
Directing
Bertrand Tavernier
Born — Died
1941-04-25 — 2021-03-25
Place of birth
Lyon, Rhône, France
Known for
Directing
Credits
93 titles
Bertrand Tavernier was a French director, screenwriter, producer and writer, born on April 25, 1941 in Lyon, and died on March 25, 2021 in Sainte-Maxime (Var). Son of the writer and resistance fighter from Lyon, René Tavernier, he was first an assistant director, press officer (notably for Stanley Kubrick) and critic before moving on to directing with The Watchmaker of Saint-Paul, his first critical success, which led to a long collaboration with the actor Philippe Noiret (Let the Party Begin..., The Judge and the Assassin, Coup de torchon, Life and Nothing But, The Daughter of d'Artagnan). Eclectic, he tackled several cinematographic genres, from the dramatic comedy (A Sunday in the Count…
Known for
9.5Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.
Spécial cinéma
1974
4.5The show features an interview with a famous personality from the world of politics, economics or culture.
L'Invité
2002
6.0A talk show presented by Michel Drucker
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
1975
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Midi trente
1972
5.0No synopsis available yet.
Ciné regards
1978
6.0Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. When the star of the film, Elrod Sykes, reports finding another corpse in the Atchafalaya Swamp near the movie set, Robicheaux starts another investigation, believing the corpse to be the remains of a black man whose murder he witnessed 35 years earlier.
In the Electric Mist
2009
Film credits
2020s · 3 titles
7.1In one of those wonderful coincidences of history, lumière, the French word for “light,” was also the last name of brothers Auguste and Louis, whose brilliant invention, the cinematograph, helped to inaugurate the most beloved art form of the last 130 years. Institute Lumière director Thierry Frémaux uses Lumière, Le Cinema! to guide the viewer through over a hundred shorts—some famous, some forgotten, some never before seen—directed by Lumière and company. In the process, Frémaux illuminates how the brothers employed the camera as a creative instrument as they (and their operators) mastered framing, staging, and subject selection for quotidian and exotic microdocumentaries as well as the first ever fictional motion pictures. The result is not only a glorious re(telling) of the genesis of cinema but a profound meditation on the beautiful world captured—and the mysterious world imagined—by the Lumières.
Lumière, Le Cinéma!
2024
7.4If Jean Rochefort remains so dear to our hearts, it is because this extraordinary actor alone embodies a cinema and a France imbued with freedom and carelessness. Through his films, archives and the testimony of those close to him, we discover a complex man, a sad clown saved by his taste for words and for fun.
Jean Rochefort, l'irrésistible
2020
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Les Secrets de la belle endormie
2020
2010s · 15 titles
6.0Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is a force to be reckoned with. With his silver mane and tanned, athletic body, he stalks the world stage as Minister of Foreign Affairs for France, waging his own war backed up by the holy trinity of diplomatic concepts: legitimacy, lucidity, and efficacy. Enter Arthur Vlaminck. Hired to write the minister's speeches, Arthur must contend with the sensibilities of his boss and the dirty dealings within the Quai d'Orsay, the ministry's home.
The French Minister
2013
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Jean Aurenche, écrivain de cinéma
2010
1.0No synopsis available yet.
Divine Comédie, des planches à l'écran
2015
7.3No synopsis available yet.
Boia, maschere e segreti: l’horror italiano degli anni sessanta
2019
6.7Mixing interviews, rare archival footage and film extracts, the film shows how Melville's works were impacted by what he experienced in his youth during WWII, and how it structured his whole approach to cinema, not only in its thematic but also in its aesthetics.
Code Name: Melville
2010
7.6Famous French director Tavernier tells us about his fantastic voyage through the cinema of his country.
My Journey Through French Cinema
2016
6.0Elia Kazan represented the American dream. An immigrant who came without anything and who became the Prince of Hollywood and Broadway after World War II. Actor, theater director, filmmaker, writer, he is the founder of Actor’s Studio, a collaborator of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams, and a director who discovered Marlon Brando and James Dean.
An American Named Kazan
2019
NRThe life and the films , not excluding the reference to Domage qu elle soit une putain, of Romy Scheiner recreated grace words of people who knows her in different circumstances.
Romy Schneider, à fleur de peau
2014
NRNo synopsis available yet.
In The Tracks of Lalo Schifrin
2012
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Il était une fois... « La règle du jeu »
2011
9.0This documentary recounts the life of the late composer Michel Legrand, known for his works on Les Parapluies de Cherbourg or Les Demoiselles De Rochefort with the famous director Jacques Demy.
Michel Legrand, sans demi-mesure
2018
NRThe history of RKO - one of the legendary "Big Five" studios of the Hollywood’s Golden Age, from its creation in 1928 (when the movies started talking) to its demise in 1956, largely due to the mismanagement by its last CEO, Howard Hughes. During this period, RKO produced some 550 films including some of cinema’s great masterpieces ("King Kong", "Citizen Kane", the Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers films, "Bringing Up Baby") and launched the career of famous stars such as Katherine Hepburn and Robert Mitchum. Film lovers will enjoy the many extracts from RKO’s most famous movies.
RKO, A Story made in Hollywood
2010
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Eddy Mitchell, itinéraires
2016
NRNo synopsis available yet.
Souvenirs de Voyage
2017
Bertrand Tavernier talks about Losey's M.
M présenté par Bertrand Tavernier
2016
2000s · 9 titles
NRThe first episode of a new arts documentary program from BBC Scotland was dedicated to Michael Powell in his centenary year. The program interviews many people who knew or worked with him or were influenced by his work.
Michael Powell
2005
7.2Hollywood careers are full of make-or-break moments. For Clint Eastwood, one such moment came when studio powers agreed to let him make his directing debut. That story and others comprise this portrait of the famed Hollywood icon. His career is explored via an array of film clips, interviews and more.
Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows
2000
8.0Created in 1966 by Jean-Marie Rodon and Jean-Max Causse, the Action cinemas has succeeded in establishing itself as the leading group for the distribution of classic cinema in the world.
Seuls sont les indomptés
2003
7.2What is the state of cinema and what being a filmmaker means? What are the measures taken to protect authors' copyright? What is their legal status in different countries? (Sequel to “Filmmakers vs. Tycoons.”)
Filmmakers in Action
2006
5.0In this documentary, produced by Philippe Quinconneau for StudioCanal, editor Françoise Bonnot, actor Jean-Pierre Cassel, composer Éric Demarsan, writer and filmmaker Philippe Labro, cinematographer Pierre Lhomme, and filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier share insights and anecdotes about Jean-Pierre Melville's 1969 film ARMY OF SHADOWS.
Jean-Pierre Melville and Army of Shadows
2002
8.0Thanks to a series of unpublished interviews, recorded shortly before his death, director Claude Sautet gives us a fascinating lesson in cinema. Through his thirteen films, he tells about his career and his work as a director.
Claude Sautet or the Invisible Magic
2003
In the Shadow of Hollywood examines this assault on our senses through interviews with directors, producers, writers and other experts in the film industry.
In the Shadow of Hollywood
2000
7.0Documentary portrait of the actress Romy Schneider, in which director Frederick Baker tries to form an overall picture from the facets of image, myth, real life and screen persona.
Romy Schneider: A Woman in Three Notes
2008
NRInterview with Bertrand Tavernier, Charles Drazin and Olivier Bouvet about Michael Powell's Peeping Tom.
The Strange Gaze of Mark Lewis
2004
1990s · 12 titles
6.9Agnès Varda's documentary portrait of her late husband, Jacques Demy. A companion piece to her Jacquot de Nantes.
The World of Jacques Demy
1995
7.2A half English, half French screenwriter visits her parents on the Riviera after her father's heart surgery. Once there, she begins to connect with him in a way she never did before, as each member of the family tries to cope with his imminent death.
Daddy Nostalgia
1990
7.1Agnes Varda's documentary of the celebrations arising from the 25th anniversary of her husband Jacques Demy's film The Young Girls of Rochefort.
The Young Girls Turn 25
1993
NRWhat makes European cinema so special? Find out in Paul Joyce’s feature-length documentary, Pictures of Europe, which examines the differences between American independent and Hollywood movies and films from European directors. Featuring luminary iconoclasts from European cinema such as Agnes Varda, Bernardo Bertolucci and Pedro Almodovar, as well as American counterpoints from Paul Schrader, and those who have crossed back and forth, such as Paul Verhoeven
Pictures of Europe
1990
5.6Twenty-six people - including two daughters, an ex-wife, his last lover, actors, fellow directors and writers, a neighbor, and boyhood friends - talk about François Truffaut. They discuss his attitudes toward wealth, his early writings about cinema, the undercurrent of violence in his films and his personality, the way he used and altered events in his life when making films, his search for a father (both artistic and biological), his relationship with his mother, the scenes in his films that cause a squirm of embarrassment, and his ultimate mysticism. Clips from a dozen of his films are included.
François Truffaut: Stolen Portraits
1993
8.3Documentary on the French-Algerian conflict 1954-1962 which was never officially called a "war", including interviews with some of the survivors.
The Undeclared War
1992
7.2"It must schwing!" was the motto of Alfred Lion and Francis Wolff, two German Jewish immigrants who in 1939 set up Blue Note Records, the jazz label that was home to such greats as Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Thelonious Monk, Art Blakey, Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins. Blue Note, the most successful movie ever made about jazz, is a testimony to the passion and vision of these two men and certainly swings like the propulsive sounds that made their label so famous.
Blue Note - A Story of Modern Jazz
1997
9.0Documentary about George Gershwin directed by Alain Resnais with various celebrities speaking on their admiration and affection for Gershwin's music.
Gershwin
1993
8.5Part one of a BBC documentary about Jean Renoir.
Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II
1993
7.2A collection of short films made by the Lumiere brothers, a team of pioneering filmmakers in turn-of-the-century France, narrated by Bertrand Tavernier.
The Lumière Brothers' First Films
1996
8.0The first part of a documentary made by Bertrand and Nils Tavernier, following a letter judged provocative by the Minister of Integration at the time, who spent several months in the Grands Pêchers housing estate in Montreuil, giving voice to its inhabitants. The problems of unemployment, racism, integration and delinquency are addressed.
The Other Side of the Tracks
1997
New film created for the 'Lumiere Brothers First Films' collection.
The Cineastes' Exit
1995
1980s · 4 titles
6.9In France, before WWI. As every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, coming with his wife and his three children. Then his daugther Irene arrives. She is always in a hurry, she lives alone and does not come so often... An intimist chronicle in which what is not shown, what is guessed, is more important than how it looks, dealing with what each character expects of life.
A Sunday in the Country
1984
7.1Marcel Ophuls' riveting film details the heinous legacy of the Gestapo head dubbed "The Butcher of Lyon." Responsible for over 4,000 deaths in occupied France during World War II, Barbie would escape—with U.S. help—to South America in 1951, where he lived until a global manhunt led to his 1983 arrest and subsequent trial.
Hôtel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie
1988
4.0Filmmaker Jean Achache shot extensively on the set of ’Round Midnight. This documentary presents that material for the first time, including footage of director Bertrand Tavernier, production designer Alexandre Trauner, and other members of the cast and crew.
Before Midnight
1986
10.0Born in Chaville in 1897 and having died in Paris in 1990, Philippe Soupault was a poet, a politically engaged journalist, a radio broadcaster, and the author of numerous novels. In 1919, Soupault and his friend Breton engaged in early experiments with automatic writing. The resulting texts were published under the title "Les Champs magnétiques" (Magnetic Fields), a work that would become a landmark in the history of the Surrealist movement. Soupault contributed to the early days of "La Révolution surréaliste" but ceased his involvement with the movement to embark on a series of journeys across Europe, America, and Russia.
Philippe Soupault et le surréalisme
1984
Series credits
9.5Marcello Mastroianni, Isabelle Adjani, Alain Delon, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen... the biggest stars in cinema were welcomed by Christian Defaye on his show Spécial cinéma. Between intimate confessions from actors and immersion in the world of the greatest filmmakers, Christian Defaye took viewers on a journey into the fascinating world of cinema for nearly thirty years.
Spécial cinéma
1974
4.5The show features an interview with a famous personality from the world of politics, economics or culture.
L'Invité
2002
6.0A talk show presented by Michel Drucker
Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
1975
6.0No synopsis available yet.
Midi trente
1972
5.0No synopsis available yet.
Ciné regards
1978
10.0The behind-the-scenes story of French television… This documentary unveils the lesser-known history of two audiovisual decades that have shaped today's television. To explain from the break up of the French broadcasting service ORTF, in 1974, to the creation of Arte, via the birth of Canal+, the life and death of La Cinq and the privatization of TF1 — the succession of political, economic and cultural decisions that have shaped what is known as the “PAF” (French Audiovisual Landscape).
Télévision (histoires secrètes)
1996
8.5My Journey Through French Cinema (2017), Bertrand Tavernier’s César-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 ‘Round Midnight guides us through a roster of filmmakers both influential and forgotten, explores how his country’s cinema was shaped by the German occupation and changed again through the New Wave, spotlights little-known female filmmakers, and more. Subjects include: René Clément, 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.
Journeys Through French Cinema
2017
Behind the camera
6.0Lt. Dave Robicheaux, a detective in New Iberia, Louisiana, is trying to link the murder of a local hooker to New Orleans mobster Julie 'Baby Feet' Balboni, who is co-producer of a Civil War film. When the star of the film, Elrod Sykes, reports finding another corpse in the Atchafalaya Swamp near the movie set, Robicheaux starts another investigation, believing the corpse to be the remains of a black man whose murder he witnessed 35 years earlier.
In the Electric Mist
2009
7.1Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.
'Round Midnight
1986
7.1Inside the Blue Note nightclub one night in 1959 Paris, an aged, ailing jazzman coaxes an eloquent wail from his tenor sax. Outside, a young Parisian too broke to buy a glass of wine strains to hear those notes. Soon they will form a friendship that sparks a final burst of genius.
'Round Midnight
1986
6.3Set in the high courts of 16th Century France, where the wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants are raging. Marie de Mézières, a beautiful young aristocrat, is in love with Henri de Guise, but her hand in marriage is promised to the Prince of Montpensier.
The Princess of Montpensier
2010
6.3Set in the high courts of 16th Century France, where the wars of religion between Catholics and Protestants are raging. Marie de Mézières, a beautiful young aristocrat, is in love with Henri de Guise, but her hand in marriage is promised to the Prince of Montpensier.
The Princess of Montpensier
2010
5.6It is 1654, in the South of France. When horsemen follow a runaway slave into the convent where he's taken sanctuary and kill both the fugitive and the Mother Superior, they little realise that one of the novices is the spirited daughter of retired musketeer D'Artagnan.
D'Artagnan's Daughter
1994
6.9In France, before WWI. As every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, coming with his wife and his three children. Then his daugther Irene arrives. She is always in a hurry, she lives alone and does not come so often... An intimist chronicle in which what is not shown, what is guessed, is more important than how it looks, dealing with what each character expects of life.
A Sunday in the Country
1984
6.9In France, before WWI. As every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, coming with his wife and his three children. Then his daugther Irene arrives. She is always in a hurry, she lives alone and does not come so often... An intimist chronicle in which what is not shown, what is guessed, is more important than how it looks, dealing with what each character expects of life.
A Sunday in the Country
1984
6.9In France, before WWI. As every Sunday, an old painter living in the country is visited by his son Gonzague, coming with his wife and his three children. Then his daugther Irene arrives. She is always in a hurry, she lives alone and does not come so often... An intimist chronicle in which what is not shown, what is guessed, is more important than how it looks, dealing with what each character expects of life.
A Sunday in the Country
1984
7.0A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.
Coup de Torchon
1981
7.0A pathetic police chief, humiliated by everyone around him, suddenly wants a clean slate in life, and resorts to drastic means to achieve it.
Coup de Torchon
1981
7.1In a mining town which has been blighted by economic downturns, an elementary school headmaster struggles to obtain social services on behalf of his students.
It All Starts Today
1999
7.1In a mining town which has been blighted by economic downturns, an elementary school headmaster struggles to obtain social services on behalf of his students.
It All Starts Today
1999
6.5During the Nazi occupation of France, two filmmakers try to build a career without compromising their ideals.
Safe Conduct
2002
6.5During the Nazi occupation of France, two filmmakers try to build a career without compromising their ideals.
Safe Conduct
2002
6.9France, 1893. Joseph Bouvier attempts to shoot his love who refused to marry him and to commit suicide. Upon release from the filthy asylum where he was placed, with bullets still remaining in his head, he wanders the country roads and rapes and murders many teenagers over years. The judge Rousseau captures him, but to serve his ambition seeks to avoid that Bouvier is simply declared insane.
The Judge and the Assassin
1976
6.9France, 1893. Joseph Bouvier attempts to shoot his love who refused to marry him and to commit suicide. Upon release from the filthy asylum where he was placed, with bullets still remaining in his head, he wanders the country roads and rapes and murders many teenagers over years. The judge Rousseau captures him, but to serve his ambition seeks to avoid that Bouvier is simply declared insane.
The Judge and the Assassin
1976
6.4In a future world where the disease has been finally defeated and everything can be sold, even the crude spectacle of death, the rare case of a dying woman becomes the morbid theme of a revolutionary reality show, broadcast through the curious eyes of a peculiar camera.
Death Watch
1980
6.4In a future world where the disease has been finally defeated and everything can be sold, even the crude spectacle of death, the rare case of a dying woman becomes the morbid theme of a revolutionary reality show, broadcast through the curious eyes of a peculiar camera.
Death Watch
1980
7.1In Paris, Lulu, a passionate policeman, works with the faith of a rookie, despite the sclerotic bureaucracy and the incompetence or negligence of some of his colleagues. In his new position as a narcotics inspector, he tries to keep his sanity as he witnesses the worst of the human condition.
L.627
1992
7.1In Paris, Lulu, a passionate policeman, works with the faith of a rookie, despite the sclerotic bureaucracy and the incompetence or negligence of some of his colleagues. In his new position as a narcotics inspector, he tries to keep his sanity as he witnesses the worst of the human condition.
L.627
1992
7.8A collection of restored prints from the Lumière Brothers.
Lumière!
2016
6.9Michel Descombes is a watchmaker who lives in Lyon with his teenage son Bernard. When the police visit and inform him that Bernard has killed a man and is on the run with a girl, Michel realises that he knew far less about his son than he thought.
The Watchmaker of St. Paul
1974
6.9Michel Descombes is a watchmaker who lives in Lyon with his teenage son Bernard. When the police visit and inform him that Bernard has killed a man and is on the run with a girl, Michel realises that he knew far less about his son than he thought.
The Watchmaker of St. Paul
1974
5.9Somewhere in France during the Middle Ages. Béatrice is impatient to see her father return from English captivity. She doesn't expect however that the father whom she loves from distance will be the most hateful person who will submit her and her family to abuse and humiliation.
Beatrice
1987
6.0Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is a force to be reckoned with. With his silver mane and tanned, athletic body, he stalks the world stage as Minister of Foreign Affairs for France, waging his own war backed up by the holy trinity of diplomatic concepts: legitimacy, lucidity, and efficacy. Enter Arthur Vlaminck. Hired to write the minister's speeches, Arthur must contend with the sensibilities of his boss and the dirty dealings within the Quai d'Orsay, the ministry's home.
The French Minister
2013
6.0Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is a force to be reckoned with. With his silver mane and tanned, athletic body, he stalks the world stage as Minister of Foreign Affairs for France, waging his own war backed up by the holy trinity of diplomatic concepts: legitimacy, lucidity, and efficacy. Enter Arthur Vlaminck. Hired to write the minister's speeches, Arthur must contend with the sensibilities of his boss and the dirty dealings within the Quai d'Orsay, the ministry's home.
The French Minister
2013
7.2In 1920, Major Dellaplane, a man of honor and ethics, searches for missing French soldiers. He meets Madame Irène de Courtil, a politically connected Parisian, and their paths cross.
Life and Nothing But
1989
7.2In 1920, Major Dellaplane, a man of honor and ethics, searches for missing French soldiers. He meets Madame Irène de Courtil, a politically connected Parisian, and their paths cross.
Life and Nothing But
1989
6.2Successful writer/director Bernard Rougerie is at a creative dead end and decides to isolate himself from his wife in order to complete the script for his next film. Bernard moves into an apartment building whose tenants are in the midst of a revolt against their abusive landlord. Reluctant at first, he joins their cause and then becomes involved in an affair with young, unemployed resident Anne.
Spoiled Children
1977
6.2Successful writer/director Bernard Rougerie is at a creative dead end and decides to isolate himself from his wife in order to complete the script for his next film. Bernard moves into an apartment building whose tenants are in the midst of a revolt against their abusive landlord. Reluctant at first, he joins their cause and then becomes involved in an affair with young, unemployed resident Anne.
Spoiled Children
1977
6.4A look at 18th-century France, when the depravity of the authorities contributed to social oppression, and the uprisings flared up one after another.
Let Joy Reign Supreme
1975
6.4A look at 18th-century France, when the depravity of the authorities contributed to social oppression, and the uprisings flared up one after another.
Let Joy Reign Supreme
1975
7.2A half English, half French screenwriter visits her parents on the Riviera after her father's heart surgery. Once there, she begins to connect with him in a way she never did before, as each member of the family tries to cope with his imminent death.
Daddy Nostalgia
1990
7.2A half English, half French screenwriter visits her parents on the Riviera after her father's heart surgery. Once there, she begins to connect with him in a way she never did before, as each member of the family tries to cope with his imminent death.
Daddy Nostalgia
1990
5.6Four sketches revolving around the themes of luck and love.
Chance at Love
1964
5.6Four sketches revolving around the themes of luck and love.
Chance at Love
1964
6.6The last days of World War I, Eastern front. Captain Conan, a lone wolf, a true warrior, leads a band of ruthless French fighters who love hand-to-hand combat; they are not fit for peacetime, they only feel really alive in the chaos of the battlefield.
Captain Conan
1996
6.6The last days of World War I, Eastern front. Captain Conan, a lone wolf, a true warrior, leads a band of ruthless French fighters who love hand-to-hand combat; they are not fit for peacetime, they only feel really alive in the chaos of the battlefield.
Captain Conan
1996
7.0A compilation of 30 French filmmakers, Alain Resnais and Jean Luc Godard among them, who use film to make a plea on behalf of a political prisoner. Jean Luc Godard and Anne Marie Mieville's film concerns the plight of Thomas Wanggai, West Papuan activist who has since died in prison. The short films were commissioned by Amnesty International.
Lest We Forget
1991


