France | 1930 | b&w | 86 mins | dir. Julien Duvivier, with Harry Baur, Paule Andral, Jackie Monnier, Jean Brudin, Gaston Jacquet | cert. U

A rare if not London premiere of Julien Duvivier's adaption of Irène Némirovsky's controversial novel David Golder. Harry Baur gives a heart-stopping performance as the rich Jewish businessman who, after the suicide of a friend due to the 1929 economic crisis, goes to join his wife and daughter at their luxurious summer villa in Biarritz. Appalled by their greed and coldness, Golder suffers a heart attack and sees his family for what it is. Paule Andral is memorable as the venal and cruel Mrs Golder hoping against hope that her husband dies. He recovers but has lost his faith in money and is a broken man. Duvivier is the expert at bleak family tension and the hate that lies just beneath the surface.
 

Followed by Q&A with Denise Epstein, daughter of Irène Némirovsky, and Henrietta Foster, BBC producer

mon 8 mar | 8.15pm

In collaboration with the Jewish Book Week