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Jean-Charles Tacchella

Jean-Charles Tacchella

Writing

Biography

Jean-Charles Tacchella (born 23 September 1925) is a French screenwriter and film director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his film Cousin Cousine (1975), which was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and which was later (1989) remade in a US version starring Ted Danson and titled Cousins. Jean-Charles Tacchella studied in Marseilles and, just after the Liberation, left for Paris with the aim of becoming a film director. He joined L'écran Français when he was nineteen where he worked with Renoir, Becker and Grémillon. While with the magazine, he wrote about filmmakers, actors, films and met André Bazin, Nino Frank, Roger Leenhardt, Roger Thérond and Alexandre Astruc. He became friends with Erich Von Stroheim, Anna Magnani, Vittorio de Sica and created the monthly “Ciné Digest” with Henri Colpi. In 1948, Tacchella, along with Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, Astruc, Claude Mauriac, René Clément and Pierre Kast, established Objectif 49, an avant-garde film club whose president was Jean Cocteau. Objectif 49 became the birthplace of the New Wave. Jean-Charles Tacchella has since directed eleven features, many of which have had successful international careers and been awarded prestigious prizes. They include Voyage to Grand Tartarie (1974), Cousin cousine (1975, nominated for the Oscars Césars, Silver Shell for Best Director at the 1976 San Sebastian International Film Festival), Le Pays bleu (1977), It's a Long Time I've Loved You (1979, Jury Prize at the Montreal Film Festival), Croque la vie (1981), Staircase C (1985, Prix de l'Académie française, Grand Prix at the Uppsala Film Festival), Travelling avant (1987, Best Male Newcomer for Thierry Frémont – Golden Tulip for Best Director at the Istanbul Film Festival), Gallant Ladies (Best Director, Digne Film Festival 1990), The Man of My Life (1992), Seven Sundays (1995). Tacchella is described as being "a smooth technician, Tacchella's camera work is fluid and precise". And his movie Traveling avant (1987), roughly equivalent to the American film term "Tracking Shot", is described as "a semi-autobiographical paean to his youth as a cinema fanatic and cine-club enthusiast in post-war Paris". Tacchella was President of the Cinémathèque Française from 2000–2003. Source: Article "Jean-Charles Tacchella" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Known For

Les Rendez-vous du dimanche
6.0

A talk show presented by Michel Drucker

Les Rendez-vous du dimanche

1975
Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
7.9

During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.

Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!

1966
Cousins
6.0

When Larry and Maria learn that their respective spouses are cheating on them, they try to turn the tables on them by pretending to have an affair. However, they soon find themselves falling in love.

Cousins

1989
Cousin, Cousine
6.1

Two distant cousins meet at a wedding banquet for an elderly couple. Over time, a close friendship develops between them, but their spouses begin to think that they are more than just friends.

Cousin, Cousine

1975
Come Dance with Me!
6.1

The wife of an accused murderer embarks on a dangerous masquerade to find the real culprit behind a dancer's death.

Come Dance with Me!

1959
Time Bomb
6.0

Plotters decide to scuttle a ship for the insurance money, but things go wrong.

Time Bomb

1959
Typhoon Over Nagasaki
6.2

Pierre Marsac, a French engineer working for the Nagasaki shipbuilding yards, has fallen in love both with Japan and a charming Japanese girl named Noriko. But Françoise Fabre, a French journalist and Pierre's former lover, contacts him while visiting the Land of the Rising Sun. They meet again, find out their love might not be dead. Meanwhile, Pierre gradually becomes estranged from sweet, humble Noriko. One day, a typhoon strikes Nagasaki...

Typhoon Over Nagasaki

1957
The Law Is the Law
7.2

Assola is an imaginary village on the border between Italy and France and the borderline crosses the village itself. The French customs agent Ferdinand is always trying to catch the Italian smuggler Giuseppe. Giuseppe discovers that Ferdinand was actually born in Italy and therefore he can't be a French customs agent.

The Law Is the Law

1958
Seven Sundays
7.6

Dodo, a French man living in Florida, has one goal in life: Get by without working. Difficult to implement without the help of some women. Betty is one of them, and a gypsy's bride, who suddenly disappears, changing Dodo's life.

Seven Sundays

1995
Gallant Ladies
4.0

Despite being busy with his profession of soldiery, Brantome manages to find much more time for amorous dalliances with the ladies of the 16th-century French court than for battles. Unfortunately for him, his true love, Victoire, is beyond his reach most of the time. He more than compensates for this in the arms of others.

Gallant Ladies

1990
Crime Does Not Pay
5.5

A man walks into a movie theater in Paris and starts watching a film—the same one we're watching, consisting of four stories of best criminal intentions gone awry from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Crime Does Not Pay

1962
Croque la vie
3.6

Friendships and business do not mix, that's what we find with Theresa, Catherine and Alain, three longtime friends. Freshly graduated, they decided to start their own business, but work is scarce and a fight breaks out between the trio. Separated, married and scattered all over France, the once inseparable trio no longer keep in touch. But four years later, they decided to organize a big party for their reunion which serves as an opportunity for them to put things right and confess everything they have in their hearts.

Croque la vie

1981
L'homme de ma vie
4.0

A delightfully classic French comedy of high sophistication and light hearted wit, that in the end suffers for it. This is immensely watchable simply for the presence of Maria De Medeiros, the central two of the film are captivating. What spoils it is the stereotypical and under developed second characters and an overly wistful outlook. But I defy any man watching this film not to fall madly for Aimee and everyone will cherish the scenes between Aimee and Maurice.

L'homme de ma vie

1992
Heroes and Sinners
8.1

A good cast smooths over the rough spots of Les Heros sont Fatigues. The scene is the African republic of Liberia, which in this film proves to be a stopping-off point for a number of shady characters. Yves Montand plays a French ex-pilot who becomes involved in a scheme to smuggle stolen diamonds. His cohorts include a Nazi collaborator, a German refugee, and the white mistress of a prominent Liberian. A romance develops between the ex-pilot and the aforementioned mistress. Meanwhile, one of the conspirators (Curt Jurgens) has a last-minute attack of conscience, effectively queering the deal. The steamier romantic passages in Les Heros sont Fatigues had to be trimmed for American consumption.

Heroes and Sinners

1955
The Big Hit
6.5

Frank Willes, a young professional footballer, is involved in a road accident from which he emerges partially crippled, having crashed into the car of a wealthy shopkeeper who dies in the accident. Willes then learns that the merchant's widow, Clémence Grandval, stands to gain a fortune from her husband's life insurance. He also discovers that his accident may not have been an accident at all.

The Big Hit

1964
Les Jambes en l'air
4.5

Story of a marginal couple, César and Favouille, who set out to find their youngest daughter, who run away from home.

Les Jambes en l'air

1971
Happy He Who Like Ulysses
6.9

For 25 years now, under the Provence sun, Antonin, a farmhand, has shared his work and everyday life with a horse named Ulysse. What a shock when Pascal, the farmer, tells him he has decided to sell Ulysse to a picador for being too old. Not only will he be separated from his faithful companion, but he is well aware too that the arenas of Arles mean death for Ulysse. Being unable to stand such injustice, Antonin runs away from the farm in the company of Ulysse. Together, they go through the Lubéron, the Baux de Provence, the Alpilles, the Crau and the Vaccarès. Yet, their journey is no pleasure cruise, specially when it comes to crossing National Road 7. After a visit to Marcellin, an old friend of his, Antonin sets off again with Ulysse, this time towards the Rhône River.

Happy He Who Like Ulysses

1970
Long March
8.0

In June 1944, a young doctor, Chevalier, under the threat of guns, is forced to treat a wounded man in a camp of resistance fighters (maquisards). He recognizes the man, minister of the Third Republic, called Morel by his companions. Carnot, the chief of the maquisards, is suspicious of a doctor who expressly disapproves of the resistance and wants to have him shot as soon as he has treated Morel. Philippe, who is second in command, intervenes in favor of the Chevalier. Meanwhile, peasants denounce the maquisards to the Nazis and the camp is surrounded by the Germans. The camp is saved thanks to Philippe who takes command of the group. He decides to leave the shelter and they begin the long march through the Cévennes to rally maquisard Napoleon in the Vercors...

Long March

1966
The Honors of War
5.5

One morning in August 1944, the inhabitants of a French village are celebrating their premature liberation. The festivities are interrupted by the arrival of an exhausted, leaderless German detachment. A few kilometers away, the inhabitants of the village of Muzière negotiate with the Germans and agree to a truce. But the arrival of a Wehrmacht captain, anxious to regain control of the men, puts an end to this fragile peace process. The captain suggested meeting the Americans and surrendering to regular troops rather than civilians. The inhabitants of Muzière, believing the truce to be broken, fire on the Germans and, on this misunderstanding, the guns start talking again.

The Honors of War

1962
Blue Country
5.5

Brigitte Fossey stars as a repressed young nurse who hopes that moving from the city to the country will open up new vistas in her life (thereby reversing the usual country-to-city route of most movie heroines!) She meets and falls in love with bachelor Jacques Serre, likewise a free spirit. Though Fossey and Serre are attracted to one another, both value their freedom too much to make a firm commitment. As they draw closer, the twosome compare their own lifestyles with those of the colorful country folk all around them.

Blue Country

1977