Jonathan Driskell is Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at Monash University Sunwaycampus, Malaysia. He is the author of Marcel Carne (2012).

Many years before Brigitte Bardot and Catherine Deneuve rose to fame, the French cinema produced a host of glamorous female stars designed to rival their Hollywood counterparts. Bathed in soft light, discussed adoringly in fan magazines and shown wearing the latest fashions, these 'cinematic stars' emerged in opposition to France's traditional stage-based stardom, while remaining, through the roles they played and the looks they sported, a distinctly French phenomenon. The French Screen Goddess examines how these stars influenced the narratives and look of their films, contributed to defining the period's new, emancipated femininity -, the 'modern woman' -, and related to the decade's politics, particularly the Popular Front of the mid-1930s. The book focuses on the three most important examples of this type of stardom, Annabella, Danielle Darrieux and Michele Morgan, while also considering many other key stars, such as Arletty, Viviane Romance and Jean Gabin.
Previously neglected films are considered and true classics of French cinema re-examined, with Rene Clair's Quatorze juillet, Julien Duvivier's La Bandera, and Marcel Carne's Le Quai des brumes and Hotel du Nord foremost among these.

Table of Contents
List of tables
List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Introduction
1. Female theatrical stardom in 1930s French cinema
2. International stardom in 1930s France
3. From midinette to Hollywood star: Annabella
4. A star of the Popular Front: Danielle Darrieux
5. The poetry of poetic realism: Michèle Morgan
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Actor popularity tables
Appendix 2: Film popularity table
Appendix 3: Filmographies (1930s)
Bibliography
Filmography
Index