PostED ON 16 OCTOBER 2022

This was Bertrand Tavernier’s go-to phrase when speaking about films he loved. The expression is captured by Thierry Frémaux in a literary and personal account: Si nous avions su que nous l'aimions tant, nous l'aurions aimé davantage. (Litt. translation: If we had known that we loved him so much, we would have loved him even more.)

It is the story of a friendship. "I talk about the man I knew" is plainly stated in this book, which is a testament to the extent to which an encounter can change a life… As a film student and amateur journalist, Thierry Frémaux approached Bertrand Tavernier one day. From that moment on, they would never leave each other’s company. They went on to show Lumière films all over the world, made the Institut Lumière the most welcoming cinémathèque in France and put together a remarkable festival. It is very moving to note how the book naturally weaves deep links with the Lumière Film Festival. In the book, we find André de Toth, Sidney Lumet and Tavernier’s "formidable!” When all is said and done, it’s akin to an invitation to go to the cinema to see films that are on the programme of Lumière 2022! Thierry Frémaux had first imagined this book as a tribute to Bertrand Tavernier as a short text. And then the memories flowed from his pen, and with them, the emotions: the story of a legendary American expedition, the memory of a conversation that was never really interrupted, that constantly picked up where it had left off, like a permanent, teeming dialogue on cinema. Thierry Frémaux recounts this companionship in a clear and lively style, with the love of storytelling that is familiar to those who have attended one of his film presentations.

© Loïc Benoit

Si nous avions su que nous l'aimions tant, nous l'aurions aimé is more about the need for loyalty, endurance and commitment, which can be found in the cinema of all the great creators, from James Gray to Tim Burton, celebrated this year at Lumière. But above all, this book advises us not to be afraid of having a master, or of admiring those who help us grow. It also says that the taste for cinema, this immediate enjoyment of the emotion of a story, of empathy for characters, is nourished and enriched by knowledge, even if it is always incomplete - because we know that we cannot and will not know everything. It is also the portrait of a certain enthusiastic, joyful cinephilia with, in the background, the hope that, even without Bertrand, it will have beautiful days ahead.

Aurélien Ferenczi

Si nous avions su que nous l'aimions tant, nous l'aurions aimé davantage  by Thierry Frémaux (Grasset, 220 pages, 19€).

The book is available at the two bookshops of the Institut Lumière (at the Village and Rue du Premier Film Bookstore) as well as the two recent publications co-edited by Actes sud and the Institut Lumière: Margot Capelier, reine du casting by Corinne Bacharach (272 pages, 25€) and Audiard Réalisateur, Scénarios écrits avec Jean-Marie Poiré, presented and edited by Thibaut Bruttin (784 pages, 39€).