Tavernier was born in Lyons in France on 25th April 1941. He wanted to make films from the time he was six, when his family moved from Lyons to Paris. In Lyons, his father, a writer, had founded an important magazine 'Confluence'. During the German occupation, it featured the work by famous writers, including poet and novelist Louis Aragon, who hid in their home for more than two years. In Paris, he began collecting film stills at age twelve and at fourteen, was watching films because of their directors. He dropped out of the famous Sorbonne University after one year of law school because he was not serious about his studies. An interview with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Melville at eighteen changed his life. He was employed as an assistant to Melville. During the early 1960s, he became the press agent for producer Georges de Beauregard, who produced films of such remarkable filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard.

Tavernier is a successor to - probably, not an exponent of the radical experimentation with narrative that characterised the most interesting European (especially, the French) films of the 1960s and early 70s. Tavernier's work testifies to the continuing vitality and validity of a tradition. Tavernier's protagonists are always "troubled, questioning, caught up in social institutions but not necessarily rendered important by them, capable of growth and awareness".

Zahir Raihan Film Society, in association with the Alliance Francaise of Dhaka, will screen six films made by Tavernier in his retrospective on 4th, 5th, and 6th January 2004. Two films will be screened each day as per following schedule: 'Round Midnight at 5 pm and Life and Nothing But at 7 pm on Sunday, 4th January; D'Artagnan's Daughter at 5 pm and The Bait at 7 pm on Monday, 5th January; and It All Starts Today at 4 pm and Safe Conduct at 6 pm on Tuesday, 6th January.

Sabbir Chowdhury, a film activist, teaches in the department of English at Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka.