Un Américain « plus parisien que la plupart des Parisiens « : la popularité de Gene Kelly en France dans les années 1950

Abstract

Between the Liberation and the late 1950s, many Hollywood comedies were big successes in France. Among the stars of the musicals, Gene Kelly had a special status. His popularity in France at the time is based on a dialectical relationship with the French culture. Both “typical American” and “more Parisian than most,” Kelly offered a vision as complex as comforting of American identity and the relationship between France and the United States. His persona is also based on a tension between on one side, the image of a complete artist and “one-man band” and on the other, that of a simple man and close to the people. As often in musicals produced by MGM, the dancer and his performances projected an ambivalent model of masculinity.