Germaine Dulac: A Cinema of Sensations

6. Popular Front Activism and Vichy

195 Chapter 6 Popular Front Activism and Vichy Cultural and Political Activities under the Popular Front During the Popular Front era, from 1936 to 1938, Dulac’s activism for the cinema and by way of the cinema blossomed. She undertook several Socialist film projects, and through her involvement in numerous local and international organizations, played a major role in restructuring the French film industry and in cultivating a propitious environment for the future of the medium. Her role was central on several fronts, from the nationalization of the industry to the creation of a French cinematheque and a film directors’ union. In May and June 1936, a turbulent period marked by a rising fascist threat, an unprecedented economic crisis, and mass strikes, the coming to power of the Popular Front government (a brief but fruitful left-wing union under France’s first Socialist prime minister, Léon Blum), created a unique national climate of widespread hope and euphoria, in which Dulac’s cultural and sociopolitical activism flourished. The February 1934 right-wing riots and the July 14, 1935, counterdemonstrations of the major Communist and Socialistled trade unions had led to the unification of the working class and certain sectors of the middle class under the Confédération générale du travail (CGT, France’s largest association of trade unions). The Popular Front, in turn, garnered widespread approval by adopting the CGT’s pledge to bring “bread, peace, and liberty” (rather than “bread and circuses”) to all.1 For many French citizens, the election of this new administration not only appeared as a sure sign that there would be no war, it also brought unprecedented support for a number of long-standing Socialist projects, in which Dulac participated. Aside from creating fairer labor practices and more 196 P A R T I I I / P O P U L A R F R O N T A C T I V I S M A N D V I C H Y enriching leisure time (a forty-hour workweek, minimum wage, social security, and paid vacations), the new administration, with the help of the young and newly appointed minister of national education and fine arts, Jean Zay, instituted broad cultural reforms. These included a comprehensive popular culture program designed to ensure equal access to art, culture, and education via government subsidies for the arts, improved equipment for public schools, and state-run summer camps.2 This landmark cultural policy, which echoed the call of the revered Socialist leader Marcel Sembat (1862–1922) “to bring art to the masses,” also corresponded to Dulac’s long-held social and pedagogical aspirations and efforts in the name of cinema. In the broad Popular Front government–backed effort to support the development of art and culture, to make it more accessible to the people, and to give it a social purpose, she saw an unparalleled opportunity to put her ideas into wider practice. Like many of her colleagues, Dulac believed that the professional members themselves should carry out the reorganization of the cinema. As such, she became involved in a number of representative structures (associations, cooperatives, and labor unions) intended to reform and, in effect, free the cinema on almost every level—economically, socially, and politically—through various means. These included diminishing commercial influence on it (via nationalization), creating new production modes and preservation institutions (collectives, archives), tackling subjects more pertinent to its social role (local action, pacifist ideals), and improving the status of its employees (via unions for filmmakers and technicians alike). Owing to the brevity and instability of this political period, not all the projects in which Dulac was involved met with success, but many left their mark and had a considerable long-term impact on the cinema and what has now come to be known as the “cultural exception,” treating cultural goods differently from other commercial products, proposed by France at the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) negotiations in 1993.3 Mai ’36, a Popular Movement of Art and Culture Dulac was at the forefront of this broad reform effort, notably through her role in Mai ’36, “a popular [or people’s] movement of art and culture,” named in reference to the Popular Front victory in May 1936.4 This government-backed association, directed by François Moch (longtime SFIO member, economist, and 197 Blum cabinet administrator) and administered by a large number of women (including...