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Bertrand Tavernier (1941-2021)
Photo: Mary Evans Picture Library / imago images / Ronald Grant
He was one of the most important directors in French cinema: Bertrand Tavernier was awarded the Golden Bear ("The Decoy", 1995) and the jury award ("The Clockmaker of St. Paul", 1974) at the Berlinale and the director's award in Cannes (" A Sunday in the Country, 1984).
He won five Césars and in 2015 received the Golden Lion of Venice for his life's work.
Tavernier was born in Lyon on April 25, 1941.
After the Second World War, he moved to Paris with his family.
He discovered his love for film there together with the later German filmmaker Volker Schlöndorff, who was an exchange student at his grammar school.
At first he worked as a film critic, interviewed directors and analyzed their filmographies;
his passion was US cinema.
As a director, Tavernier wandered between crime novels, psychological thrillers, period films, science fiction, romances and satire.
He has directed more than 50 films.
The first, the Simenon film adaptation of "The Clockmaker of St. Paul", was also made thanks to the support of its main actor Philippe Noiret, with whom Tavernier worked again and again in the episode. It was some of Noiret's greatest roles, including in "Das Fest begins ... "," The judge and the murderer "and" The pigsty ".
On Thursday, Bertrand Tavernier died in Sainte-Maxime in the Var department, as reported by the French media - with reference to the Lumière Institute for the preservation and dissemination of French film heritage based in Lyon.
According to the institute, Tavernier leaves behind his wife, two children and grandchildren.
He was 79 years old.
feb / AFP / dpa