Martin Scorsese Instagram – I first encountered Bertrand Tavernier in the early 70s. He and his close friend and former business partner Pierre Rissient had seen Mean Streets and championed it publicly, and this meant the world to me. I quickly understood that Bertrand knew the history of cinema inside and out. And, he was passionate about absolutely all of it—passionate about what he loved and what he hated, passionate about bringing both new discoveries and forgotten figures to light (Bertrand was the one who led the way in the critical re-discovery of Michael Powell), and then passionate about the films he himself made. He had such a distinctive voice as a filmmaker, unlike anyone else’s. I particularly loved his 1984 film A Sunday in the Country, which was so carefully designed that it felt like it had emerged right out of the world of impressionism. I loved all his historical pictures, like Let Joy Reign Supreme and Capitaine Conan, and his adaptations of Simenon (The Clockmaker, his first film) and Jim Thompson (Coup de Torchon, adapted from Pop. 1280). I was sitting at the table with Bertrand and Irwin Winkler when they made the deal on his beautiful ‘Round Midnight, and I have fond memories of acting in the picture in a small role as Dexter Gordon’s agent. Bertrand knew every corner of French cinema intimately, and I think we’re all lucky that he had the chance to complete his epic documentary voyage through its history, a thing of great beauty. He knew American cinema just as intimately, and he and Jean-Pierre Coursodon co-wrote and frequently updated an exhaustive dictionary of American film directors that really should be translated into English. One thing about Bertrand, known to all of his friends and loved ones: he was so passionate that he could exhaust you. He would sit for hours and hours, arguing for or against a film or a filmmaker or musician or a book or a political position, and at a certain point you would wonder: where on earth does all that energy come from? It’s hard to believe that I’ll never have another chance to be on the receiving end of it all. Or to have another visit with such an extraordinary, irreplaceable man.