Renowned filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier, a visiting Montgomery Fellow, was honored by a tribute this weekend in a series of film programs, to the delight of film lovers on campus.
The events began with a tribute by the Montgomery Endowment, which honored him with the Dartmouth Film Award at a ceremony Friday night.
The Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Endowment regularly invites to the College distinguished individuals who have enriched their field of study by their expertise and enthusiasm.
The last Montgomery Fellow from the world of film was Andrei Tarkovsky almost 10 years ago.
Tavernier's brief stay was a reflection of his busy schedule as a filmmaker, critic, historian and director of the Lumiere Institute.
His stay at Dartmouth was part of a two-week tour of five major American cities, including New York and Washington D.C., and Hanover, as co-curator, with Thierry Fremaux, of a program on the films of the Lumiere brothers.
Bill Pence, the Hopkins Center's director of film, introduced Mr. Tavernier as one of France's greatest directors whose films are notable for their intelligence and their ability to engage the audience in the lives, emotions and thoughts of the characters on-screen.
The program began with a collection of clips from his previous films, most notably, "The Judge and the Assassin," "Clean Slate" and "A Sunday in the Country."
Phillipe Noiret, most recently seen on film as the poet Pablo Neruda in "The Postman," stars in the first two films mentioned. Tavernier said he considers Noiret to be his "autobiographical actor."
Following the compilation, Tavernier was presented with the Film Award with an inscription honoring him as a "director, critic and scholar who has crafted films of intelligence, wit and beauty, and whose passionate, informed and infectious love of cinema has incalculably enriched the art for all time."
In his acceptance speech, Tavernier remarked that he was moved to receive an award, one of whose first recipients was Michael Powell, a director whom he said he has always admired and respected.
The program finished with a screening of his latest film, "L'Appat," or "Fresh Bait." Based on an actual incident, "Fresh Bait" tells the story of three teenagers sharing an apartment in Paris. Enamored of all things American, they live in an unreal world of pop culture where everything is dictated by the latest fashion magazine or television show.
Their idealization of the "American Dream," as seen on television, creates in them a naive amorality that results in their brutally murdering three people in their quest for quick money.
Though depressing in content, the film is wonderful as an example of the immense possibilities for expression that cinema provides, which are all too often ignored in favor of reliable formulas that pose no financial risk.
Earlier on Friday, Film Studies Professor Mark Williams led a class of about 35 students with Tavernier for film studies students.
Tavernier covered a number of topics, illuminating each with his prodigious knowledge of film -- as the co-author of a 1,200-page tome, "Fifty Years of American Cinema," he saw almost 1,500 films in a period of only two years, solely because he and his co-author had agreed that they would not write about any film without seeing it ever again.
This dedication is evident from his comments on the process of creating a film and on collaborating with the other members of the cast and crew.
He said, "A director is like someone looting a city... [I am] ready to steal everything I can. I don't think a director is great because he can find everything himself ... It is part of the creating to have the intelligence to choose something better when it comes along ... a good film director is someone who knows how to create enthusiasm around him ... [he] creates a spirit where everyone wants to give him their best."
Tavernier possesses an eclectic taste that extends from little-known French and American films of the 1920s and 1930s to something like Ridley Scott's "Bladerunner" or the Coen brothers' oeuvre.
Tavernier said of the films he enjoys, "I love the film, where in the film you feel not only a good story ... but that you feel the film is made by intelligent people ... you feel a civilization, a spirit [in the film] ... like John Ford or Ernest Lubitsch."
In the tribute program, French and Italian Professor Lynn Higgins wrote of Tavernier's films, "The universe he portrays is one of moral ambiguity. This is not to say that he indulges in moral relativism; it's simply that there's no comfortable good guy/bad guy dichotomy."
She added, "The best way to watch a Tavernier film is to get caught up in the beautiful images, the story's rhythms, and the character's seduction, while remaining alert to how the character's moral dilemmas become our own."
The highlight of Tavernier's visit was the program on the films of the Lumiere brothers. Residents of Lyon, France -- Tavernier's birthplace -- Louis and Auguste Lumiere made the first film to be projected on a screen, "La Sortie des Usines Lumiere," in 1895.
Edison had already invented the kinetograph, but no one had ever projected moving images onto a screen where a number of people could watch them together.
Fremaux, the artistic director of the Lumiere Institute, and Tavernier introduced and narrated about 70 films of the 1,500 or so that the Lumiere brothers directed.
The program was screened twice -- on Saturday night and on Sunday afternoon -- playing both times to an almost full house.
The reason for this enthusiasm over silent films, each less than a minute long and made over a century ago, is not at all surprising after seeing the program.
The films were brought to life by Fremaux and Tavernier's commentary, and are amazing not only for their historical significance, but also for the amazing creativity of subject matter and style that the audience sees in them.
Some of these films have content which anticipates the films that would be made 20, 30 or even 40 years down the line.
An additional treat was the free screening on Saturday of two of Tavernier's favorite films, accompanied by his introduction to the films and their respective directors, Maurice Tourneur's "Justin de Marseilles," one of the first gangster films, and Jacques Tourneur's horror film "I Walked With a Zombie."
While it is possible to watch most of Mr. Tavernier's films on video, the value of the Montgomery Endowment's efforts in bringing him here was clearly evident in the appreciation of the students who heard him speak.
Ben Guaraldi '99 wrote, "While clearly a profoundly intelligent and markedly influential director, Tavernier's true beauty lies in his effusive and contagious joy in the art of filmmaking."
"His willingness to tear down the banality of conventional criticism with his own opinions, however radical, shall forever impact our view of cinema."
