The case of innovative entrepreneur Bernard Natan demonstrates how intolerance can turn the greatest success into a nightmare. Although his energy and creativity dominated the French film industry of the 1920s and 30s, his name remains erased from the collective memory, or worse: misremembered in the most unflattering way.
The man who brought sound cinema to France and Cinemascope to the screen before the word even existed was blacklisted as a Jew, a sexual pervert and a foreigner. The Nazi camps did the rest. And French film historians never restored his reputation.
Tellingly, it was a Irish/Scottish duo that took the initiative for this fascinating documentary. In France, the name Natan remains largely forgotten, even to generations of film students who receive their education in the very buildings that Natan erected as the heart of the future film industry. A story that needs to be told. Screened together with Mr leos caraX.
- Directors
- Paul Duane, David Cairns
- Country of production
- Ireland
- Year
- 2013
- Festival Edition
- IFFR 2014
- Length
- 66'
- Medium
- DCP
- Language
- English
- Producer
- Paul Duane
- Production Company
- Screenworks
- Sales
- Screenworks
- Screenplay
- David Cairns
- Cinematography
- Scott Ward
- Editor
- Eoin McDonagh
- Production Design
- Charis Suddaby
- Sound Design
- Leon O’Neill
- Music
- Seti the First
- Website
- http://facebook.com/NatanMovie