1982 10 minute film by Jean-François Dars & Anne Papillault follows Andre Kertész in Paris, with Christian Caujolle and Robert Doisneau. French with English subtitles, translated by Hélène Wilkinson.
Website of filmmakers: llx.fr/site/paris-kertesz/
Translation is below:
André Kertész – (Click) … So we’re going in the courtyard…
Narrator - André Kertész had photographed everywhere on Earth. Since 1925, he had regularly come back to Paris. Like outsize needles, the city’s roads told him whether it was midday or Midnight in the Century.
André Kertész – Hang on, hang on… (Click) … The lens isn’t long enough… … (Click) …
Narrator – With a magic box, Kertész had acquired unexpected powers: becoming his own shadow at will, bending flowers under his gaze, and also making 1914 - the year of the first ever nighttime photo - famous for good, being accepted as a master by Cartier-Bresson himself, and finally preserving forever in silver salts the memory of his wife Elizabeth’s face.
… … … … … … (Click) … … …
Narrator – Kertész had invented a paradoxical art: the delayed snapshot. A photo was something he reconnoitred, meditated, dreamt as long as necessary until at last reality was willing to join imagination, by projecting the right light on the right silhouette at the right moment. It was also necessary to be there, ready to press the fateful button. Several times, he had come like that from New York to the square de Cluny, rather like a fisherman drawing his nets, ready to come back as often as required.
Christian Caujolle – Why is it better when there’s light?
André Kertész – Because there’s shade!
Christian Caujolle – Because of the shadows!
André Kertész – Shadows! There are shadows… That way, it loses something, you have very homogenous material, it’s a grey…With the sun, you have modulations! … … … (Click) … … … That’s it!
Christian Caujolle – That’s it…
André Kertész – That’s it here…
André Kertész – It’s absolutely fantastic, you see? Absolutely wonderful… Excellent ! Excellent… … … It’s …, first time in my life I did the chairs in 25, at Luxembourg…
Christian Caujolle – Here !
André Kertész – Yes, that’s right, I did chairs in the Tuileries, the Champs-Elysées, I’ve done it all, all…
Christian Caujolle – You’ve done all the chairs in Paris ?
André Kertész – Yes, those of 25, 26, 27… One after the other…
Narrator – When Kertész was here, houses took the train, forks toothily bit their shadows, passers by projected their echoes against the walls, busses transported gazing eyes. Naturally, he called that photographing “little nothings” …
Christian Caujolle – Hey, here’s Robert Doisneau!
Robert Doisneau – Hi André ! … How are you?
André Kertész – Delighted, as you can see…
Robert Doisneau – They made you a prisoner in Paris?
André Kertész – These last few days…
Robert Doisneau – Well, that’s great…
André Kertész – I’m leaving Sunday…
Robert Doisneau – What a stroke of luck to see you, so funny!
André Kertész– What about you?
Robert Doisneau –What?
André Kertész – What are you doing in Paris?
Robert Doisneau – I’m waiting for someone who’s late.
André Kertész – It’s me who...
Narrator – Robert Doisneau, who is also a great photographer, shares with Kertész the same nostalgic love of Paris. Chance brought these two eternal travelers together again in a café at the Luxembourg, one morning in the fall. Robert Doisneau, as was his wont, was marveling.
Robert Doisneau - And have you seen the different rhythm he has... I mean, it’s thanks to that he can take extraordinary pictures, he really takes a lot of time to love things, it’s not at all... He’s not at all a.... a vibrio in a hurry, is he, he really has.... a sense of time.
André Kertész – I don’t look, I see.... That’s two different things... It happens, it happens.... I’m not looking for it. Then, you see, in any case, there is always something creating inside of you, something.... But it’s not worth doing all things for picture.... It’s impossible. For me, too much so for who? You understand? It’s for who, it’s, there’s no reason...
… … … … … … (Click) … … …
André Kertész – At the age about six years old, photos started in the family, you know, cameras in the family. So during family reunions, we have a camera so I also did push the button etc. and I decided, later, when I make my money, after the baccalaureate etc. I’l buy a camera... And in fact that’s what happened.... And during the seven years, not like a determination but I saw different things, oh, that’s charming, oh, that’s charming... If I have the camera later, I’ll do that, I’ll do that, I’ll do that and without knowing, I developed a composition feeling instinctively, not only, but the timing too... That’s the right moment, that’s the right moment... And really when in the end I started, 1912, to photograph my exact compositions... It’s really startling, it was exact, it was good like that, it was like that, like that... .... .... (Click) ... .... Did you see how I did that? Just came out!
Narrator - In the depths of his raincoat pockets, Kertész hid an improbable number of lenses, cameras, filters. That was how he had fixed pictures of the deluge of World War I and how he was getting ready to face the deluge of pictures of a 20th Century on the wane, while time flowed for him under the bridges of the Seine.
Jean-François Dars & Anne Papillault: llx.fr/site/paris-kertesz/
Presented here as a creative collaboration between the filmmakers and DEVELOP Photo.
