Tavernier dissects the importance of music in French Cinema with palpable enthusiasm, highlighting French actors who came from music hall backgrounds (Jean Gabin, Magali NoĂ«l, and Jean Gabin, among others), and the oft-overlooked contributions of directors to the process of songwriting itself. Surveying the work of RenĂ© Clair, Sacha Guitry, Jean Boyer and more, Tavernier treats us to a feast of joyous clips from beloved classics like AgnĂšs Vardaâs CLEO FROM 5 TO 7, Louis Malleâs VIVA MARIA!, and Jacques Demyâs 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.
My Journey Through French Cinema (2017), Bertrand Tavernierâs CĂ©sar-nominated three-and-a-half-hour tour through French film history, was too short to introduce audiences to all that he wanted to share. In this new eight-part series (8x55min), the acclaimed director of such films as Coup de Torchon and âRound Midnight guides us through a roster of filmmakers both influential and forgotten, explores how his countryâs cinema was shaped by the German occupation and changed again through the New Wave, spotlights little-known female filmmakers, and more. Subjects include: RenĂ© ClĂ©ment, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Julien Duvivier, Henri Decoin, Claude Autant-Lara, as well as composers who made movie music an art in and of itself, far from the Hollywood spotlight.
