HC-B in a movie?

I was watching "Is Paris Burning?" tonight. It's a feature film about

the last days of WWII but also has a lot of authentic newsreel footage

interspersed.

 

About ten minutes from the end there is documentary footage of General

DeGaulle at the Arc de Triumph. A photographer is shown about 15 feet

to his left (screen right) I think it's Bresson. I do know he was

there during the liberation of Paris.

 

Does anyone know if this is HC-B?

HCB was there during the liberation of Paris so it could definitely be him.

See <a href="http://imdb.com/name/nm0142035/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD1vbnxmYj11fHBuPTB8cT1oZW5yaSBjYXJ0aWVyLWJyZXNzb258bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGh0bWw9MXxubT1vbg__;fc=1;ft=4;fm=1">HC-B's link on IMDB</a>

I remember reading the book when I was a teenager. It was a great book. I don't recall who wrote it. Was it Pierre Boulle?

It is certainly possible- the movie had a large credited and uncredited cast and made use of archival footage:

 

 

http://imdb.com/title/tt0060814/fullcredits

And this:

 

 

http://www.parlerparis.com/issues/pparis25-8-04.html

Joe. I am so glad you have made this discovery. In 2003 I saw the same thing. After I first saw "Is Paris Burning" I waited for the film to run a second time. This time a I photographed the scene with HCB (or who I thought was HCB). I made a print and sent it to him at Magnum Photos is Paris, never expecting a response. Well, nearly a year later a large white envelope appeared in my mailbox addressed to me in a distictive handwriting with a Magnum in Paris return address. It was indeed from him. He returned my print and enclosed his postcard of the photo of the family having a picnic on the Marne River. He incribed the postcard to me and said he that day "was around and it looks like me." He died a few months later. Needless to say the card is one of my prized possessions. I will try to post a picture of it. I wrote a story about this for a newspaper I once worked for. If you email my your address I will send you a copy. You are the only other person I have come across who has made the same discovery!<div></div>

Wow! Sorry that was so large.......

Wow! Robbie. What a great story.

Here's another try...<div></div>

This is a try of the film still..

Go to the Magnum website and check out some of the books by HCB. Some of them have

images of HCB from that era for you to compare. Nevertheless, it indeed looks like

him, but I'm certainly no expert. There are indeed a number of HCB images from that time.

Robbie,

 

What a story! Thanks for sharing it. You certainly took initiative by sending that photo and it paid off.

 

I had TiVo'd the film so was able to back it up and watch in slomo. I must say the five seconds, about 100 individual frames, make it seem even more like him. Like you, it stoppped me dead in my tracks when I saw it the first time through though, of course, I wasn't looking for him.

 

Thanks for posting story, postcard and still!

 

Best wishes,

Joe Walsh (late in my office yawn)

Great book. Written by Larry Collins and Dominique LaPierre.

Joe, one thing that struck me when watching the film clip is that there is DeGaulle walking down the street surrounded by a pack of photographers. All of them are using big dark Speed Graphic-type cameras and then you notice one guy who makes his way along using what seems to be a Leica. The way he is holding the camera with his elbo close to his body matches a photo in one of the recent books.

That's the way you're supposed to hold a camera (especially if you need to steady it for a low shutter speed shot)! ;-)

 

---------------------

 

"The way he is holding the camera with his elbo close to his body . . ."

Robbie,

 

Just fantastic! Thanks for sharing :-)

Thanks Robbie!!!