MY JOURNEY THROUGH FRENCH CINEMA is a thoughtful essay on one of the most influential national cinemas in the world. Even the most devoted cinephile will find this survey intriguing for the way it creates a new history of French cinema based on memory and emotion, rather than reviews and ratings.
Director Bertrand Tavernier spoke to Steve Erickson of RogerEbert.com about infusing his personal life into a story narrating the sweeping history of French cinema, “Normally, I don’t like to speak about myself. Half of the things I could’ve said were cut, especially about the part played by my father during the war, how sick I was when I was young. But I tried to include some of those scenes and explain how I discovered some films in crazy situations, like when I had only one day in Paris or when I had no money and went to cheap cinemas showing old films. I discovered treasures like that, although sometimes with bad projection and dirty seats. It was so exciting! I wanted to share that with the audience.”
