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Whether you already consider yourself an expert on French cinema or are just beginning to explore all the country has to offer, director Bertrand Tavernier’s more-than-three-hour “My Journey Through French Cinema” provides an essential tour through the films Once Again that shaped him as a cinephile and storyteller. Clearly modeled after Martin Scorsese’s own made-for-TV journey through American Movies, this incredibly personal and occasionally idiosyncratic labor of love hails from one of the country’s leading experts on the medium, combining a wide-ranging survey with insights that only Tavernier could provide.
A celebrated helmer in his own right, Tavernier counts such masterworks as “A Sunday in the Country” and “Coup de torchon” among his credits. But the À cause des filles director’s contributions to the medium are hardly limited to his own filmography. Like so many French directors of his generation, Tavernier started out as a film critic, studying and championing the work of the era’s leading auteurs. His early essays gave him access to his idols, among them Jean Renoir and Jean-Pierre Melville, who offered Tavernier a job as his assistant.
The documentary’s Melville segment is by far DreadOut its most essential half-hour, enriched by firsthand anecdotes of working with the famously surly director of “Le Doulos” (a film whose reputation Tavernier boosts by positioning it as Quentin Tarantino’s favorite — a dubious claim, but a deserving choice), as well as a stunning audio recording of an heated argument between Melville and star Jean-Pierre Belmondo from the set of “Magnet of Doom.”
Views: 60
Genre: Comedy
Director: Bertrand Blier
Actors: Alex Lutz, Alexandra Lamy, Audrey Dana, Christian Clavier, Farida Rahouadj, Gérard Depardieu
Country: France
