to screen
8.4
Types of narratives
9.1
Seven films set in Napoleonic period allotted according to campaign
10.1
Themes of films set in Restoration and July Monarchy
10.2
Geographical and sexual triangulations in Tamango
10.3
Poster for French release of Tamango
10.4
Polish poster for Tamango
11.1
The three sections of part one of Les Mis rables
11.2
Lamarque s funeral parade
11.3
Cosette in white virginal dress
11.4
Equality to man and to woman
12.1
Douy s d cor for Mme de R nal s bedroom
12.2
Douy s sketch for the tribunal
12.3
Mme de R nal all buttoned up
12.4
Mme de R nal in d collet
13.1 .
Films by period (1848-88)
14.1
Fresnay as Offenbach
14.2
Hortense in a Dior-inspired dress
14.3
Camera positions for operetta La Vie parisienne
14.4
Eug nie in a massive crinoline
14.5
Les Violettes imp riales bent on selling marriage
14.6
Audience figures for the Napoleonic-period biopics
14.7
Fabre with his son Jules
15.1
Lola sits wooden-like as M. Loyal the ringmaster takes command
15.2
Lola s twelve tableaux
15.3
Lola s white wedding
16.1
Films representing post-1860s new masculinity
16.2
Still of Philipe as Ivanovich
16.3
Example of evening dress design (1870s)
16.4
Octave as the perfect example of the 1860s new masculinity
17.1
A censored image from Bel-Ami
17.2
Bel-Ami structure
17.3
Dancing the quadrille in Bel-Ami
18.1
Belle Epoque films 1889-1914
18.2
Spread of narratives of Belle Epoque films
19.1
Love intrigues - Paris as background
19.2
Louise embodying the void
19.3
El na in her mauve evening dress
19.4
An example of d Eaubonne s d cor
19.5
Jacqueline in modern society clothes
20.1
Love intrigues set outside Paris
20.2
Marie-Louise unconvinced by Armand s integrity
20.3
Marie-Louise in demure outfit
20.4
Example of d Eaubonne s simplicity of set design
20.5
Christine all buttoned up
20.6
Christine in d collet with Frantz
21.1
Belle Epoque biopics
21.2
La Belle Ot ro at the Palladium
21.3
Ot ro in black confronts Jean
21.4
Rasputin dominating the dance scene
Unless indicated in the footnotes, all images are sourced courtesy of the Biblioth que du Film (Bifi), Paris. Many images no longer have copyright, but where they do it is provided next to image.
Acknowledgements
L ittle did I think, when I began this project four years ago, how huge an undertaking it would become. In the end it was a bit like climbing Everest, as one of the earlier reviewers suggested (without irony) that it might be. Every corner I turned, another aspect presented itself - and I kept going! Certainly, I could not have fulfilled the aims and objectives without the help from numerous individuals and research institutions. I owe a great debt of gratitude to the following for helping me with this work. First, Daniel Br maud and Fereidoun Mahboubi at the Centre National de la Cin matographie (CNC), Bois d Arcy, for their genial assistance with screening films. In particular, it is thanks to Daniel Br maud that I was able to see a copy of Bel-Ami (a film I believed lost forever). And thanks to Fereidoun Mahboubi that I came to understand how this particular copy managed against all odds to be still in existence. The patience of the library personnel at the Biblioth que Nationale de France was invaluable in my trawl for films. The library s video and DVD archives supplied well over half of the films out of the total corpus. I am grateful to the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique which facilitated my research sojourns in Paris, at the Maison Suger. In particular, a debt of thanks to Madame Fran oise Girou and Madame Nadia Cheniour for making my stay in this research centre so agreeable. My thanks, too, to the centre s director Monsieur Jean-Luc Lory for making my stay possible in the first place. Finally, my thanks to the personnel, in par