78 | MARCH 30 • 2023
W
hen Julie Orringer wrote
The Flight Portfolio in 2019, it
never occurred to her that
one day it would become a Netflix show.
But Transatlantic, a seven-part series that
begins streaming on April 7, is based on
her book.
“It’s wonderful and surreal to see my
work being adapted for a Netflix series,”
says Orringer, who was partly raised in
Ann Arbor and graduated from Huron
High School. “I’m delighted the way it
turned out.”
Transatlantic — like The Flight Portfolio
(published by Alfred A. Knopf) — is
the compelling story of Varian Fry, an
American journalist who founded the
Emergency Rescue Committee, a New
York-based group that helped refugees
escape occupied France.
Fry and the group helped more than
2,000 Jews and Nazi-dissidents flee to the
United States. Many were famous artists
and writers on the Nazi’s most-wanted
list, including Marc Chagall, Max Ernst,
sculptor Jacques Lipchitz and writer Andre
Breton.
The series, like the book, is set in 1940
in Marseilles. Fry’s colleague, American
heiress Mary Jayne Gold, rented the Villa
Air on the outskirts of Marseille. There,
Varian and his associates secretly housed
the refugees and provided them with the
necessary documents to get them safely
out of the county.
As a young journalist, Fry had reported
on the Nazi’s regime from Germany in
1935. He witnessed Jews being brutalized
with no consequences and wrote about it
for the New York Times.
The Netflix project idea was Anna
Winger’s, the creator of the Netflix hit
Unorthodox. Winger and her production
company Airlift Productions had signed
an exclusive deal to produce international
dramas for Netflix.
“
Anna, the showrunner and producer
of the series, is a longtime friend of mine,”
says Orringer, who has published four
books and numerous short stories. “
Anna
had been interested in Fry for many years
but had no idea that I was, too, until she
read my novel.
“
Around the time my book came out,
she told me she wanted to option it for a
Netflix series.”
BRINGING HISTORY TO LIFE
During the filming of Transatlantic,
Orringer traveled to France to see the pro-
duction in progress. “To be on set last year
in Marseille, and to watch specific scenes
from the book come to life, was a stun-
ning, powerful, unforgettable experience,”
recalls Orringer, who was an extra in the
show.
“I got to know the actors, and I saw how
the makeup artists and costume design-
ers helped to bring the characters to life.
I remember watching a rough cut from
a scene in which Varian receives a letter
from an old lover, and it was astonishing
to think that the piece of paper in the
actor’s hand had originated in my book.”
Orringer became aware of Fry and his
work while doing research for her novel
The Invisible Bridge (Alfred. A. Knopf,
2010). “
As I was learning about the terms
of the 1940 Franco-German Armistice, I
read about Fry’s work on behalf of refugee
artists and writers,” she says. “I realized
Fry was a pivotal figure in 20th-century
art because he saved thousands of artists
who were in danger of being deported to
concentration camps. The more I read
Netflix series Transatlantic
tells the story of Varian
Fry, who helped more than
2,000 Jews flee the Nazis.
Nazi-Occupied
France
Escaping
ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
ARTS&LIFE
TV
COURTESY OF NETFLIX © 2023