David Golder

Crisis cinema, imbued with the fears of its time, yet timeless not only in its aesthetic brilliance: Jewish immigrant David Golder (massive in every respect: Harry Baur) is lonely over the building of his financial empire. Exploited by his estranged wife and idolatrous daughter, he is struck down by the failure of the global economy and that of his heart. Completely disillusioned, he undertakes an astonishing last journey to his (now) Soviet homeland to save himself ... Julien Duvivier's adaptation of the controversial successful novel by Irène Némirovsky (a Jewish woman who was accused of anti-Semitism and later perished in Auschwitz) shows him as an auteur of French cinema right at the beginning of the sound film: bold and modern in its fusion of dynamically stirring montage and imaginatively orchestrated, closely observed dialog scenes, the epitome of Duvivier's compassionless objectivity. Paul Vecchiali: "An indisputable masterpiece." (Christoph Huber)

Photo: Austrian Film Museum