Product Description

The father of 35 millimeter photography was born Andor Kertesz in Hungary in 1894. He made his reputation in the Paris of the 20s and 30s before emigrating to the United States. He was a constant experimenter. Cartier-Bresson once said of him: "Whatever we have done, Kertész did first." He died in New York City in 1985.

This film was made in 1978. Ranging over much of his work, this half-hour documentary presents Kertesz in his own words, explaining many of his pictures and sharing his memories -- provincial life in Hungary, central Europe in the First World War, Paris in the glorious "time between the wars", and famous friends like Colette, Eisenstein, Chagall and Mondrian. Kertesz takes us through his archive and out into the streets of New York City to watch him shoot in his beloved Washington Square and in the medieval environment of The Cloisters. "I was born for photography," he said. "I changed everything in my life for it. You only have one life. No hurry for me... I have the time. Everything is photograph."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #84937 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-06-27
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 30 minutes

Customer Reviews

good documentary
I think this documentary is well-made and has a balanced view of Kertesz. Possibly I am biased because Kertesz is one of my favorite photographers and I own all or almost all the books about him. However, I enjoyed the interviews with him and the selection of his photographs chosen for this film.

informative enough
I've never heard of this artist or his work, but I think photography fans will like this documentary. It was easy for me that think, "This guy is the Ionesco of photography." However, Ionesco was Romanian and this guy was Hungarian. Just as many African-American artists moved to France in the mid-20th century, maybe Eastern Europeans did the same thing. This work was made in the 1970s and it has that '70s style that even "The Simpsons" once mocked. If I were a betting man, I'd say this artist is dead, but I don't want to jinx him if he's alive. His broken English is adorable and may remind many of their foreign-born grandparents. The work starts with him flipping through his photos, but he's just tossing them around on his kitchen table. There is no focus on each one individually, so it almost cheapens his oeuvre. I kinda watched this passively, but I think many will like it.