I feared that these Tavernier sixties were mostly "Nouvelle vague" ;but it is not so;most of the directors and the movies are not from that school .
He used to work as a press attache ;he used to go out of his way to support the movie he liked ;notably the lovely "Le Temps De Vivre " by Bernard Paul he helped find a theater and organized a tour in the whole country.
THE LOST MOVIES:"Le Temps De Vivre " epitomizes the movie-nowhere- to-be seen ;this kind of work may occasionally appear on cultural channel ARTE but not always.Jean-Louis Bertucelli's "Remparts D'Argile " was the first movie to deal with woman's place ,in the Maghreb and a rebel at that (Tavernier aptly shows the symbolic scene of the well).He also mentions Marin Karmitz 's "Coup Pour Coup" in which women who works at a furious pace in a factory go on strike and win.Jacques Ruffio 's "L'Horizon " ,in which a girl urges her fiancé to desert in WW1 ,scared everyone ,from the right wing to the communists :it's still impressive today and compares favorably with Autant-Lara's "Tu Ne Tueras Point".
THE REBEL:Tavernier likes the anti-authority ,anarchic side of Yves Boisset;he chooses relevant extracts of his "Un Condé" ,particularly the one when Michel Bouquet tells Françoise Fabian about the waste a body produces.Boisset has always taken a rebel stand :"RAS" "Le Juge Fayard" " Allons Zenfants"....,but he has always been accessible and can,from that point of view , be considered a mainstream director.
THE MAINSTREAM:much time is given over to this kind of movie ,which have sometimes stood the test of time better than intellectual works,without mentioning any names.
Jacques Deray insists he were not part of the Nouvelle Vague.His thriller "Du Rififi A Tokyo " began with an incredibly violent scene for the time ;in "La Piscine" he "filmed Delon and Schneider" "like wild animals " and both were perhaps never more attractive than near this swimming pool .
Tavernier does not forget Jose Giovanni ,first a screenwriter (Becker's masterpiece "Le Trou" ) ;his debut ,the bizarre but endearing "Loi Du Survivant" belongs to those "lost movies" ;he does the excellent "Dernier Domicile Connu" justice ,particularly this scene when the gangster kills an embarrassing witness ,which was" butchered by the editor" .Too bad Tavernier did not mention Enrico 's "Les Aventuriers ",from Giovanni's novel which spawns both "Les Aventuriers" and "La Loi Du Survivant" ,the former featuring the unforgettable haunting scene of the burial at sea.
Pierre Granier-Deffere , too often despised by the highbrows,is estimated at his true value:a perfect craftsman ,who directed odd pairs of actors :Gabin and Signoret in the cruel" Le Chat" ,the same actress and Delon in "La Veuve Couderc " ,both from Simenon's novels.
BITS OF NOUVELLE VAGUE : Both Chabrol's movies ("Le Boucher" and "Que La Bête Meure" ) are probably his masterpieces and would have deserved more than a treatment in a slap-dash manner;on the other hand ,I can do without Infant Gâté Eric Rohmer 's " Genou De Claire".
Alain Resnais : Tavernier insists that never ,in a month of Sundays,this artist criticized his fellow directors ;without mentioning any names, some Nouvelle Vague directors can't say the same .His short "Nuit Et Brouillard" has not aged a bit and Emmanuelle Riva's voice keeps on haunting us in "Hiroshima Mon Amour"."Je T'Aime Je T'Aime " an attempt at a sci-fi movie is,IMHO,less convincing.
Tavernier,at the end of his voyage,a la Sacha Guitry, thanks all the people (directors,screenwriters, actors and actresses ...) who made it possible .He knows he 's forgotten many artists along the way and he chooses one more movie for the road.
And it's Christian-Jacque 's excellent "Un Revenant" (1946) which takes place in Lyon... where Tavernier would film his first effort "L'Horloger De Saint-Paul" (1974). A mischievous Marguerite Moreno wish Louis Jouvet " Bon voyage!"
All aboard Tavernier's train!Bon voyage!
