Ignace Morgenstern (5 June 1900 – 26 January 1961) was a Hungarian-born French film producer. He was the owner of

Cocinor Cocinor was a French film production and distribution company based in Paris. Established in 1948 its full name is the Compagnie cinématographique du Nord. It was founded by Ignace Morgenstern out of a former distribution company SEDIF he had pre ...

, one of the largest French film distributors of the 1950s.

Career

Morgenstern was born in 1900 to a

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

family in Mád, then part of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. After emigrating to France he worked for Osso Films until the company went bankrupt in 1934. He moved to

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France region, the prefecture of the N ...

where he helped establish a branch of the distributor SEDIF. In 1939 he was conscripted into the

French Army The French Army, officially known as the Land Army (french: Armée de Terre, ), is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces. It is responsible to the Government of France, along with the other components of the Armed Force ...

. Following the Fall of France in 1940 he and his family sheltered on a farm they rented in Frontenas in the unoccupied zone of

Vichy France Vichy France (french: Régime de Vichy; 10 July 1940 – 9 August 1944), officially the French State ('), was the fascist French state headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. Officially independent, but with half of its te ...

. Following the

Liberation of France The liberation of France in the Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers, Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance. Nazi Germany inv ...

in 1944 he re-established SEDIF. In 1948 he acquired the assets of the company from Joseph Lucachevitch and established his own distribution company Cocinor, based in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He concentrated in producing commercially orientated hits starring established stars such as

Fernandel Fernand Joseph Désiré Contandin (8 May 1903 – 26 February 1971), better known as Fernandel, was a French actor and singer. Born near Marseille, France, to Désirée Bedouin and Denis Contandin, originating in Perosa Argentina, an Occitan t ...

and

Jean Gabin Jean Gabin (; 17 May 190415 November 1976) was a French actor and singer. Considered a key figure in French cinema, he starred in several classic films including ''Pépé le Moko'' (1937), '' La grande illusion'' (1937), ''Le Quai des brumes'' ...

Personal life

In 1927 Morgenstern married his cousin Elizabeth with whom he had a daughter Madeleine Morgenstern. Madeleine was married to the New Wave film director François Truffaut from 1957 to 1965. She met him at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival h ...

while working in the publicity department of her father's company.De Baecque & Toubiana p.103

References

External links

Bibliography

* De Baecque, Antoine & Toubiana, Serge. ''Truffaut: A Biography''. University of California Press, 2000. * Marie, Michel. ''The French New Wave: An Artistic School''. John Wiley & Sons, 2008. 1900 births 1961 deaths French film producers French people of Hungarian-Jewish descent Hungarian film producers Hungarian emigrants to France French Army personnel of World War II {{France-film-bio-stub