"I took my chances and reinvented film photography. My objective was to show exceptional moments."
~ Raymond Cauchetier
I think I spent a large part of my youth in a darkened room watching movies. It was an escape and a longing for a different life like the kid in “Cinema Paradiso." My two principal hangouts were the Academy Cinema on Oxford Street in London (long gone) and the British Film Institute Cinema on the South Bank near Waterloo (still there thankfully). They became my universities. I majored in World Cinema! The French New Wave was one of my favorite periods, Godard, Chabrol, Varda, Demy and especially Truffaut were my heroes. Flash forward many years. I revisited this image and set out to find its maker, Raymond Cauchetier. For some reason it took a long time to find him, no contact information, no email. etc. I finally located him thanks to the celebrated cinematographer John Bailey who knew him and on my next trip to Paris we arranged to meet up, helped by his wonderful wife Kaoru. Raymond still lived in the 5th Floor walk up he was born in. No elevator. I arrived at their door, forgive the pun “Breathless". It was a wonderful rendezvous. Raymond’s treasures had been stored in boxes for over 40 years, never really seeing the light of day. What made these images so special were that they were not the usual run of the mill film publicity stills. He had photographed the actual making of the films and the actors both on and off the set. Raymond had directed his own “mise en scene” and has given us his own fresh take on what was being revealed before his eyes to be preserved by his camera, a key period of the history of the medium. As Raymond tells it,“I was unable to get an accurate photo of the scene Goddard had just shot. So I asked Belmondo and Seberg to walk to the bottom end of the Champs-Elysees where the pavement was still deserted and to replay the scene just for me. They very kindly agreed." And this became his most famous photograph and the image of this seminal film we all fondly remember.
