Henri Cartier-Bresson: The Impassioned Eye (2003)
Zanadu Film

Description

A wonderful, evocative biography of the man considered the greatest photographer of the last century. Cartier-Bresson’s life reads like a history of the century – World War II, China, Egypt, Mexico, India, Sartre, Matisse, Ghandi (minutes before he was killed), and Cuba all became subjects of his famous "decisive moment" style. Interviews with Cartier-Bresson, Isabelle Huppert, Arthur Miller and other luminaries are woven into this indelible portrait of an icon of both photography and the world.

Tags

Photography

Collected reviews and ratings

8.3 Entertainment Weekly | Owen Gleiberman

Henri Cartier-Bresson, here nearing 100, comes off as a marvelous, spritely, and companionable figure.
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8.0 Amazon user reviews

One cannot help being amazed at this man's work, his personality, and most of all; his inexplicable ability to be in the right place at the right time all over the world, helping us to remember certain historical moment, or everyday life, through the eyes of this special man.
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8.0 New York Times | Stephen Holden

The keys to taking a good portrait, insists Cartier-Bresson, are making people forget they're in front of a camera and seizing the moment of truth as it passes.
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8.0 efilmcritic.com | Paul Bryant

The film itself leaves a bit to be desired when one considers the importance of its subject. More interviews, and a broader historical reference to Bresson’s life and work would have been welcome additions. Even so, it is well worth watching merely for its insights on the man, and its display of his magnificent photographs.
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7.0 Salon.com | Andrew O'Hehir

The more of his photographs you see, the more you realize that Cartier-Bresson didn't just capture the century, he defined the way we saw it and understood it.
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6.0 filmcritic.com | Jules Brenner

What we see of his work merits all the praise lavished upon him, though the documentary content leaves one wishing for less in the way of rambling, unfocused articulation.
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5.0 digitallyobsessed.com | Jon Danziger

...what you get here are shots of people paging through Cartier-Bresson albums, and saying whatever comes to mind. Some of it is interesting, but it's all off the cuff and without any sort of extended consideration, of technique, of aesthetics, of Cartier-Bresson's place in the photographic pantheon, of just what makes his images so wonderful.
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