NATANSON, JACQUES

(1901-1975)

Director and screenwriter. Born in Asnières, Jacques Natanson started his career as a playwright and went on to become one of the most popular screenwriters of the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. Natanson's plays were largely popular in the vein of thecomédie du boulevard, and he brought something of that with him to the screen. He started working in film in the early 1930s, cowriting on such films as Carmine Gallone'sUn soir de rafle(1931) and Augusto Genina'sNe sois pas jalouse(1932). Natanson worked on the screenplays of more than thirty films, including Pierre Billon and Kurt Gerron'sUne femme au volant(1933), Jean de Limur'sPaprika(1933), Viktor Tourjansky'sL'Ordonnance(1933) andLes Yeux noirs(1935), Alexis Granowsky'sLes Nuits muscovites(1934) andTarass Boulba(1936),Jacques de Baroncelli'sMichel Strogoff(1935),Marcel L'Herbier'sForfaiture(1937),Max Ophuls'sDe Mayerling à Sarajevo(1940),La Ronde(1950),Le Plaisir(1952), andLola Montés(1955), Richard Pottier'sVertige(1947), and Ralph Habib'sLa Rage au corps(1954).

In addition to screenwriting, Natanson also tried his hand at directing.He made four films in total. The first wasLa Fusée(1933), and it was followed byMaître Bolbec et son mari(1934),Le Clown Bux(1935), andLes Gais lurons(1936). His success as a director was not spectacular, and he focused his efforts on writing after 1936.

Natanson has the distinction of being an artistic screenwriter with popular appeal. Several of the films he worked on can well be considered avant-garde, most notably those of Ophuls. However, a number of the films he worked on were also successful with audiences. The French writer Colette, who was popular and literary herself, once said of Natanson that he was one of the most gifted writers of his generation. That reputation has held.