TAVERNIER, BERTRAND

(1941- )

Actor, director, film critic, producer, and screenwriter. Bertrand Tavernier is one of France's most acclaimed directors. He began as a cinéphile and film critic forPositifandCahiers du cinémaand as an assistant toJean-Pierre Melville. His first feature film,L'horloger de Saint Paul(1974), won thePrix Louis-Dellucand a Silver Berlin Bear. The scenario for the film was written by Pierre Bost and Jean Aurenche, two writers who represented thetradition de qualitécritiqued byFrançois Truffaut. A crime or detective film,L'horloger de Saint-PaulstarsPhilippe Noiret, the actor with whom Tavernier would shoot several successful films.

Tavernier's next feature,Que la fête commence. . . (1975), won Césars for Best Director and Best Screenplay at the inauguration of theCésar Awardsin 1976. Tavernier also won Best Screenplay at the César Awards for his third feature,Le Juge et l'assassin(1976). In the 1980s, Tavernier became one of the most prominent directors of theheritage film. Some critics argue that his films tend to be nostalgic, while others detect more subversive representations of French history. His 1981 filmCoup de Torchonwas inspired by Jim Thompson'sPop.1280. Tavernier transported Thompson's crime novel, which is set in the American South, to colonial French West Africa of the 1930s. Lynn Higgins has also established that the film reproduces scenes from the legendary American WesternThe Virginian(1923).

Another example of a Tavernier heritage film is his adaptation of Pierre Bost's novel,Un dimanche à la campagne(1984).The film won a César for Best Adaptation and the award for Best Director at Cannes. It was also nominated for a Golden Palm. Tavernier's interest in musical history is demonstrated in his documentaryMississippi Blues(1984), codirected with Robert Parrish in the United States, andRound Midnight(1986), a feature about an African American jazz musician (played by Dexter Gordon) in Paris in 1959. These films were followed by a historical feature set in medieval France,La passion Béatrice(1987). Tavernier'sheritage filmabout World War I,La vie et rien d'autre(1989), won the British Film Academy Award for Best Foreign Film. Critics have argued that Tavernier's next film,Daddy Nostalgie(1990), consciously plays with the conventions of the nostalgia/heritage genre. In the 1990s Tavernier was engaged, along with other filmmakers and actors, in themouvement des sans-papiers, a series of protests against attempts to deport African immigrants without legal papers. Several of his 1990s films engage in artistic social criticism. Tavernier's documentary,La guerre sans nom(1991), broaches the previously taboo and politically charged subject of the Algerian War. His featureL.627(1992), likeMathieu Kassovitz's 1995 filmLa Haine, casts a critical lens on violent police tactics.

In 1994, Tavernier returned to heritage and cast Noiret inLa fille d'Artagnan(1994). This was followed byL'appât(1995), which won a Golden Berlin Bear. His success continued withCapitaine Conan(1996), for which he received the César for Best director in 1997. It was followed byÇa commence aujourd'hui(1999),Laissez-passer(2002), which features Jean Aurenche in a leading role, andHoly Lola(2003). Tavernier was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Istanbul International Film Festival in 2001. In addition to winning numerous international film awards, he has been nominated for more than fifteen Césars.