More than 200 films were made in France during the Nazi occupation, most of them routine, a few of them good, but none of them, Bertrand Tavernier observes, anti-Semitic. This despite the fact that anti-Semitism was not unknown in the French films of the 1930s. Tavernier s Safe Conduct tells the story of that curious period in French film history through two central characters, a director and a writer, who made their own accommodations while working under the enemy.
The leading German-controlled production company, Continental, often censored scenes it objected to, but its mission was to foster the illusion of life as usual during the occupation; it would help French morale, according to this theory, if French audiences could see new French films, and such stars as Michel Simon and Danielle Darrieux continued to work.
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.