J ane Fonda may seem the most American of stars and celebrities, but it is impossible to understand her career and her status in world culture without seeing her as a transnational figure, without due consideration to an actual and ongoing career in France, where she has been known as "Jane la Française." 1 Despite the utterly public nature of Fonda's life and career, the standard narratives neglect the rise of her star from both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the true range of her talents, including an ability to act and do her own dubbing in French, thanks to her fluency in the language. Unwitting recollections may fall upon her memorable performance as the eponymous heroine of Barbarella: Queen of the Galaxy (1968), a Franco-Italian production directed by then-husband Roger Vadim. Even a decade before Barbarella, the French press compared Fonda to their largest and most bankable international film star, Brigitte Bardot, when they announced her as "the American Bardot" upon her arrival in Paris in 1957. Starring alongside leading French actors, including Alain Delon, Michel Piccoli, and Yves Montand, Fonda acted in other French films directed by Vadim (The Circle of Love, 1966; The Game Is Over, 1968), as well as those directed by notable film contemporaries: René Clément's Joy House (1964) and two films by Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin-Tout va bien and Letter to Jane (both in 1972). Fonda continues to appear on French talk shows 2 and French commercials, 3 and most recently enjoyed a principal role in the French film Et si on vivait tous ensemble (And If We All Lived Together) by director Stéphane Robelin (2012). 4 For an entire half-century, Fonda's time in France has shaped the development of her artistry and work.
