Directed by Bertrand Tavernier

Directed by Bertrand Tavernier

2 Seasons

The films of Bertrand Tavernier are suffused with his love for cinema. In addition to being one of France’s foremost auteurs, Tavernier was also a film critic and historian who drew from his deep knowledge of classic French and American cinema to create his own uniquely absorbing, finely wrought works. Though his films span a wide variety of genres—the politically charged crime thriller THE CLOCKMAKER OF ST. PAUL, the sci-fi cult classic DEATH WATCH, and the bittersweet family portrait DADDY NOSTALGIA to name just a few—each displays the exceptional craftsmanship, rigorous intelligence, and profound humanist and moral themes that made him one of the leading lights of Gallic cinema for over four decades.

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Directed by Bertrand Tavernier
  • The Clockmaker of St. Paul

    Episode 1

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1974 • France
    Starring Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jacques Denis

    In Bertrand Tavernier’s masterful feature debut, clockmaker Michel Descombes (Philippe Noiret, in the first of many collaborations with the director) finds his well-ordered life blown apart by ...

  • Let Joy Reign Supreme

    Episode 2

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1975 • France
    Starring Philippe Noiret, Jean Rochefort, Jean-Pierre Marielle

    The ironically titled second feature by Bertrand Tavernier is an extraordinarily detailed, thrillingly alive evocation of eighteenth-century France during the regency of Philippe d’Orléa...

  • The Judge and the Assassin

    Episode 3

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1976 • France
    Starring Philippe Noiret, Michel Galabru, Isabelle Huppert

    In nineteenth-century France, a crazed former soldier (Michel Galabru) embarks on a killing spree across the country. His crimes spark a frantic manhunt, and he soon becomes the prey of an a...

  • Spoiled Children

    Episode 4

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1977 • France
    Starring Christine Pascal, Michel Piccoli, Michel Aumont

    One of director Bertrand Tavernier’s most personal stories centers on successful filmmaker Bernard Rougerie (Michel Piccoli), who, while working on his latest project, suffers a creative block...

  • Death Watch

    Episode 5

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1980 • France, West Germany
    Starring Romy Schneider, Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton

    Part human drama, part sci-fi cautionary tale, Bertrand Tavernier’s DEATH WATCH unfolds in a future where death by disease has become extremely rare. When it is discovered that...

  • A Week’s Vacation

    Episode 6

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1980 • France
    Starring Nathalie Baye, Gérard Lanvin, Flore Fitzgerald

    On the verge of an emotional collapse, schoolteacher Laurence (Nathalie Baye) takes a week off from work in order to figure out her life, reconnecting with friends and family as she wrestles wi...

  • Mississippi Blues

    Episode 7

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier and Robert Parrish • 1983 • France, United States

    See the American South through the eyes of one of French cinema’s most illustrious filmmakers. Fascinated by a culture he knows primarily through books, music, and film, Bertrand Tavernier, along with southerner and...

  • A Sunday in the Country

    Episode 8

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1984 • France
    Starring Louis Ducreux, Michel Aumont, Sabine Azéma

    Bertrand Tavernier paints a bittersweet family portrait with a delicacy worthy of Ozu. On a Sunday in 1912, Monsieur Ladmiral (Louis Ducreux), a painter in the twilight of his life, gets together w...

  • Daddy Nostalgia

    Episode 9

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1990 • France
    Starring Dirk Bogarde, Jane Birkin, Odette Laure

    Dirk Bogarde delivers a spirited final screen performance opposite Jane Birkin in this poignant and perceptive tale about the regrets that mark a lifetime. As a father to his screenwriter daughter Car...

  • L.627

    Episode 10

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1992 • France
    Starring Didier Bezace, Jean-Paul Comart, Charlotte Kady

    This absorbing, unfailingly naturalistic procedural goes inside the world of the Parisian police department as it struggles to control the drug trade. Through the eyes of Lucien Marguet (Didie...

  • The Undeclared War

    Episode 11

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1992 • France

    Though it was never officially called a “war,” the French-Algerian conflict that spanned 1954 to 1962 had a profound effect on both countries and those who fought in it. In this epic documentary, director Bertrand Tavernier sheds light on this chapt...

  • Captain Conan

    Episode 12

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1996 • France
    Starring Philippe Torreton, Samuel Le Bihan, Bernard Le Coq

    Bertrand Tavernier delves into the murky morality of wartime in this complex human drama. Following the signing of the armistice in the waning days of World War I, the courageous Captain Co...

  • It All Starts Today

    Episode 13

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 1999 • France
    Starring Maria Pitarresi, Philippe Torreton, Nadia Kaci

    Director Bertrand Tavernier brings a vivid social realism and rich humanism to this stirring study of one man fighting against the odds to make a difference. Daniel Lefebvre (Philippe Torreton)...

  • Safe Conduct

    Episode 14

    Directed by Bertrand Tavernier • 2002 • France
    Starring Jacques Gamblin, Denis Podalydès, Charlotte Kady

    Posing profound moral questions about the relationship between art, politics, and resistance, this heady, richly detailed historical drama unfolds during the Nazi occupation of France as two ...