French cinema has produced a substantial galaxy of stars to achieve world fame in their national films. This is an analysis of the phenomenon of French stardom. It provides in-depth studies of the major popular stars of French cinema: Max Linder, Jean Gabin, Brigitte Bardot, Louis de Funes, Jeanne M[...]

Francois Truffaut called him, simply, 'the best'. Jean Renoir is a towering figure in world cinema and fully justifies this monumental survey that includes contributions from leading international film scholars and comprehensively analyzes Renoir's life and career from numerous critical perspectives[...]

Brigitte Bardot's rise from fashion model and film starlet to global celebrity was meteoric and unprecedented: after her breakthrough role in Et Dieu ...crea la femme in 1956, audiences the world over rushed to see her films. Predating Beatlemania, she provoked mass hysteria: paparazzi stalked her, [...]