“Jacques Becker’s mise en scène flexes the emotions, the way you flex your muscles.” — Bertrand Tavernier

Long before he directed Isabelle Huppert and Philippe Noiret in Coup de torchon, Dexter Gordon in Round Midnight, or Dirk Bogarde and Jane Birkin in Daddy nostalgie, Tavernier was a cinephile par excellence. In his youth he founded a cinema club, wrote for Cahiers du cinéma, was an assistant to Jean-Pierre Melville, a publicist for Raoul Walsh and John Ford, and co-authored the volume 30 ans de cinéma américain (and its update 50 ans…, both with Jean-Pierre Coursodon).

And he went to thousands of movies: in his hometown of Lyon, at a sanitorium in St. Gervais (recovering from childhood TB), in his boarding school village, and in Paris, a film-lover’s Valhalla. What he saw during those years he’s brought to the screen in his very personal new documentary VOYAGE À TRAVERS LE CINÉMA FRANÇAIS.

“A remarkable work, made with great intelligence. VOYAGE is enlightening about classic French cinema, and about many forgotten or neglected filmmakers. You are convinced that you know all that by heart, until Tavernier comes along to reveal to us the pure beauty of it all.” – Martin Scorsese

MY JOURNEY THROUGH FRENCH CINEMA/VOYAGE À TRAVERS LE CINÉMA FRANÇAIS, through July 20.

LAEMMLE ROYAL, 11523 Santa Monica Boulevard, West Los Angeles

laemmle.com/films/42390

Jean Gabin and Arletty in Le jour se lève (1939), directed by Marcel Carné.