Journeys Through French Cinema

In the first episode of this expansive series, Bertrand Tavernier discusses the directors who have both influenced him personally and impacted French Cinema at large. The journey begins with Jean Grémillon, whose film LE CIEL EST À VOUS (1944) Tavernier first saw at age 17 and was immediately smitten. Still under-appreciated outside of France, Tavernier extols the virtues of Grémillon’s emotional realism and stakes out a place for him in the canon as an unsung master. Next, he surveys the ouevre of Max Ophüls—from his American-made titles THE EXILE and THE RECKLESS MOMENT to beloved classics like LA RONDE and LOLA MONTES - before concluding with a discussion of Henri Decoin, whom Tavernier admires for his feminist-leaning narratives like LA VERITÉ SUR BÉBÉ DONGE and his noteworthy collaborations with composers.

In part two of his discussion of influential filmmakers, Tavernier explores the formal and thematic approaches of Sacha Guitry, Marcel Pagnol, Jacques Tati, and Robert Bresson. The first two directors were introduced to Tavernier through the writings of Francois Truffaut, who championed their style as modernist despite the naysaying of the majority of critics at the time. Tavernier notes the ways in which Guitry’s playful self-reflexivity in particular paved the way for the New Wave. Despite their differences in style and tone, Tavernier is a great admirer of both Bresson and Tati. Using clips from THE DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, A MAN ESCAPED, MR. HULOT’S HOLIDAY, PLAYTIME and more, he draws parallels between the ways the two filmmakers utilize space in the frame, and manage to balance realism and fable.

Tavernier dissects the importance of music in French Cinema with palpable enthusiasm, highlighting French actors who came from music hall backgrounds (Jean Gabin, Magali Noël, and Jean Gabin, among others), and the oft-overlooked contributions of directors to the process of songwriting itself. Surveying the work of René Clair, Sacha Guitry, Jean Boyer and more, Tavernier treats us to a feast of joyous clips from beloved classics like Agnès Varda’s CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, Louis Malle’s VIVA MARIA!, and Jacques Demy’s THE YOUNG GIRLS OF ROQUEFORT, before honing in to focus on prolific director Julien Duvivier, whom he admires for his austere formal rigor, technical precision, contributions to songwriting, and creative use of sound.