Despite the fact that he began his career as a critic in the heyday of the auteur theory, it has always been difficult to link Bertrand Tavernier's films with a particular theme, or even a particular viewpoint beyond, that is, a fierce commitment to valuing human life over and above intellectual fashion, political creed or the so-called forces of history.
Since L'horloger de St-Paul (The Watchmaker of St Paul) in 1973, Tavernier's career has embraced costume drama (Que la fête commence/ Let Joy Reign Supreme), chamber drama (Daddy Nostalgie), films about jazz (Autour de minuit/Around Midnight) and even sci-fi (Death Watch/La mort en direct, shot in Glasgow, with Harvey Keitel and Harry Dean Stanton, in 1979).
The 90s have been as varied as ever, with a single year 1994 encompassing both swashbuckling action comedy La fille de d'Artagnan (D'Artagnan's Daughter) and gritty, cinéma vérité-style drug drama L'appât (Fresh Bait), which won the top prize at Berlin the following February.
Tavernier's new film, Capitaine Conan, shot over an 11-week period last winter, mainly in Romania, does have a thematic link with Tavernier's earlier work, however, notably his final film of the 80s, La vie et rien d'autre (Life and Nothing But), which took a harsh look at the French army at the end of the First World War.
Capitaine Conan starts at exactly the same moment: November 1918. It's setting, though, is a theatre of war all too familiar to the present day: the Balkans, where the title character and his men are part of the victory against the Germans. With the war over, however, the last thing they want to do is relish the memory.
In production terms, Capitaine Conan is the outcome of the link-up, early last year, between producer Alain Sarde and French TV giant Le Studio Canal +, then licking its wounds following its costly attempt to break into Hollywood, and looking to reassert its grip on French filmmaking.
Conan producer Les Films Alain Sarde (other recent productions include Bertrand Blier's Mon homme and Jacques Doillon's Ponette) slips neatly into place as the Studio's prestige or quality arm, with Charles Gassot's Téléma (Le bonheur est dans le pré, Beaumarchais l'insolent) as the mainstream division and Les Productions Lazennec (La haine, Anna Oz) as the iconoclastic cutting edge.
'Each of them brings us something different,' said the Studio's financial chief, Brahim Chioua, earlier this year. 'Neither one is in direct competition with any of the others.'
Prod co: Les Films Alain Sarde, Little Bear, TF1 Films
Prod: Alain Sarde, Frédéric Bourboulon
Dir: Bertrand Tavernier
Guión (Scr): Jean Cosmos, Bertrand Tavernier
Foto (Ph): Alain Choquart
Art dir (Prod des): Guy-Claude François
Mont (Ed): Luce Grunewalt
Ints (Cast): Philippe Torreton, Samuel Le Bihan, Bernard Le Coq, Claude Rich
Ventas (Sales): Le Studio Canal +
Duración (Running time): 131 mins
Programación (Screening): 19.00, 25 Sept, Principe, 5; 9.00 & 22.00, 26 Sept, Victoria Eugenia; 16.00 & 20.45, 27 Sept, Astoria, 3
[Home ] [Content ] [The Sponsors ] [The Team ] [Comments ] [Help ]
