To its credit, this documentary is not so much interested in the details of the personal life and long career of Henri Cartier-Bresson, photojournalist, but in what makes a great photographer.(Although you can infer some of the details from the photographs on display.) Basically, it comes down to framing a shot and
timing, not only being in the right place at the right time(he was visiting Gandhi right before he was assassinated, so he was in a perfect position to record the country's reaction), but also to take the photograph at precisely the right time to capture that moment that would have otherwise been lost to eternity. With portraits, he has never posed his subjects, again waiting for that magic moment, as Isabelle Huppert and Arthur Miller testify to. At the time of this documentary, Cartier-Bresson is content to stand still in one place for a change and work on his painting.
April 20, 2011
