French
Chapter 6: David Golder
Irène Némirovsky sent the manuscript of David Golderunder the name of Epstein at éditions Grasset, shortly before giving birth to a little girl, Denise, France, Catherine,on November 9, 1929.
The Jewish press and critics – except for big names such as Benjamin Crémieux or André Maurois – appreciate variously David Golder. The Zionist press, on the other hand, is distinguished by its virulence. Two months after the release of David Golder, Irène Némirovsky rejects the accusations : «I’m being accused of anti-Semitism? Come on, it’s absurd! Since I am a Jew myself and tell it to whoever wants to hear it!» And the journalist Nina Gourfinkel to conclude: “Antisemitic, certainly, Irène Némirovsky is not. As little as Jewish.”
Julien Duvivier has chosen, for his film which will be one of the first speaking of French cinema, the actors Harry Baur and Paule Andral. Completed on November 9, 1930,the film is being shown in preview on December 17 at the Pigalle Theater. Paul Morand delivers his impressions at the Figaro : “David Golder, excellent. It is not a comedy photographed at the cost of the slightest effort, it is a creation, and one of the most beautiful talking films. It is also a great human journey, from the Polish ghetto to the luxury of Biarritz, from poverty to wealth, from life to death.
Irène Némirovsky does justice to his 'unhappy father' in this novel, Leonid Borisovich Nemirovsky. This "little obscure Jew" born in Elisavetgrad on September 1, 1868, will have been successively a racing boy in a hotel, a clerk in a factory in Lodz, manager of a warehouse in Odessa, a matchmaker and finally a financier. Irène ready to David Golder some of his traits – fearlessness in business, but also the nostalgia for a Jewish childhood.
Poster of the military adaptation of David Golder by Julien Duvivier. [1930]
© Fonds Irène Némirovsky/ IMEC
