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Bernard Natan (born Natan Tannenzaft; 14 July 1886 – 1942 or 1943) was a French-Romanian film entrepreneur, director and actor of the 1920s and 1930s. Natan worked in cinema from a young age, working his way up from projectionist and chemist to cinematographer and producer. He eventually acquired the largest French motion picture studio,
Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...
, in 1929, just prior to the Great Depression. Pathé collapsed in 1935, and Natan was the subject of false and antisemitic accusations of fraud, and was ultimately convicted and imprisoned by French authorities. Natan was deported to
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
in September 1942, where he was murdered. However, Natan laid the foundation for the modern film industry in France and helped revolutionize film technology around the world.


Personal life

Natan was born Natan Tannenzaft (possibly Tanenzapf) to
Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...
ish parents in
Iași Iași ( , , ; also known by other #Etymology and names, alternative names), also referred to mostly historically as Jassy ( , ), is the Cities in Romania, third largest city in Romania and the seat of Iași County. Located in the historical ...
,
Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...
in 1886. He moved to France in the early 1900s, where he held a number of jobs in cinema. In 1909 he married and subsequently had 2 children.Cairns, David & Duane, Paul. ''Natan.'' Screenworks, 2013 Despite being a Romanian, he volunteered to fight for France at the outset of
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
. He was cited twice, wounded, and awarded the Croix de Guerre, and was demobilized in October 1918, holding the rank of sergeant. In 1921 he became a French citizen, and at some point changed his name to "Bernard Natan." His younger brother Émile Natan also moved to France and became a film producer.


Mainstream film career

Natan worked as a projectionist, film lab chemist, titles designer, cinematographer and producer during his early years in Paris. He was a publicity stringer for
Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation, commonly known as Paramount Pictures or simply Paramount, is an American film production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the flagship namesake subsidiary of Paramount ...
during the early 1920s. But by 1929, Natan's Rapid Film had become a major film producer and distributor. His reputation was such that in 1924 Natan became a member of the executive committee of the Cinematographic Employers' Federation. By 1926, his film laboratory was highly regarded, he had established a marketing firm, and he built two
sound stage A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a large, soundproof structure, building or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or te ...
s. Natan was also a film producer, helping finance and produce motion pictures at other studios.Willems, Gilles. "Rapid-Film et ses Branches Production." ''Pathé, Premier Empire du Cinéma.'' Jacques Kermabon, ed. Paris: Centre Georges Pompidou, 1994.


Takeover of Pathé

In late February 1929, Bernard Natan acquired the production and exhibition businesses of
Pathé Pathé SAS (; styled as PATHÉ!) is a French major film production and distribution company, owning a number of cinema chains through its subsidiary Pathé Cinémas and television networks across Europe. It is the name of a network of Fren ...
, then the largest French motion picture company. He agreed to merge his own studio, Rapid Film (then worth 25 million
francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
), with Pathé in exchange for 50 million francs in shares. The remaining shares were purchased with funding from a consortium of banks, bonds (to be paid with income from Pathé), and a 10 percent ownership in Pathé by the banks. After the merger, Natan renamed the company Pathé-Natan (sometimes also credited as Pathé-Cinéma). Pathe was already in substantial financial trouble when Natan took control. Studio founder
Charles Pathé Charles Morand Pathé (; 26 December 1863 – 25 December 1957) was a pioneer of the French film and recording industries. As the founder of Pathé, Pathé Frères, its roots lie in 1896 Paris, France, when Pathé and his brothers pioneered ...
had been selling assets for several years to boost investor value and keep the studio's cash flow healthy. The company's founder had even sold Pathé's name and "rooster" trademark to other companies in return for a mere 2 percent of revenues generated by them. Natan had the bad luck to take charge of the studio just as the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
convulsed the French economy. Natan attempted to steady Pathé's finances and implement modern film industry practices at the studio. Natan acquired another film studio, Société des Cinéromans, from Arthur Bernède and Gaston Leroux, which enabled Pathé to expand into projector and electronics manufacturing. He also bought the Fornier chain of motion picture theaters and rapidly expanded the chain's nationwide presence. The French press, however, attacked Natan mercilessly for his stewardship of Pathé. Many of these attacks were antisemitic and contained veiled
homophobic Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who identify or are perceived as being lesbian, Gay men, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, hatred, or ant ...
allusions to Natan's supposed sexuality. Pathé-Natan did well under Natan's guidance. Between 1930 and 1935, despite the world economic crisis, the company made 100 million
francs The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' ( King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centur ...
in profits and produced and released more than 60 feature films (just as many films as major American studios produced at the time). He resumed production of the newsreel Pathé News, which had not been produced since 1927. Natan also invested heavily in research and development to expand Pathé's film business. In 1929, he pushed Pathé into
sound film A sound film is a Film, motion picture with synchronization, synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, bu ...
. In September, the studio produced its first sound feature film, '' Les trois masques'' and its first sound newsreel a month later. Natan also launched two new cinema-related magazines, ''Pathé-Revue'' and ''Actualités Féminines'', to help market Pathé's films and build consumer demand for cinema. Under Natan, Pathé also funded the research of
Henri Chrétien Henri Jacques Chrétien (; 1 February 1879, Paris – 6 February 1956, Washington, D.C.) was a French astronomer and an inventor. Born in Paris, France, his most famous inventions are: * the anamorphic widescreen process, using an anamorphic ...
, who developed the anamorphic lens (a technology which later led to the creation of
CinemaScope CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter. Its cr ...
and other
widescreen Widescreen images are displayed within a set of aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios (relationship of image width to height) used in film, television and computer screens. In film, a widescreen film is any film image with a width-to-height aspect ...
film formats common today). Natan expanded Pathé's business interests into communications industries other than film. In November 1929, Natan established France's first television company, Télévision- Baird-Natan. A year later, he purchased a radio station in Paris and formed a holding company (Radio-Natan-Vitus) to run what would become a burgeoning radio empire.


Collapse of Pathé and imprisonment

In 1930, in order to finance the company's continued expansion, Pathé's board of directors (which still included Charles Pathé) voted to issue shares worth 105 million francs. But with the depression deepening in France, only 50 percent of the shares were purchased. One of the investor banks collapsed due to financial difficulties unrelated to Pathé's problems, and Pathé was forced to follow through with the purchase of several movie theater chains it no longer could afford to buy. Although the company continued to make a profit (as noted above) for a time, the acquisitions meant they lost more money than it could bring in. In 1935, a French commercial court began investigating Pathé's accounts. By 1936, it was declared bankrupt and Natan was dismissed. French authorities pursued charges of
fraud In law, fraud is intent (law), intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate Civil law (common law), civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrato ...
against Natan, including financing the purchase of the company without any collateral, of bilking investors by establishing fictitious shell corporations, and financial mismanagement. He was also accused of hiding his Romanian and Jewish heritage by changing his name. Charles Pathé turned against him, claiming to be his victim. In 1938, Natan was arrested and imprisoned, never to regain his freedom. In 1939, he was indicted and sentenced to 4 years in jail. This meant he was in prison when France fell to the Nazis, while other Jewish filmmakers were able to flee the country or go into hiding. A second indictment was brought in 1941, and he was convicted again shortly thereafter. His French citizenship was taken away, which required special legal manoeuvres by the state, since he had been naturalized as a result of his WWI military service and there were no existing legal means to render him stateless.


Adult film controversy

In 1911, Natan and colleagues were convicted of making erotic films, he was jailed for a short time and fined 1,000 francs but due to his exceptional record fighting in World War I this was later removed from his record. Some sources have claimed that Natan's career in pornography did not end there. Joseph Slade suggests that Natan may have directed at least one hardcore pornographic film in Romania and produced and acted in at least 20 hardcore
heterosexual Heterosexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior between people of the opposite sex or gender. As a sexual orientation, heterosexuality is "an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions ...
and
bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...
films between 1920 and 1927. Slade wrote that nearly all French pornographic films from this period which include bisexual and homosexual content were produced by Natan. The same source states that Natan himself was bisexual, and engaged in intercourse in '' Le Menage Moderne de Madame Butterfly'' (1920) and ''La Maîtresse du Capitaine de Meydeux'' (1924). Furthermore, Slade claimed that he introduced masochism into French pornographic film. Slade's claims are disputed by the historians of the French organization "Les Indépendants du Premier Siècle", who argue that the various actors in question are not Natan and that accusations at Natan's trial and in Paris-Match connecting him to the adult film industry were false. ''Natan'', a 2013 documentary film, compares stills from the adult films attributed to Natan with official headshots and shows that several pornographic actors have been mistaken for Natan but are not him. Joseph Slade now admits there is room for doubt over whether Natan worked in pornography at any time after 1910.


Death

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
broke out while Natan was in prison awaiting trial, and
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...
conquered France. After Natan's release from prison, the French government handed him over to the occupying German authorities. He was transferred from prison in September 1942 to the camp at Drancy, and shortly afterwards deported to the
Auschwitz concentration camp Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, was a complex of over 40 Nazi concentration camps, concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) d ...
on 25 September 1942, where it is believed he was murdered in 1942 or 1943.


Importance to the film industry

Bernard Natan's importance to the French film industry should not be underestimated. He pioneered
vertical integration In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration, also referred to as vertical consolidation, is an arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each ...
in the French film industry, and adopted the "American model" of film-making and distribution, which provided the underpinning of the French film industry into the 21st century. He also brought television to France, and established the first French radio and television holding companies. Pathé survived into the 1980s largely on revenues generated by the companies purchased and integrated by Natan. Under Natan's leadership, the
anamorphic Anamorphic format is a cinematography technique that captures widescreen images using recording media with narrower native Aspect ratio (image), aspect ratios. Originally developed for 35 mm movie film, 35 mm film to create widescreen pres ...
film camera lens was developed. The anamorphic lens was not only a major advance in film technology, but helped Hollywood survive during the early years of television.Monaco, James. ''How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History and Theory of Film and Media.'' Rev. ed. New York:
Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, 1981.
Before 2014 there was no public acknowledgement of Natan at La Fémis, the French national film school, despite it having moved into one of his former studios in 1999. A plaque commemorating his work, and his murder in Auschwitz, was unveiled in December 2014.


References


Bibliography

*O'Brien, Charles. ''Cinema's Conversion to Sound: Technology and Film Style in France and the U.S.'' Bloomington, Ind.:
Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...
, 2005. *Rossel-Kirschen, André and Willems, Gilles. "Bernard Natan à la direction de Pathé-Cinéma." ''1895.'' 21 (December 1996).


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Natan, Bernard 1886 births Film people from Iași 1942 deaths French cinema pioneers French film directors Romanian film directors French film producers Romanian screenwriters Romanian male screenwriters Romanian cinematographers French pornographic film directors Romanian pornographic film directors French male pornographic film actors Romanian male pornographic film actors Directors of bisexual pornographic films Romanian people who died in Auschwitz concentration camp Foreign nationals imprisoned in France Drancy internment camp prisoners Romanian Jews who died in the Holocaust Romanian emigrants to France Naturalized citizens of France 20th-century French screenwriters French male screenwriters French military personnel of World War I