Veteran French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier (1941–2021): In genuine appreciation
The death late last month of French director-screenwriter, producer and film historian Bertrand Tavernier, a few weeks before his 80th birthday, saw an outpouring of tributes from throughout France and internationally.
A tweet by former Cannes Film Festival president Gilles Jacob captured something of the wider sentiment. “French cinema is mourning,” Jacob wrote. “The filmmaker, the cinephile, the memory, all contributed to the exercise of an art to which he dedicated his life. He will no longer tell us his stories with that powerful force of conviction that made him such a precious auteur.” The Institut Lumière, the museum complex dedicated to cinema pioneers Auguste and Louis Lumière, located in Tavernier’s native city, Lyon, and where he served as a virtual lifetime president, received thousands of condolence messages.