TSPDT

Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Drama, Period Film, Family Drama, Psychological Drama, Showbiz Drama, Documentary, Romantic Drama, Crime Drama, War Drama
Key Collaborators: Armand Psenny (Editor), Frédéric Bourboulon (Producer), Philippe Noiret (Leading Actor), Bruno de Keyzer (Cinematographer), Alain Choquart (Cinematographer), Pierre-William Glenn (Cinematographer), Jean Cosmos (Screenwriter), Jean Aurenche (Screenwriter), Colo Tavernier (Screenwriter) Philippe Sarde (Composer), Monique Chaumette (Character Actress), Adolphe Viezzi (Producer)

"It is significant that Bertrand Tavernier’s films have been paid little attention by the more important contemporary film critics/ theorists: his work is resolutely 'realist,' and realism is under attack in critical quarters. Realism has frequently been a cover for the reproduction and reinforcement of dominant ideological assumptions, and to this extent that attack is salutary. Yet Tavernier’s cinema demonstrates effectively that the blanket rejection of realism rests on very unstable foundations. Realism has been seen as the bourgeoisie’s way of talking to itself. It does not necessarily follow that its only motive for talking to itself is the desire for reassurance; nor need we assume that the only position realist fiction constructs for the reader/viewer is one of helpless passivity (Tavernier’s films clearly postulate an alert audience ready to reflect and analyze critically)." - Robin Wood (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 2000)

"Despite a career of much promise but only a modicum of fulfilment, Tavernier's work remains popular in his native France and is shown more widely abroad than that of many of his contemporaries. His films are carefully made with studious attention to detail and correctness but tend to lack spark and a consistent pace and suffer from lack of incident in rather long running times. The son of a writer and poet, Tavernier was himself a writer, publicist, interviewer, film-club owner and critic, before directing his first full feature film in 1973." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)

"Tavernier brings to almost everything intellectual curiosity, passionate conviction, and authorial restraint. He very rarely shows his hand with the camera, yet his subtle widescreen compositions eloquently position his protagonists in a wider social and historical context. His essential humanism did not preclude plunging into the dark misanthropic universe of noir novelist Jim Thompson for the disturbingly funny Clean Slate/Coup de torchon (1981)." - Tom Charity (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)

"Tavernier is not only a distinguished director and writer of feature films, he is also a student of film history and the author of two books on the subject, the monumental 50 Years of American Cinema and a remarkable collection of interviews with American filmmakers and screenwriters, American Friends. Tavernier began in the film industry as an assistant director to Jean-Pierre Melville on Léon Morin, Priest (1961). He later worked as a publicist on Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt (1963), along with various Italian, American and other French films." - David Walsh (World Socialist Web Site, 2019)

"On the whole, Tavernier developed closer relationships with actors than his contemporaries of the French New Wave. He also sees his films as being more deeply rooted in political and social themes. Although he sees himself as a thoroughly French director, Tavernier acknowledges a debt to American movies, the dynamic visual style of which he tries to emulate in his own productions." - The Film Encyclopedia, 2012

"Intelligent and versatile writer-director who has impressed international audiences with his work in various genres… His first film, The Clockmaker (1973), based on a Georges Simenon novel, won international prizes and established him as a major talent." - Leonard Maltin's Movie Encyclopedia, 1995

"Bertrand Tavernier started directing in the early 1970s, midway between the French New Wave and the Cinéma du look, yet he has little in common with either group. His extensive output covers a range of genres, but common to them all is an alert intelligence and a refusal to patronise his audience… Tavernier's films, unsentimental and shrewd, never offering easy solutions to the complexity of life, are in danger of being undervalued, but their honesty, ironic humor, and clear-eyed intelligence deserve wider exposure." - Philip Kemp (501 Movie Directors, 2007)