Round Midnight (1986)
Drama | Music
A troubled, but talented musician flees the US to escape his problems, finding refuge and support in Paris.
Starring: Dexter Gordon, François Cluzet, Lonette McKee, Herbie Hancock, Frédérique Meininger, Benoît Régent
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
Quai d'Orsay / The French Minister (2013)
Comedy
Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is tall and impressive, a man with style, attractive to women. He also happens to be the Minister of Foreign Affairs for the land of enlightenment: France. With his silver mane and tanned, athletic body, he stalks the world stage, from the floor of the United Nations in New York to the powder keg of Oubanga. There, he calls on the powerful and invokes the mighty to bring peace, to calm the trigger-happy, and to cement his aura of Nobel Peace Prize winner-in-waiting. Alexandre Taillard de Vorms is a force to be reckoned with, waging his own war backed up by the holy trinity of diplomatic concepts: legitimacy, lucidity and efficacy. He takes on American neo-cons, corrupt Russians and money-grabbing Chinese. Perhaps the world doesn't deserve France's magnanimousness, but his art would be wasted if just restricted to home turf. Enter the young Arthur Vlaminck, graduate of the elite National School of Administration, who is hired as head of "language" at the foreign ministry. In other words, he is to write the minister's speeches. But he also has to learn to deal with the sensibilities of the boss and his entourage, and find his way between the private secretary and the special advisers who stalk the corridors of the Quai d'Orsay – the ministry's home – where stress, ambition and dirty dealing are the daily currency. But just as he thinks he can influence the fate of the world, everything seems threatened by the inertia of the technocrats.
Starring: Thierry Lhermitte, Raphaël Personnaz
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
La vie et rien d'autre / Life and Nothing But (1989)
Drama | War
January, 1920. 350,000 French soldiers remain missing in action. Major Dellaplane tirelessly matches the dead and the wounded with families' descriptions. Honor and ethics drive him; he hates the idea of "the unknown soldier." Into his sector, looking for her husband, comes a haughty, politically connected Parisian, Madame Irène de Courtil. Brusquely, Dellaplane offers her 1/350,000th of his time, but as their paths cross and she sees his courage and resolve, feelings change. After he finds a surprising connection between her missing husband and a local teacher, Irène makes Dellaplane an offer. This man of action hesitates: has he missed his only chance?
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Sabine Azéma, Pascale Vignal, Maurice Barrier, François Perrot, Jean-Pol Dubois
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
In the Electric Mist (2009)
Crime | Drama | Mystery | Thriller
Investigating a series of grisly murders, a reformed alcoholic detective navigates his way through layers of corruption, long-buried secrets, ancient grudges and lethal alliances on the Louisiana bayou. Meanwhile, the world around him struggles to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina – and there's money to be made.
Starring: Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman, Peter Sarsgaard, Mary Steenburgen, Ned Beatty
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
The Princess of Montpensier / La princesse de Montpensier (2010)
Action | Drama | History | Romance
Bertrand Tavernier is in top form with this gripping, superbly mounted drama set against the savage Catholic/Protestant wars that ripped France apart in the 16th century. Based on a novella by the celebrated Madame de Lafayette, the action centers on the love of Marie de Mezières for her dashing cousin Henri de Guise, thwarted when her father's political ambitions force her into marriage with the well-connected Philippe de Montpensier, who she has never met. When Philippe is called away to fight, she is left in the care of Count Chabannes, an aging nobleman with a disdain for warfare, and soon becomes exposed to the sexual and political intrigues of court.
Starring: Mélanie Thierry, Lambert Wilson, Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Gaspard Ulliel, Raphaël Personnaz
Director: Bertrand Tavernier
