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THE TRADITION of FEMININITY: RETHINKING GENDER and SEXUALITY in 1950S FRENCH CINEMA

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THE TRADITION of FEMININITY: RETHINKING GENDER and SEXUALITY in 1950S FRENCH CINEMA THE TRADITION OF FEMININITY: RETHINKING GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN 1950s FRENCH CINEMA DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Julie Parson, M.A. Graduate Program in French and Italian ***** The Ohio State University 2011 Dissertation Committee: Professor Judith Mayne, Advisor Professor Jennifer Willging Professor Dana Renga Copyright by Julie Parson 2011 ABSTRACT French films in the 1950s that tried to compete with Hollywood films were labeled as being a part of what was called the Tradition of Quality. These films have been consistently saddled with the negative reputation of being substandard and tedious, thanks to François Truffaut’s condemnation of it in 1954. Since that time, scholars have blindly and systematically ignored film of the period. While some scholars have begun to take a second look at cinema made during this period, a comprehensive study of filmic adaptations, which bear the brunt of the negative reputation, has not been undertaken. My dissertation seeks to open up a dialogue reconsidering the value of Tradition of Quality adaptations. I focus my examination on the portrayal of female gender and sexuality on the French film screen during this time. My goal is to determine how the cinematic image of women reflected the complexities of their negotiation of the modern role in contemporary French culture. I examine French films from the fifteen-year period following World War II and focus on three aspects of the representation of female gender and sexuality. First, I study how gender and sexuality play out narratively and visually in four of Jacqueline Audry’s films, Olivia (1951), Huis clos (1954), La Garçonne (1957), and Le Secret du chevalier d’Eon (1959), and I contend iv that despite limits placed on the way that female directors were received and conceived of at the time, Jacqueline Audry was an auteur in her own right. Her oeuvre is replete with affirming images of sexually desiring female agents who finish well in the end. I also examine how women’s representation in Carné’s Thérèse Raquin (1953) and Autant-Lara’s Gervaise (1956), as cinematic readings of two of Emile Zola’s novels, portray their female characters in an unexpectedly favorable light. Second, I examine the star persona of Edwige Feuillère and show how her image runs counter to expected objectified images of women in the 1950s. I show how her image is interrelated with the narratives and images of female gender and sexuality and that her star persona emerges as an agent who challenges social and cultural limits for women at the time. Finally, I examine how the complex system of cultural and viewer reception was intertwined with these narratives, images and stars at the time. My research reveals that each of these aspects evinces contradictions between the implications of these limits and the changing realities of the feminine domain as it evolved in the 50s. v To my sister, Mary, who inspires me daily. vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to thank my advisor, Professor Judith Mayne, for her unwavering support during the writing of this dissertation. Professor Mayne has been a true source of inspiration through her teaching and through her scholarship. I am truly indebted to her for her guidance, insight, patience and encouragement throughout the entire project. I also wish to thank Professor Jennifer Willging and Professor Dana Renga for their participation on my committee and their support. I am indebted to my sister, Mary, for proofreading portions of this project and for providing valuable feedback. I wish to thank my mother, Katy, for her constant encouragement and support and for her faith in me. Finally, I would like to thank my partner, Jamie, for her unfailing support, patience and love during this process. vii VITA October 20, 1977 ……………………………………….. Born – Quincy, IL 2002 …………………………………………………………… B.A. Indiana University-Purdue University, Fort Wayne 2006 …………………………………………………………… M.A. in French, The Ohio State University 2004 – Present …………………………………………… Graduate Teaching Associate, The Ohio State University FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: French and Italian Minor Fields: French Film Studies, Twentieth Century French Literature, Gender Studies viii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………….………………………………………. ii Dedication …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… iv Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. v Vita ……………………………………………………………………………………..………………………………………. vi Chapters: 1. Introduction: Qu’est-ce que la femme? Or, The Ambiguous Role of Women in French Cinema in the 1950s ……………………………………………….……………………………. 1 1.1 The Tradition of Quality and Jacqueline Audry: This Ain’t Your Daddy’s Cinema ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16 1.2 Marketing Femininity: The Preponderance of Beauty Ads in Cinémonde in the 1950s …………………………………………………………………………………………………. 30 2. Adapting the Lesbian: Jacqueline Audry's Olivia and Huis clos ……………………….. 41 2.1 Olivia by Jacqueline: Desire and Transgression in Olivia ……………………………. 44 2.2 Hell Is Where the Heart Is: Manifestations of the Look in Huis clos ………….. 59 3. Gender and Subversion in Jacqueline Audry’s La Garçonne and Le Secret du chevalier d’Eon ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 72 3.1 Post-War Anxieties and Unease: La Garçonne as Social Marker ….……………. 77 ix 3.2 Floating Gender Markers in Le Secret du chevalier d’Eon …………………………. 93 4. Zola’s Women in the 1950s: Marcel Carné’s Therese Raquin and René Clément’s Gervaise at the Foreground ………………………………………………….104 4.1 The Contemporary Face of Woman: Post-War Anxieties in Thérèse Raquin …………………………………………………………………………………….111 4.2 Regarding Gervaise: Cinematic Construction of Female Point of View ……..127 5. Edwige Feuillère: Grand Dame of the French Cinema, Modern Figure of Femininity ………………………………………………………………………………………………………143 5.1 Power in the Game of Love: Feuillère versus the Boys ……………………………..147 5.2 Choosing Death: Feuillère versus Fate ………………………………………………………164 5.3 (Re)reading the Image of La Grande Dame ……………………………………………… 175 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………183 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………189 Appendix A: Detailed Summaries of Two of Jacqueline Audry’s Films ………………………. 200 A1: La Garçonne (1957) ………………………………………………………………………………… 200 A2: Le Secret du chevalier d’Eon (1959) ………………………………………………………… 205 Appendix B: Supplemental Biographical Information for Edwige Feuillère ……………….. 211 viii Chapter 1: Introduction Qu’est-ce que la femme? Or, The Ambiguous Role of Women in French Cinema in the 1950s French film of the 1950s has consistently held a negative reputation, one that has endured due to the over-arching influence of François Truffaut’s condemnation of what he saw as the weaknesses of popular filmmaking trends during the period. In 1954, Truffaut published his fervent denunciation of what he termed “le cinéma de papa” in his “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français” (Truffaut 15-29). In it, he attacked “quality films” (studio films with elaborate costumes and settings, usually adapted from literary sources, with a classical, “invisible” film style where film art is subjugated to the needs of the plot and the characters) as well as the producers and screenwriters who made them. He argued that adaptation, typified by the scriptwriting team of Jean Aurenche and Pierre Bost, negatively altered literary originals, in the name of staying true to their spirit. Yet these adaptations were, in Truffaut’s reasoning, betrayals (16). Truffaut contrasted screenwriters with auteurs, such as Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson, Jean Cocteau, and Jacques Becker, whose distinctive style is apparent in their oeuvre, and contended that auteurs’ work merited attention while scriptwriters’ did not. Truffaut’s denigration of screenwriters caused a flurry of controversy and was 1 one impetus in the emergence of the New Wave. Thanks to Truffaut’s indictment of the Tradition of Quality (the term used to describe this film style) and the controversy that followed, films made during the post-war period before the New Wave have been consistently ignored by scholars because they have been saddled with the reputation of being too literary (i.e. not cinematic), non-innovative, and sub-standard work. As a result, most films made in the 1950s are poorly known because they have been written off by scholars who have blindly followed Truffaut’s assessment. Despite the far-reaching effects of Truffaut’s article, it should be noted that his distinction between “quality” film and “auteurist” film is not nearly as clear cut as his arguments seem to suggest. Several films from the period, such as Becker’s Casque d’Or (1952) or Max Ophüls’ Madame de… (1953), illustrate the fluidity of Truffaut’s categories. While Truffaut’s denunciation of the Tradition of Quality seems at first glance to be largely aesthetic, it is significant that his article targets Aurenche and Bost as the primary culprits in his case against “quality” filmmaking. Truffaut notes that in addition to taking liberties with the adaptation of literary originals, the duo was also guilty of a having a taste or profanation and blasphemy (16). The scriptwriters were leftists, though, and Truffaut’s attack on their blasphemy was really a thinly-veiled attack on their politics. Similarly, Truffaut attacks films such as Le salaire de la peur (Clouzot, 1953) and Le Blé en herbe (Autant-Lara, 1954) as examples of how film adaptation of the time engendered
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