Un véritable conte de fées : Annie Vernay ou la fabrique d'une star dans le cinéma français de la fin des années 1930

This article examines the career of Annie Vernay (19211941), a shooting star of French cinema who made her debut at the age of 15, became a star at 16 and died at 19 on a liner heading for California. It analyses the way her launch reveals the importation of the Hollywood star system and its methods in France in the late 1930s. It questions the model embodied by this goodgirl, who was fashioned to compete with American stars in a country torn between its attachment to the past and a desire for modernity. Finally, it examines the way Annie Vernay herself experienced what the press presented in its time as "a true fairy tale". [Publisher's text].