Jules Romains
Franken was born on 2 February 1899 in Deventer, the Netherlands. As a youth he worked as a writer-cum-director before moving to Paris in 1925; in Paris he wrote on the experimental films being produced in France, and in 1928 he directed the stageplay "D 16 Mensch en Machine" ("D 16 Man and Machine"), based on the story "Donogoo Tonka" by Jules Romains.