Frontières et identités culturelles au début des années 1930 : les comédies musicales de Danielle Darrieux entre tradition et innovation

The beginning of the Thirties was an uncertain transitional time for cinema generally—adjusting to the multiple challenges of the new synchronized sound format. A common practice of the time, the multi-language versions were generally produced back-to-back on the same sets, using the same narrative structures and continuity and the same production team, but recruiting different casts for each version, including stars known in the market specific to the language being used, and in some instances, casting the same actors across transnational productions. During the early 1930s, Danielle Darrieux was discovered by the film industry: her beauty combined with her singing and dancing ability led to numerous films since 1931 (her first part was in the musical film Le Bal, a French version of the German language version Der Ball, simultaneously filmed by Wilhelm Thiele with a different cast). Due to a close business relationship between Germany and France, many German films were remade in the French language, because France was the most profitable country outside Germany. Before turning Mayerling (1936), which brought her to fame, she embodied different roles in popular French cinema, such as comedies, melodrama, costume drama, ecc.. This paper aims to focus on Danielle Darrieux early musical comedies turned for the French audience, through the print reviews, the critical essays, and the audience opinion, as the different solutions adopted are symptomatic for identity and culture of the country, also considering the story’s themes of reality and illusion. Mon Coeur T’appelle is a 1934 French musical film directed by Carmine Gallone and Serge Véber, written by Ernst Marischka, produced by Arnold Pressburger. The film stars Jan Kiepura (who started a film career working with Berlin’s UFA) and Danielle Darrieux. The English version (My Heart is Calling) and the German language edition Mein Herz ruft nach Dir were shot simultaneously with different cast members, with Marta Eggerth playing Danielle Darrieux’s role. Again, in 1935 Darrieux was the leading actress in another French musical comedy, directed by Carl Lamac et Henri Decoin: J’aime Toutes Les Femmes based on the German film Ich Liebe Alle Frauen, (Kiepura portrayed both versions). The main purpose is to examine these films by considering a possible relation with the other versions, as they probably had a relevant contribution from continental influences: the original German sources fed upon a variety of different stylistic and generics influences as well as international market considerations, but the French remakes with French actors became the focus which allowed to confirm the cultural value and identity. French musical comedies were part of the popular culture of the early thirties, the comparison involves a careful reading that emphasizes the particular significance of the differences and similarities between the versions, through the contextualization and the surrounding historical background.