Creativity: An Eternal Mystery
Copied from the Cinema Arts Centre web page
Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye

Guest Speaker: Arthur Leipzig, Photographer, Professor emeritus, C.W. Post, Q& A , Reception follows film (Tues., Feb. 22 at 7:05 only)


Born in 1908 in a well-to-do middle class French family, as a boy Henri
Cartier- Bresson started taking pictures with a Brownie box camera; he later graduated to a 35mm Leica that he used until he retired. Armed only with his silver metal-colored Leica that he covered with black tape and which he described as an extension of his eye, he remained unobtrusive as he roamed the streets in search of his subjects. The streets of the world were his studio and his subjects everyday people going about their daily lives. His genius was capturing on film what he described as The Decisive Moment. His was the art of seeing and his métier freezing on 35mm film seemingly ordinary moments of seemingly ordinary lives. His early training as a painter in a Paris studio helped develop the subtle and sensitive eye for composition which was one of his greatest assets as a photographer. In his early twenties, living in Marseilles, he discovered his calling— photography. Drawn to the spontaneous and unpredictable, he recalls how he excitedly prowled the streets all day, feeling very strung up and ready to pounce, determined to trap life, topreserve life in the art of living. This documentary film mirrors his own simple approach to his art. Sitting at a table, he selects photos from his collection and with quiet assurance comments on them. That commentary reflects his need to communicate what he thought and felt about what he saw. Bresson had a high respect for the discipline of press photography—of having to tell a story crisply in one striking picture. His sense of news and history and his belief in the social role of photography all helped to make his work memorable. – Vic Skolnick

Switzerland, 2003, 72 min., color & b/w, in English, French, and Italian with English subtitles • Director/writer: Heinz Bütler • Cinematographer: Matthias Kälin • Cast: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Delpire, Elliott Erwitt, Josef Koudelka, Arthur Miller & Ferdinando Scianna