There aren’t many films in the documentary-as-cinematic-guide genre, but Martin Scorsese has directed two of the greatest with “A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies” and “My Voyage To Italy,” both of which, if the titles didn’t tip you off, are wonderful overviews of American and Italian cinema by the always engaging and passionate filmmaker. Now Bertrand Tavernier has done something similar with the three-hour-plus “A Journey Through French Cinema.”
READ MORE: Retrospective: The Films Of Martin Scorsese
Premiering earlier this year at the Cannes Film Festival, the film largely focuses on French cinema from the 1930s to the 1970s, with Tavernier highlighting directors both famous and obscure, as he details countless films, scenes, influences and more that have marked the medium in the country. And if the official synopsis/statement accompanying the film is anything to go by, Tavernier approached his task with a poetic spirit:
“This work as a citizen and spy, as an explorer and as a painter, as a columnist and as an adventurer that has been described so well by many authors, from Casanova to Gilles Perrault, it is a beautiful definition of a filmmaker that we want to apply to Renoir, Becker, to the Vigo of L’Atalante, to Duvivier, as well as Truffaut or Demy. To Max Ophuls and also Bresson. And to less known directors, Grangier, Gréville or Sacha, whom, during a scene or a film, sparkle an emotion, find some surprising truths. I would like this film to be an act of gratitude to all the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians that have appeared suddenly in my life. Memory warms up: this film is a bit of coal for winter nights.”
“A Journey Through French Cinema” is now screening at the New York Film Festival, and will be released in the U.S. by Cohen Media Group.