Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave: A Book Review and an Exhibition
This exhibition celebrates not only the 95th birthday of Raymond Cauchetier but also the publication of a new monograph on his work as the on-set photographer on the films of the New Wave. I have asked John Kirkwood, who studied Truffaut for his University thesis, to review both the book and the exhibition.
Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave
Raymond Cauchetier, Foreword by Philippe Garner,
Edited by James Hyman
ISBN: 9781851497911
Publisher: ACC Editions
Size: 300 mm x 240 mm
Pages: 240
Illustrations: 160 b&w
Hardback
£40.00
From1959 to 1968 Raymond Cauchetier was the on-set photographer for some of the key films of the New Wave movement which swept through French cinema in the late fifties and early sixties and whose influence is still felt in world cinema today.
Dispensing with studio sets, these young filmmakers took their cameras onto the streets and into real locations. Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo actually wandered down the Champs-Elysees in Godard’s A Bout De Souffle; Jeanne Moreau and Jules et Jim ran across a real bridge and cycled through real countryside and not a back-projected one.
Cauchetier has caught some of the most memorable images of what was a very exciting era of change.
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Raymond Cauchetier’s New Wave, James Hyman Photography, 16 Savile Row, London W1, until 15th August 2015
Jeanne Moreau, Henri Serre and Oskar Werner in Truffaut’s Jules et Jim (Charenton-le-Pont).
Copyright Raymond Cauchetier, Courtesty James Hyman Gallery
This wonderful exhibition features a selection of images which capture a very special time and place in world cinema. Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg stroll down the Champs-Elysees; Anouk Aimée vamps as Lola; Francois Truffaut and Francoise Dorleac seem to be amicably enjoying themselves (they were); Jeanne Moreau laughs with Truffaut.
Francoise Dorleac and Francois Truffaut shooting La Peau Douce (Rambouillet).
Copyright Raymond Cauchetier, Courtesty James Hyman Gallery
Cauchetier was a very lucky man and I would love to have swapped places with him! He said at the opening of this exhibition that he had no plan in mind when he was on set that he was just taking pictures. Little did he know that many of them would become some of the most iconic images of twentieth-century cinema even becoming as famous as the films themselves.
Anouk Aimee in Jacques Demy’s Lola (Nantes) (1)
Copyright Raymond Cauchetier, courtesy James Hyman Gallery, London
Francois Truffaut, Jules et Jim, 1961.
Copyright Raymond Cauchetier, courtesy James Hyman Gallery, London
Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg in Godard’s A Bout de Souffle (2)
Copyright Raymond Cauchetier, courtesy James Hyman Gallery, London
Tim Forrest's E & A 