Tavernier’s ‘Nostalgia’ Is Triumph for Bogarde

In Bertrand Tavernier’s elegant and wise “Daddy Nostalgia” (at the Guild), Dirk Bogarde plays Tony, an Englishman of durable wit and style, living in retirement with his French wife in a fine Cote d’Azur villa. He has, he tells his daughter, Caro (Jane Birkin), “a talent for life.” Only now he’s facing death, and, gallant Englishman that he is, he wants to keep up a good front for his family.

Caro, a divorced screenwriter living in Paris, has felt neglected all her life by her father, but nevertheless drops everything to be at his bedside after heart surgery.

Everyone must come to terms with what these people are facing, and films are rarely more personal than this one, which was written by Tavernier’s frequent collaborator and ex-wife, Colo Tavernier O’Hagan, who based her script on her experiences with her own parents.

“Daddy Nostalgia” marks a triumphant return to the screen for Bogarde after an absence of a dozen years. Once Britain’s matinee idol and later an international star, Bogarde has grown into an actor of remarkable versatility and authority. He is actually a decade or so too young for this role, but Bogarde, now 70, is so perfectly cast it scarcely matters.

Although essentially a three-character drama, the film never has the feel of a chamber play. Moving effortlessly from indoors to outdoors, from Paris to the Riviera, it has as much graceful ease as Tavernier’s more heavily populated films. He has given himself the challenge of shooting it in CinemaScope, which always provides a background even in close-ups. There is always the sense that every image, every camera movement, expresses the shifting tensions and emotions within its three characters. Bathed by cinematographer Denis Lenoir in autumnal hues, “Daddy Nostalgia” (rated PG for adult themes) is also a shimmeringly beautiful film.

Deep into denial about her father’s dismal prognosis, Caro sets about getting to know a father who in her gently accusing words has pursued “a beautiful, selfish life.” Birkin’s Caro is admirable, forgiving her father and shoring up her mother, Miche (Odette Laure), who in fear and dread has retreated into herself to the extent that she no longer speaks English to the husband who still adores her. Yet Caro is not a saint and, when pushed, can give in to understandable outbursts of rage, mainly at her impassive mother. Anyone who has been in Caro’s situation can empathize.

Now in her early 40s, Birkin has come a long way from her frothy early efforts and her heavy breathing 1975 pop single, “Je T’Aime Moi Non Plus,” which was condemned by the Pope. Her Caro is at once a mature, responsible woman in charge of her career and her life, but she shows us also the child that can easily surface when the past, triggered by the presence of parents, sweeps over her. Laure is adept at letting us know the emotions Miche masks behind a stoic, meticulously groomed facade.

Yet it is Bogarde whose eminently civilized presence dominates here. His Tony evokes envy more than pity; the man may be dying, but he leaves us aware that few of us ever master that art of living as fully as he has.

‘Daddy Nostalgia’

Dirk Bogarde: Tony

Jane: Birkin Caroline

Odette: Laure Miche

An Avenue Films release of a co-production of Clea Productions/Little Bear/Solyfic/Eurisma. Director Bertrand Tavernier. Producer Adolphe Viezzi. Screenplay by Colo Tavernier O’Hagan. Dialogue O’Hagan, Tavernier. Cinematographer Denis Loir. Editor Ariane Boeglin. Costumes Christian Gasc. Music Antoine Duhamel. Art director Jean-Louis Poveda. Set designer Robert Le Corre. Set decorator Michel Charvaz. Sound Michel Desrois. In English and French, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour, 46 minutes. MPAA rated PG (for adult themes).