# Jean-Charles Tacchella

Jean-Charles Tacchella (23 September 1925 – 29 August 2024) was 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 remade in the U.S. as Cousins (1989) 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 Marseilles and, just after the liberation of France, left for Paris with the aim of becoming a film director. He joined L'Écran français [fr] 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, Roger Thérond [fr], 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 (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), and Seven Sundays (1995).
Tacchella was described as being "a smooth technician, Tacchella's camera work is fluid and precise". His movie Traveling avant (1987) 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 | Time Bomb [fr] (Le vent se lève) | 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 | The Last Winters [fr] (short) | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1973 | Une belle journée (short) | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1974 | Voyage to Grand Tartarie [fr] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1975 | Cousin Cousine | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1978 | Blue Country [fr] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1979 | Silver Anniversary [fr] (Il y a longtemps que je t'aime) | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1981 | Croque la vie [fr] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1985 | Escalier C [fr] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1987 | Travelling avant [fr] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1990 | Gallant Ladies [fr] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1992 | The Man of My Life [fr] | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1994 | Seven Sundays | Yes | Yes | No |
| 1999 | Les Gens qui s'aiment | Yes | Yes | No |