Contenu du sommaire : La présence américaine en France XIXe-XXe siècles.

French-American rivalry about movies is frequent nowadays, but it begun with the cinema itself. During a short period, around 1908, cinema was really international and a French producer as Pathé was successful in the United States. Rapidly, American companies became stronger, due to a large internal market. First World War gave way to an American hegemony over Europe ; France tried to resist, economically and ideologically but could only limit American invasion. Before the triumph of the talking film, Hollywood'strength was solidly built in France ; it never went backwards.

American participation in World Fairs in the second half of the XIXth century reflects the growing interest of this nation for foreign trade and peaceful relations with foreign countries. In 1900, their performance at the Paris International Exhibition was better and more impressive than ever before. Their Pavillion on the Quai d'Orsay was a « home » for Americans visiting Paris and the « Expo ». They had exhibits and received awards in all groups but one. Yet, the French did not really perceive the gigantic progress and rising economic power of the United States.

This article does not attempt to cover the activities of all the American women in France during the war of 1914-1918, it rather has limited itself to the modest aim of studying a specific group of American volunteer women : those who intiated, developed and ran the American Committee for Devasted France, the CARD. The war brought them in 1917 to the Soissons area where they organized with great efficiency the most urgent relief efforts. After the Armistice, they participated very actively — as had been their project from the beginning — in the reconstruction of the region. They thus implanted in France American methods and models which were to have long-lasting effect on French society.

The American Center Was founded in 1932. It was (and still is) a private, non profit and independent institution. It was also non sectarian, despite its early and tight connection with the American Cathedral. Reverend Beekman, then Dean of the Cathedral, was its founding father. His goal was to make the Center into a meeting spot for Anglo-American students and artists, a place where they would find help and support for their life and work in Paris. Circumstances, history and individual destinies soon turned it into a center of Franco-American avant-guarde centers — modern music, jazz, painting, cinema, video, sculpture, dance, languages, you name it... if at all possible ! Encounters and collaborations of an unusual sort made the Center into a hot-bed of pioneers in experimentation, transmission and disruption, but also in diffusion. After 50 years of improbable exchanges and seminal creations, which modified French and American arts at large, the American Center moved from Montparnasse to la Halle aux vins, in Bercy, a move that is in keeping with a larger eastward movement in the capital. The Center will re-open in the Spring of 1994, in a brand new building, designed by famous Frank Gehry.