A Proper Traditional Advocate Pointing Out Inequality and Racism Across All Genres
Director Bertrand Tavernier, who revived the tradition of narrative realism in film, passed away on the 25th (local time) at the age of 79. The Lumi?re Institute in France, where Tavernier served as director, announced that he had peacefully passed away on that day.
Tavernier was a figure who sought to bring change to French cinema, which emphasized visual style. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he created various works that vividly championed the power of narrative film tradition. Regardless of genre, he is regarded as a rightful representative of the tradition, addressing issues such as inequality, racism, and unemployment.
Born as the son of poet Ren? Tavernier, he began his relationship with film by writing critiques for Cahiers du Cin?ma. While promoting Nouvelle Vague films produced by Georges de Beauregard, he occasionally wrote screenplays and eventually took the director’s chair. His debut work was "The Clockmaker of St. Paul" (1974), based on a novel by Georges Simenon. It depicted a father’s political transformation as he watched his son imprisoned for killing a cruel foreman. Although criticized by Nouvelle Vague filmmakers at the time for being literary, it won the Special Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Tavernier released one film each year, bringing new trends to French cinema. One of his representative works is "A Sunday in the Country" (1984), completed with a screenplay by his wife, Colo Tavernier. Through the story of a family enjoying a picnic near Paris, it pointed to the end of an era exploring life with romantic passion. It portrayed a world dominated by materialistic philistines to the bone and earned him the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.
He used film as a tool for reflection on society, history, and customs. Whatever the subject, he approached ethical issues in the context of historical reality with a multi-layered perspective. Films such as "The Judge and the Assassin" (1977), "Death Watch" (1979), "A Week’s Vacation" (1980), and "The Clean-Up" (1981) are considered to continue this thread. Having directed over forty films until receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Venice Film Festival in 2015, he restored the charm of stories with clear beginnings, middles, and ends to French cinema.
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