In 2013 Bertrand Tavernier was the main guest in Dublin at a symposium, John Ford Ireland, celebrating the film-maker. After giving a talk, Tavernier stayed on as a participant.
Six years later I invited him to a symposium in London marking the 70th anniversary of Alfred Hitchcock’s return to Britain to make Under Capricorn. He accepted; when work prevented him from attending, he wrote a beautifully judged essay on the film for delegates – typical of a man who, like Martin Scorsese in the US, kept alive the links between present-day cinema and its rich past, to the benefit of both.
