This is not an historical compilation but rather a personal one, as Tavernier (a director himself) travels through his years as a child and through the Occupation of France and into the seventies, talking about his favorite French movies and their actors, directors, composers, editors, cinematographers, all extensively documented with clips from the films. He is less interested in well-known directors such as Jean Renoir and more interested in names not as well-known outside France, from Jacques Becker though Claude Sautet and including Edmond Greville and Marcel Carne.
When I was in college in the sixties we would almost never go to an American film (lowbrow by definition) but rather something French, Italian, Swedish, Japanese (serious art) and Marcel Carne's Children of Paradise was one of our favorites, a brilliant period film that was made clandestinely during the Nazi occupation of France. I have not seen the film for many years but plan to see it again soon in the print restored by Criterion. Things have flipped in the last fifty years, thanks in large part to critics such as Andrew Sarris, who helped one appreciate American films from the classic period (after New Wave directors Godard and Truffaut raved about them) and fewer people see foreign films these days. Still, Tavernier does successfully demonstrate the impressive accomplishments of actors such as Jean Gabin and directors such as Jean-Pierre Melville and I suggest one seek out the films Tavernier mentions, though some of them may be hard to find.
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