ABSTRACT

This article examines Michèle Morgan’s films of the 1960s, the last phase in her long career, and one hitherto ignored by film history, largely on account of the dearth of auteur films in the star’s late filmography. Morgan’s 1960s films are explored against three contexts: the impact of the New Wave on popular cinema (in particular the arrival of youth culture); the changing social context, especially as it affected women; and the importance of age, given that Morgan was 40 at the beginning of the decade. Morgan’s films are shown to divide into two main strands: on the one hand, large-budget omnibus or ensemble films, mostly in light comic mode, and on the other hand, smaller-scale dramas in which she is systematically paired with a younger actor in a romantic relationship that is on the whole doomed. The article argues that the films’ deployment of Morgan’s star persona as the elegant bourgeois woman opposite younger actresses betrays society’s ambivalence towards the younger generation. At the same time, while Morgan is depicted as an attractive, sexually active, desiring woman in practically all the films, the narratives articulate a recurrent unease with the ‘older’ woman’s sexual identity.

摘要

本文检视米歇尔·摩根 1960 年代的电影，这是她漫长职业生涯的最后阶段，也是迄今为止被电影史忽视的电影，主要是因为这位明星后期的电影作品中缺乏导演电影。摩根 1960 年代的电影在三个背景下进行探索：新浪潮对流行电影的影响（尤其是青年文化的到来）；不断变化的社会环境，尤其是影响到女性的社会环境；以及年龄的重要性，因为摩根在这个十年开始时已经 40 岁。摩根的电影分为两个主要部分：一方面，大预算的综合或合奏电影，主要是轻喜剧模式，另一方面，她与年轻演员系统地配对的小规模戏剧在一段注定要失败的浪漫关系中。文章认为，电影将摩根的明星角色定位为优雅的资产阶级女性，与年轻女演员相对，暴露了社会对年轻一代的矛盾心理。同时，虽然几乎所有电影中摩根都被描绘成一个有吸引力、性活跃、渴望的女人，但这些叙事表达了对“年长”女性性别身份的反复不安。