Némirovsky: French or Russian? Catholic or Jewish? Who Is This Woman?!

Irène Némirovsky had no easy life; much like the characters she created, her journey was strife with desire, fortune, hardship, and tragedy. Like her characters’ lives, Irène’s was made up of complex nuances that one can only wish to comprehend fully today. In light of this, it is no surprise that portraying Irène was a challenge, especially given the exact moment at which Anna and I wished to interview her.

To give more insight into Némirovsky’s character, without giving away what will be said in the film tomorrow, it is important to know that Némirovsky was a very successful author in Paris prior to World War II. She was well established and made quite a successful life for herself as a Russian ex-pat. Within literary circles, there is no doubt that Némirovsky would have been popular and sought out as a valuable connection. Despite all this, however, the work of hers that stands out and unleashed the greatest impact was one she wrote on the brink of her demise, and one that was to wait sixty-two years from its birth to its eventual publication: Suite Française. And within this book, I found it most intriguing that Némirovsky chose to portray Nazi Germans as so very human and easily sympathetic for all readers. On the other hand, the French upper-middle class were written as snobbish and dislikable. Remember that Némirovsky, who herself was part of the French elite, died in Auschwitz and one is immediately curious as to why she chose to portray her characters in the manner that she did—again, another nuance of Némirovsky that we many never fully understand. Were her biases put aside in the writing of her story? Or were her biases the complete driving force for why she created the characters the way she did? Did she herself sympathize with Germani Nazi’s and despise the excessive lavishness of French upper class? This would imply that Némirovsky was not of her own type of people, a part of that elite world, yet still looking in.

Alas, Anna and I decided we wanted to interview Némirovsky at the greatest turning point of her life—we sought her out as she was running away from German Nazi’s and living a life so very foreign to her usual life of ease and popularity. I found portraying Némirovsky to be hard because the emotions that we wanted her to portray (courage, disappointment, hope for the future) were ones that needed to be acted out subtly, and not in a showy manner. I couldn’t throw my arms up in the air or laugh heartedly because at that moment, Némirovsky was living a life of desperation and seeking out a normalcy that was impossible for her to find. We hoped that the script would give sufficient background information to the audience while still giving good insight into her struggles as a ex-pat writer with a Jewish heritage. I examined pictures of Némirovsky to get an idea of how she carried herself and read dozens of excerpts from letters and personal journaling she herself had written. I don’t think I could ever do her justice with the terrible acting skills I have (if you can even call it acting), however, I hope the message of her determined strength and intriguing character still comes across.