MoMA Museum of Modern Art

For over 100 years, glamour and celebrity have been used to promote film in countless fan magazines around the world. Singular among them was Pour Vous, published weekly in France from the arrival of sound film in 1928 to the start of the Second World War. An offshoot of the conservative daily newspaper L’Intransigeant (1880–1940), its tabloid size, bold use of photography, and broad-ranging editorial content significantly distinguished it from counterparts in the United States. While Pour Vous aggressively embraced the American star system, it also offered alternative images of race and gender, glimpses of a developing world cinema, and considerations of film history and aesthetics that anticipated ways of thinking about the moving image that later blossomed in postwar France of the 1940s and 1950s. This exhibition includes over 100 star-studded Pour Vous covers and spreads, all drawn from the Department of Film collection, that document an overlooked chapter of cinema history.

Organized by Ron Magliozzi, Associate Curator, Department of Film.