Stardom Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Colloque international, 6 et 7 juillet 2015, Université Bordeaux Montaigne
co-organisé avec Raphaëlle Moine, en partenariat avec Charles-Antoine Courcoux
Cet événement s’inscrit dans le cadre du projet de recherche international « L’Âge des stars : des images à l’épreuve du vieillissement», piloté par l’Université Bordeaux Montaigne, en collaboration avec l’Université de Lausanne et l’Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3.

- by and +1
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- Gender Studies, Film Studies, Popular Culture, Celebrity Culture
- by Craig Martin
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- Screen Comedy, Queer Theory, Stardom

Negli anni Cinquanta, l’intreccio tra divismo e immagine materna emerge in ruoli chiave che producono letture identitarie e metaforiche, in particolare quelle rappresentate da Anna Magnani, come Pina in Roma città aperta (Rossellini, 1945), madre della Resistenza uccisa dai tedeschi e prefiguratrice della rinascita italiana dopo la guerra; la madre volitiva di Bellissima (Visconti, 1952); quella tragica di Mamma Roma (Pasolini, 1962). Il mio intervento vuole analizzare il rapporto tra stardom e maternità nel cinema del dopoguerra attraverso l’esempio di Anna Magnani, il cui corpo costituisce un’immagine divistica segnata dall’ibridazione, per usare il termine di Morin, tra i suoi personaggi on screen e la sua maternità off screen, illustrata e raccontata dalla stampa popolare (Morin 1995).

- by Maria Elena D'Amelio
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- Gender Studies, Popular Culture, Italian neorealist cinema, Stardom
- by Suzanne Leonard and +1
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- Celebrity Culture, Postfeminism, Stardom and Celebrity, Stardom

Il saggio traccia un’ampia ricognizione critica, ricca di esempi e approfondimenti analitici, sulla rappresentazione della bellezza femminile da parte del cinema. A una fase iniziale, rappresentata dalle prime proiezioni dei fratelli Lumière, in cui la bellezza nel cinema coincide con lo stupore e la bellezza stessa del cinema, segue uno sviluppo più complesso nel corso del quale nasce la “donna visibile” (parafrasando le riflessioni di Béla Balázs), la cui bellezza angelicata o minacciosa, austera o vibrante di erotismo, incide una traccia profonda nella storia culturale del Novecento. È questa storia che il saggio racconta procedendo per tappe e figure esemplari: le dive italiane degli anni Dieci (Lyda Borelli, Francesca Bertini, ecc.), il divismo ambiguo di Alla Nazimova, la bellezza dinamica della new woman nel cinema hollywoodiano negli anni Trenta, il volto “al naturale” delle attrici del neorealismo, il biondo glamour di Marilyn Monroe e la chioma “selvaggia” di Brigitte Bardot.

- by Masecchia Anna
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- Film Studies, Film History, Stardom

This chapter analyzes contemporary film stardom in Latin America through three stars who represent not just a gender and geographical sweep of the continent (Brazilian Sonia Braga, Mexican Gael Garcia Bernal, and Argentine Ricardo Darin), but also the key discourses that define how Latin American stardom currently works. Although this chapter relates these discourses to individual stars and their careers, it also acknowledges that these concepts apply as well to other contemporary Latin American stars (Salma Hayek, Wagner Moura etc.)

- by Dolores Tierney
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- Latin American Cinema, Stardom, Transnational Stardom
- by Jacqueline Warwick
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- Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Popular Music, Popular Culture

Anchored on the figure of the young Malayalam film actor Rahman and his mercurial rise to popularity in the 1980s, this paper argues that ‘youth’ bears within itself the desire to transcend the gender barrier and fashion a shared sensibility and subjectivity that reaches its peak in the neoliberal moment, thus signifying a new metrosexual, even androgynous, subject who is able to speak for the aspiring global citizens of the region. Rahman signifies a break in the traditional, hegemonic imagination of South Indian masculinity that is rooted in the region, and instead stands for the new configuration of cosmopolitan youth that emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of the migration to the Persian Gulf and the inflow of money and consumer goods from there – a category of youth whose self-fashioning was inflected in a significant way by their consumption practices. Certain representational techniques also resulted in a queering or androgyny of the youthful figure that he personified, suggesting the liminality of gendered identity in youth. Apart from textual analyses of a selection of his films, I also draw on popular reportage around his stardom in the form of news reports and gossip columns published in the leading Malayalam film weekly, Naana, in the 1980s. While the former helps to outline the representational function of Rahman’s body in film narratives, the latter supplements this with data on how the ways in which his figure was imagined and received, both within the industry and among fans, contributes to fashioning a new youth subjectivity.

- by Aparna Nandakumar
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- Gender Studies, Youth Studies, Gender, Neoliberalism
- by Anustup Basu
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- Queer Studies, Film Studies, Indian Feminism, Hindi Cinema
- by YEKTANURŞİN DUYAN
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- Fandom, Film Stars, Stardom and Celebrity, Fandoms

This paper discusses the emergence and evolution of cinema in Bengal as a form of public culture since the early 20th century to its contemporary phase. Locating this cinema within the crosscurrents of political, historical and cultural transformation, the paper begins with reviewing the scholarship on Bengali cinema that has materialised over the last two decades. While a holistic history of Bengali cinema is still to be written, the scholarly works produced so far have revealed the problematic of writing such a history. We argue no linear narrative is possible, for so- called Bengali cinema, as the category of ‘regional cinema’ in India, is a product of conflicting forces, as regards to political conditions, industry, aesthetics, taste and target viewership. The construction of Bengali popular cinema, as distinct from a more widely circulated national cinema represented by the Bombay film industry, is an intriguing and complex process. This note summarising the scholarly contributions to the issue, proposes that a revisionist history of “Bengali” cinema could be possibly written, through an investigation of industry dynamics over the decades: technological transformations in filmmaking, changing economic networks of film production and distribution, publicity strategies, public cultures of film viewing, and the wide range of audiences the different forms of film have targeted, from the studio era to the present day. While shifting the focus from auteur studies and analyses of film texts as self-contained material, this ‘introduction’ propose that a new historiography of popular cinema in Bengal could be drawn by examining the dynamics of the emergence of stars and construction of stardom, along with a critical assessment of repeated success of certain genres and tropes over the decades.

- by Madhuja Mukherjee
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- Film Genre, Film Industries, Bengali Cinema, Indian Cinema

This article discusses Camille Cottin’s star image, considering more specifically what was at stake in her 2019 performance in Mouche, the French remake of British tragicomedy TV series Fleabag created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The framework of this remake and the transposition of Cottin in the character played by Waller-Bridge offers a discussion on the representation of female sexuality and gender through the main character of Mouche and Fleabag. It argues that the nexus of Cottin’s gendered stardom both meets and transgresses the ideals of the cinematic type of the Parisienne, which may lead to think that Cottin was the perfect fit to be the French version of Fleabag. However, as Mouche, her persona gestures toward the projection of a female subjectivity that escapes inscription into the French cultural imagination and social practices. Drawing from theories of the abject and the female grotesque as a subversive strategy to challenge gendered expectations in Fleabag, this article sheds light on how effectively this is transposed to Cottin’s version of the character. It also considers how the strategy of breaking the fourth wall, which creates a personalised connection with the character of Fleabag, mimics the personalised and intimate connection to celebrities that social media now offers. The article suggests that Cottin’s on-screen persona competes with her star image, threatening to eradicate the space of spectatorial jouissance necessary for the processes of cinematic identification and intimate connection.

- by Victoria Souliman and +1
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- Representations of femininity/masculinity, Stardom, Grotesque, Abject,uncanny, TV Series
- by Gillian Kelly
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- Masculinity Studies, Masculinity, Studies On Men And Masculinity, Film Stars

Wakao Ayako (1933–) is one of the most popular film stars of post-war Japanese cinema, yet there is little academic work, in Japan and elsewhere, devoted to her. Following upon Christine Geraghty’s classification of stardom, this article looks back to Wakao’s early career and focuses on the evolution of her star persona, from a celebrity as Daiei Studio’s new face, to a star-as-performer from the late
1950s onwards. I will argue that it is not a lineal evolution, but that Wakao has preserved until today a dual star image intended for different audiences and fulfilling different functions. Her vocal performance will be analysed as a significant feature in her star persona and its duality. Through the analysis of Wakao’s star image in different texts and media, I will explore the meaning as well as the form of stardom in post-war Japan and critically reflect on the application of the term ‘diva’ in this context.

- by Irene González-López
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- Film Studies, Japanese Cinema, Gender, Japanese Popular Culture

This article investigates the stardom of Amedeo Nazzari, both in his pre-war cinematic roles as war hero, and in post-war cinema, where he played the pater familias in a series of melodramas directed by Raffaello Matarazzo and produced by Titanus from 1949 to 1954. While Fascism conceptualized heroism as action and patriotic sacrifice, post-war Italian screen culture redefined the coordinates of heroism through new impersonations of suffering masculinity. Nazzari’s stardom, moving from roles of military virility to melodramatic father figures, negotiated issues of gender, sexuality, class, and national identity during the transition from Fascist dictatorship to democracy.

- by Maria Elena D'Amelio
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- Popular Italian Cinema, Masculinity, Melodrama, Stardom

Was Valentino, Hollywood's preferred tango dancer, popular in Argentina? Was his style of dancing considered correct and appropriate? The essay provides some answers to these and other questions pertaining to international film... more

- by Giorgio Bertellini
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- Silent Film, Celebrity Culture, Tango, American Cinema
- by Michael Lawrence
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- Film Performance, Stardom and Celebrity, Stardom, Tsai Ming-liang
- by Cristina Colet
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- China, Cinema, Cantonese, Stardom

This article aims to investigate Silvana Pampanini's stardom. I study her complex star image by examining her roles on the screen, a series of magazine articles and, in particular, her autobiography. During the fifties, the name Silvana Pampanini was synonymous with eroticism and virginity at the same time. From the sixties onward, Pampanini was considered a spinster, and she disappeared inexorably from the scenes. In her old age, thanks to her autobiography and some roles in the last years of her career, the actress interpreted the role of diva with irony, confronting the icon she represented during her youth.

In this article, I shall explore Charlotte Rampling's star persona in a series of French/French-backed films made between 2000 and 2005, in particular considering her as an ageing transnational female star, in terms of both representation and performance. By representation, I mean to analyse how Rampling's nationality, gender and age function in our understanding of her and her films, not least because she often plays sexually active and/or aggressive women. In the films discussed here, which include Sous le sable/Under the Sand (François Ozon, France, 2000), Embrassez qui vous voudrez/Summer Things (Michel Blanc, France/UK/Italy, 2002), Swimming Pool (François Ozon, France/UK, 2003), Vers le sud/Heading South (Laurent Cantet, France/Canada, 2005) and Lemming (Dominik Moll, France, 2005), Rampling in particular plays sexually active and/or aggressive older women. However, I shall also consider Rampling through the framework of performance. Following Elena del Río (2008), I shall argue that Rampling repeatedly produces affective performances that not only play upon but also elude the representational aspects of her work – and that this notion of what del Río terms ‘affection’ might be a useful framework through which to reconsider the concept of charisma, a quality that Richard Dyer, drawing upon Max Weber, identifies in Stars (1998 [1979], p. 34–37).

- by William Brown
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- Film Studies, Film Theory, French Cinema, Performance Studies
- by Neepa Majumdar
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- Fandom, Stardom, Transnational Stardom
- by Francesco Pitassio
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- Film Theory, Edgar Morin, Roland Barthes, Sociology of Cinema

A dramatization of the troubled production of THE NIGHT OF THE IGUANA, whose premiere in 1961 starred Bette Davis. Davis treated the cast, dramatist and the director with disdain, while Williams experienced major problems with his... more

- by Laurence Raw
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- Tennessee Williams, Stardom, Bette Davis, Broadway History

This essay is an examination of two famous star scandals of the Fifties: the extramarital affair of Ingrid Bergman with Roberto Rossellini and that of Sophia Loren with Carlo Ponti. Focusing on the Italian popular magazine «Oggi»’s coverage of these stars’ scandals, my article aims to investigate popular discourses of sexuality and motherhood in relation to historical and social change in postwar Italy, in particular the interconnectedness of media scandals, star’s textual and extratextual images, and the symbolic construction of motherhood.

- by Maria Elena D'Amelio
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- Feminism, Italian Cinema, Stardom, Motherhood Studies

Spiritualism was not immune to dynamics of pre-cinematic stardom. The most popular mediums were acclaimed by spiritualist circles in Europe and the United States and performed their séances with prominent personalities and aristocrats sitting at their table. The career of such great mediums was often controversial, including grandiose triumphs as well as disastrous decadences. This chapter looks at the careers of some among the most internationally acclaimed nineteenth-century spiritualist mediums, namely the Fox Sisters, the Davenport Brothers, and Daniel Dunglas Home, to shed light on the way dynamics of stardom were at play in the spiritualist movement. Relying on literature about stardom and celebrity culture as a theoretical framework, it argues that such characters contributed to the cohesion of the spiritualist communities, by spreading the fame of the movement and by furnishing a common ground of recognized personalities.""

- by Federica Piana
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- Autobiography, Autobiographical Writing, Stardom, Actress

The 1960s socialist Czechoslovakia witnessed a series of liberalization tendencies. Apart from relieving the political-ideological pressures, the decade also brought substantial changes in terms of lifestyle. Film musical Lady of the rails (Dáma na kolejích, 1966) addresses these shifts through female emancipation and fashion. This study argue that Lady of the rails articulates a utopian space of couture fashion as a vehicle for equality of the sexes. On one hand the seductive vision of a stylish, empowered lady was presented as accessible to any working class woman. On the other hand, the pages of period lifestyle magazines, the musical form and the bitter finale tell a different story of a very limited transferability to the everyday reality. Accordingly, casting proved to be central for negotiating these conflicting tendencies. Jiřina Bohdalová as a leading Czech comedienne brought into the project her multifaceted stardom and supported the notion of Marie as an ordinary woman next door. Analyzing and contextualizing costumes and star performance in Lady of the rails enrich the understanding of Czechoslovak cinema apart from the artistic discourse surrounding the new wave.

- by Miroslava Papežová and +1
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- Film History, Emancipation, Dress and identity, Film musicals
- by Lucy Bolton
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- Philosophy, Art, Film Studies, Stardom

Between 1960 and 1964 the name Catherine Spaak became synonymous of scandal. Her transgressive roles on the screen, the eroticism of her teenage body and her personal life were considered outrageous for the time. This essay aims to investigate Spaak's stardom in the early Sixties, in particular some scandals during the first part of her career. Specifically, this article aims to reconstruct her personal events through the study of some texts, including thirty magazine articles collected in the database of the research project "Comizi d'amore. Il cinema e la questione sessuale in Italia (1948‐1978)".

- by Federica Piana
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- Popular Italian Cinema, Sexuality, Gender and Sexuality, Italian Cinema

One of the most popular actors of the Classical Hollywood period, Tyrone Power's appeal was initially based around his outstanding beauty, his looks remaining key to his star persona throughout his 25-year career and almost 50 films. This book presents the first substantial academic study of Power and employs a range of approaches, including stardom and genre theory, to reappraise his career from various angles including gender, genre and image. Textual analysis coincides with discussions of Power's multi-layered performances in a variety of genres while engaging with industry systems, specifically Twentieth Century-Fox, his home studio for almost two decades, and situates Power's performances within the contexts of industry regulations, such as the Production Code, and industry technological advances, such as CinemaScope.

- by Gillian Kelly
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- Film Studies, Masculinity Studies, Film Analysis, Visual Analytics

The article deals with the phenomenon of the 1960s Czech pop-stars and their engaging on multiple platforms — theatre, cinema and television. Although most of them were not professional actors and actresses, they left a significant mark in the 1960s audiovisual cultural production in Czechoslovakia. The media industries, as well as the period discourse accepted them not just as singers, but as actors too. The case study focuses on Marta Kubišová, a famous Czech pop-star, who had a contract with one of the popular small theatres, and who acted in films and television shows. This part centres on analyzing Kubišová’s musical and physical performance (movement and gestures) as the leading lady in two televison recitals, directed by Jan Němec. Focusing on her ability to perform the songs, the case study supports the argument of considering and categorizing Kubišová as an acting singer.

- by Miroslava Papežová
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- Television Studies, Music Video, Performance, Acting
- by Neil Ewen and +5
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- Cultural Studies, Music, Gender Studies, Media Studies
- by Maria Elena D'Amelio
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- Italian Cinema, Silent Cinema, Stardom
- by Lígia Lana
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- Gender Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Celebrity Culture, Funk Music History
- by Martin Fradley
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- Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, Media Studies, Media and Cultural Studies

"Contents Introduction: Stars, History, and the Media I Shaping the Stars: Production Laura Ahonen: In the Spotlight and Underground – Constructing (Anti)Stardom in Popular Music Rami Mähkä: Comedians as Stars: The Monty Python Troupe Zohar Altman Ravid: The star as a Creation and the Star as a creator: The Case of Barbra Streisand Sven-Erik Klinkmann: Retro Icons and Anachronistic Artists Kimi Kärki: Cutting the Moss with Laser Beams: The Uses of History in The Rolling Stones Bridges To Babylon Stadium Tour Wing-Fai Leung: Discursive Stardom in Hong Kong and the Missing Referents Lisa Bode: ‘Grave Robbing’ or ‘Career Comeback’? On the Digital Resurrection of Dead Screen Stars Jamil Dakhlia: From the Olympians to the Ordinary Heroes: Stars in the French Popular Press II Shining Stars: Identities Susan Hayward: Stardom: Beyond Desire? Anneli Lehtisalo: “Oh, My Sweet Hero!” The Filmstar Leif Wager as Emperor Alexander I in Tanssi yli hautojen (1950) Anu Lahtinen: “In Finland I am the MAN!” Gender, Irony and Exoticism in Late Night with Conan O’Brien Outi Hakola: On-screen and Off-screen Monstrosity of Béla Lugosi and Boris Karloff Veronika Munk: "Play to Me Gypsy!" How Roma Stars' Image Change in Hungarian Media Andrea Viniczai: National Characteristics of Hungarian Celebrity Culture Linda Marchant: Concentrated Vision: Celebrity Images from the 1930s and 1940s Laura Saarenmaa: Female Stars and the Tricky Question of Drinking Janne Mäkelä: Finnkampen: Finland’s Envy for Swedish Pop Music Success in the 1990s III Lighted by Stars: Audiences Hanna Järvinen: Fans, Fawns and Fauns: Ballet Stardom, Dancing Genius and the Queer Afterlife of Vaslav Nijinsky Jaakko Seppälä: Love, Hate and Suicidal Tendencies: The Construction of Rudolph Valentino’s Stardom in Finland 1923–1927 Anna Möttölä: Style Star – Admiring Audrey Hepburn in the 1950’s Beate Peter: How Can We Tell the Dancer from the DJ? Althusser and Jung on Participant Roles in a Nightclub Setting Joanne Cummings: We’re All in This Together: The Meanings Festivalgoers Attribute to Their Music Festival Participation Kai Lothwesen & Daniel Müllensiefen: What Makes the Difference? Pop Music Stars and TV Talent Show Contestants in Adolescents’ Judgements "

- by Kimi Kärki
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- History, Cultural History, Popular Music Studies, Popular Music

This is the first book in English dedicated to the actor and director Tanaka Kinuyo. Praised as amongst the greatest actors in the history of Japanese cinema, she became an exponent of Japanese femininity on screen. Tanaka was also the only Japanese woman filmmaker between 1953 and 1962, and her films tackled distinctly feminine topics such as prostitution and breast cancer. Tanaka’s career spanned the industrial development of cinema – from silent to sound, monochrome to colour, and overlapped with a transformative period in Japanese history, and hence it serves as a useful vehicle to revisit the structure and workings of the Japanese studio system. Bringing together Japanese and western scholars, this close analysis of her fascinating life and work offers new perspectives on the study of stardom, authorship and gendered subjectivity on screen.

- by Irene González-López
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- Art, Gender and Sexuality, Japanese Cinema, Auteur Theory

<p>This chapter presents a case study of musical stardom in Indian cinema. It traces the historical formation of Indian film industries' masterful use of song as a distinct vehicle to deploy stardom and introduces star-song performative spaces as a site for star-making and star consumption. It argues that film song in Indian cinema since 2000 has begun to fulfil specific functions of entertainment in mapping masculinities and femininities through the visual realisation of song, while reaching out for diverse national and global audiences across digital platforms.</p>

- by Kiranmayi Indraganti
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- Stardom, Telugu Cinema, Songs, Hugo Münsterberg

Caine’s four iconic roles from the 1960s and 1970s – Alfie, The Italian Job, Get Carter, and Sleuth – were remade within a short space of time from 2000 to 2007. This chapter looks at seriality in terms of repeated engagement with the works of a single actor. First, it examines the originals in terms of a unified and coherent cycle. Secondly, it treats the dating of the remakes as an important indicator of technological and cultural changes that created the right environment for updating to take place. It also shows that by embracing these remakes, Caine serves as an active custodian of his early work in a similar way to Hollywood that keeps reinventing its products.

- by Agnieszka Rasmus
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- Film Adaptation, Film Remakes, British Cinema (Film Studies), Stardom
- by Gillian Kelly
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- Contemporary Hollywood, Hollywood, Stardom and Celebrity, Stardom
- by Gillian Kelly
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- Film Studies, Film Theory, Masculinity Studies, Film Analysis