Jean-Charles Tacchella

Jean-Charles Tacchella was a French screenwriter and film director. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his film Cousin Cousine, which was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and which was later remade in the U.S. as Cousins starring Ted Danson, Isabella Rossellini, Sean Young and William Petersen.

Early career

Jean-Charles Tacchella was born on 23 September 1925 in Cherbourg, Manche. He had Genoese ancestry. He studied in Marseille and, just after the liberation of France, left for Paris with the aim of becoming a film director. He joined when he was nineteen, where he worked with Jean Renoir, Becker, and Grémillon. While with the magazine, he wrote about filmmakers, actors, films and met André Bazin, Nino Frank, Roger Leenhardt,, 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 cinema.

Film director

Jean-Charles Tacchella directed eleven features, many of which have had successful international careers and been awarded prestigious prizes. They include Voyage to Grand Tartarie, Cousin cousine, Le Pays bleu, It's a Long Time I've Loved You, Croque la vie, Staircase C, Travelling avant, Gallant Ladies, The Man of My Life, and Seven Sundays.
Tacchella was described as being "a smooth technician, Tacchella's camera work is fluid and precise". His movie Traveling avant is described as "a semi-autobiographical paean to his youth as a cinema fanatic and cine-club enthusiast in post-war Paris".

Cinémathèque

Tacchella was President of the Cinémathèque Française from 2000 to 2003.

Death

Tacchella died in Versailles, Yvelines on 29 August 2024, at the age of 98.

Selected filmography

Source:

Year	Title	Director	Writer	Producer
1955	The Heroes Are Tired	No	Yes	No
1957	Typhoon over Nagasaki	No	Yes	No
1958	The Law Is the Law	No	Yes	No
1959	Come Dance with Me	No	Yes	No
1959	'	No	Yes	No
1959	Croquemitoufle	No	Yes	No
1960	The Itchy Palm	No	Yes	No
1961	The Honors of War	No	Yes	No
1962	Crime Does Not Pay	No	Yes	No
1964	The Thief of Tibadabo	No	Yes	No
1964	The Great Blow	No	Yes	No
1966	La longue marche	No	Yes	No
1971	Legs in the Air	No	Yes	No
1971	'	Yes	Yes	No
1973	Une belle journée	Yes	Yes	No
1974	'	Yes	Yes	No
1975	Cousin Cousine	Yes	Yes	No
1978	'	Yes	Yes	No
1979	'	Yes	Yes	No
1981	'	Yes	Yes	No
1985	'	Yes	Yes	No
1987	'	Yes	Yes	No
1990	'	Yes	Yes	No
1992	'	Yes	Yes	No
1994	Seven Sundays	Yes	Yes	No
1999	Les Gens qui s'aiment	Yes	Yes	No