Adventures in Editing I
By Paul Duncan
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I looked in all the usual places but was surprised by some of my finds - photos I have never seen before: The BFI had a great photo of Truffaut filming the face of the statue that inspires Jules and Jim in Jules et Jim; Kobal had photos of Truffaut and Spielberg during the making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Magnum had some great Raymond Depardon photos, and so on. Many of the photos came from MK2, who now own the rights to Truffaut's films. Unfortunately, I could not get access to them for a long time because of filming at their HQ, and when they did become available I was travelling. Luckily, Thierry Nebois, my editorial coordinator at Taschen, came to the rescue and travelled to Paris to select many photos for me to use in the book. Thierry also managed to track down Jean Marquis, who had taken a fabulous photo of Catherine Deneuve on the set of La Sirène du Mississippi. (It is during a break in the filming, but her black eyes and femme fatale body evoke the character she plays in the film.) I had seen a copy of the photo in the TimeLife archives in New York a couple of years ago, but they did not have the rights to the photo. Just before publication, Thierry found Jean Marquis but he did not have a copy of the photo, so through email, faxes and phone calls Thierry arranged for TimeLife to scan the original and return it to Jean Marquis, and at the same time get permissions/letters from Jean Marquis. Chapeau Thierry, as they say in France.
As interesting as archives can be, meeting the original photographers is more interesting. Raymond Cauchetier was on the set of Les Quatre Cents Coups, Tirez sur le pianiste, Jules et Jim and La Peau douce. He was also the photographer for many of the New Wave film directors. In his Parisian apartment, I learned that Raymond had begun taking photographs whilst serving in the French Air Force during the Indochine war. He told me stories about each photo, about the parachutists who got drunk before their drop because they knew they would probably be killed by ground fire, and about the emergency supply drop that fell outside a compound and the certain death awaiting the soldiers who tried to retrieve it. Raymond had returned to the region after the war to record the life of the people, and his empathy and understanding are evident in the photos he showed me. He showed me many film photos I had never seen before, including a great shot during Tirez sur le pianiste of Charles Aznavour, Truffaut and Serge Davri laughing, with a knife sticking out of Davri's back.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
I looked in all the usual places but was surprised by some of my finds - photos I have never seen before: The BFI had a great photo of Truffaut filming the face of the statue that inspires Jules and Jim in Jules et Jim; Kobal had photos of Truffaut and Spielberg during the making of Close Encounters of the Third Kind; Magnum had some great Raymond Depardon photos, and so on. Many of the photos came from MK2, who now own the rights to Truffaut's films. Unfortunately, I could not get access to them for a long time because of filming at their HQ, and when they did become available I was travelling. Luckily, Thierry Nebois, my editorial coordinator at Taschen, came to the rescue and travelled to Paris to select many photos for me to use in the book. Thierry also managed to track down Jean Marquis, who had taken a fabulous photo of Catherine Deneuve on the set of La Sirène du Mississippi. (It is during a break in the filming, but her black eyes and femme fatale body evoke the character she plays in the film.) I had seen a copy of the photo in the TimeLife archives in New York a couple of years ago, but they did not have the rights to the photo. Just before publication, Thierry found Jean Marquis but he did not have a copy of the photo, so through email, faxes and phone calls Thierry arranged for TimeLife to scan the original and return it to Jean Marquis, and at the same time get permissions/letters from Jean Marquis. Chapeau Thierry, as they say in France.
As interesting as archives can be, meeting the original photographers is more interesting. Raymond Cauchetier was on the set of Les Quatre Cents Coups, Tirez sur le pianiste, Jules et Jim and La Peau douce. He was also the photographer for many of the New Wave film directors. In his Parisian apartment, I learned that Raymond had begun taking photographs whilst serving in the French Air Force during the Indochine war. He told me stories about each photo, about the parachutists who got drunk before their drop because they knew they would probably be killed by ground fire, and about the emergency supply drop that fell outside a compound and the certain death awaiting the soldiers who tried to retrieve it. Raymond had returned to the region after the war to record the life of the people, and his empathy and understanding are evident in the photos he showed me. He showed me many film photos I had never seen before, including a great shot during Tirez sur le pianiste of Charles Aznavour, Truffaut and Serge Davri laughing, with a knife sticking out of Davri's back.
Page [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]
On the set of 'La Peau douce' (1964). Truffaut seems to be asking for silence so that actor Jean Desailly can continue his nap. In fact, Desailly needed all the sleep he could get because after filming during the day he would act in the theatre at night. To keep costs as low as possible, Truffaut filmed the family scenes in his apartment. (c) Raymond Cauchetier