Musidora is considered one of the first female stars of French cinema. Her autographed photograph on the cover of this book, in the tight-fitting costume of the heroine of Louis Feuillade’s episodic film Les Vampires (1915), straight out of André Breton’s cabinet of curiosities, has stood the test of time to become the symbol of the femme fatale. But this lascivious image of Catwoman from the 1910s must be overcome. One must discover what this representation of her own iconic essence hides, learn who Musidora really was, beyond the fetishization of the character she embodied. This is the ambition of this book: to provide a complete and innovative insight into this actress, director, producer and artist, an object of fantasy and an avant-garde woman emblematic of female emancipation, who continues to feed the collective imagination. The book is illustrated by an unpublished iconography, made possible by the exceptional opening of Musidora’s archives.
Musidora, qui êtes-vous? is a collective book, co-edited by Carole Aurouet, Marie-Claude Cherqui and Laurent Véray. Authors, in alphabetical order, are : K. Abadie, C. Aurouet, C. Barbier de Reulle, A. Bléger, D. Blonde, L. Bruneau, P. Cazals, M.-C. Cherqui, B. de Pastre, M. Durand, H. Fleckinger, A. Förster, C. Gauthier, A.-E. Halpern, M. Juan, L. Mannoni, P. Palma, S. Rongier, P. Roques, L. Véray, C. Viart.
