Raymond Depardon
Biography
Raymond Depardon is a photographer, a journalist and a filmmaker, but, above all, his eyes view humans with compassion. He respects others and is kind with the reality of their lives. He was born into a family of farmers in 1942 in Burgundy and went to Paris in 1958, wishing to be a photographer. He was first taken on as a messenger in an agency and was sent to take photos of an opening-night at the cinema: the movie was none other than Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless. He finally established his own agency, Gamma, together with three reporters, in 1966 'not for money but for the freedom'. He suggested to set up a cinema department: 'we bought an Eclair- camera and tried to make news-films for television in addition to taking news-photograhs... It was then that I learned to hold the camera." When Depardon films people, he is silent. If one has the impression that he always keeps his eyes lowered in the face of the world's miseries, it is untrue. Raymond Depardon looks as through a lattice and reacts like quicksilver, keeping his deepest, innermost emotion secret, and allow his pictures to speak for themselves. His films are now screened in all international film festivals, from Cannes to Hong Kong.
Known For & Full Filmography15 Titles
Movie - 2008, 2h 15m • as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
For ten years, Raymond Depardon has followed the lives of farmer living in the mountain ranges. He allows us to enter their farms with astounding naturalness. This moving film speaks, with great serenity, of our roots and of the future of the people who work on the land. This the last part of Depardon's triptych "Profils paysans" about what it is like to be a farmer today in an isolated highland area in France. "La vie moderne" examines what has become of the persons he has followed for ten years, while featuring younger people who try to farm or raise cattle or poultry, come hell or high water.
Movie - 2001, 2h 15m • as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
The first of a documentary serie about rural France.
Movie - 2005, 2h 15m • as Narrator (voice) (uncredited)
Second documentary of a trilogy produced on the long term (together with Profils paysans: l'approche (2001) and Profils paysans: La vie moderne (2008)), showing the simple lives of farmers in contemporary Southern France.
Movie - 2023, 2h 15m • as Self (archive footage)
55 years ago, on October 1 1968, the first brand advertising spot appeared on the French television screen. Over the next three decades, thousands of creative little films would seduce and build our collective memory. Kitschy or cult spots, humor, slogans, music, stars, gimmicks, grand spectacle or sex appeal: during its golden age, how did advertising convince? Thierry Ardisson has brought together almost 400 advertising clips to relive the era of the conquest of minds and wallets.
Movie - 1983, 2h 15m • as himself
A fortuitous meeting, late one afternoon, in the garden of the Tuileries, of one or two cameras, a tape recorder, and three cameramen/directors, Raymond Depardon, Jean Rouch, and Philippe Costantini.
Movie - 1990, 2h 15m • as Self
An almost blind writer moves to a hidden property in an Alpine village with a female friend, Renata. The two play sado-masochistic games including long recitals of elaborate texts. A neighbor, Serge, gets interested in the mysterious couple.
Movie - 2011, 2h 15m • as Self
Carrying on Luc Moullets unfinished screenplay about the theft of la pénélope, a camera created by Aaton and capable of recording equally well in 35 mm and digitally, LA ROUGE ET LA NOIRE is a film in kaleidoscope form. The portrait of Aatons founder, Jean-Pierre Beauviala creator, inter alia, of the time-code and the light cameras used by the New Wave (in particular the bush camera specially designed for Jean Rouch) is centered around the basic plot introduced by two women thieves who talk as voice-overs, and whose identities will only be revealed at the end.
Movie - 2008, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
Documentary Short
Movie - 1985, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A film about Raymond Depardon's photography in his native countryside from the documentary TV series "Territoires photographiques" for France 3 and INA.
Movie - 1986, 2h 15m • as Narrator (voice)
It is slow, succinct and absolutely riveting. With his photojournalist's eye, and simple but inspired camera work, Depardon plunges us into both the sounds and silences of a day and a night in the city.
Movie - 2003, 2h 15m • as Narrator (voice)
Loosely based on Diégo Brosset’s novel, set in the Sahara at the beginning of the twentieth century. A man of the desert is adopted by some hunters and becomes a highly respected guide while trying to escape colonization.
Movie - 1984, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
This documentary is an autobiography based on director Depardon's voice, his face and pictures from his childhood which are all mixed together on screen and contrasted with selected pictures he shot between 1957 and 1977 and now comments on.
Movie - 2005, 2h 15m • as Self (voice) (uncredited)
The Garet farm is for sale. Brothers Jean and Raymond Depardon chat about the past and the future of the farm.
Movie - 2013, 2h 15m • as himself
In lights and colors, Raymond Depardon photographs according to his desires. He retraces his steps, wanders around the places he loves or discovers: Buenos Aires, Paris, Los Angeles, Honolulu, the Mediterranean, Faya-Largeau, Modra and his peasant friends's homes. A portrait in the atmosphere of a free man.
Movie - 2012, 2h 15m • Main Cast Role
A journal, a voyage through time. He photographs France, she rediscovers the unseen footage he has so carefully kept: his first steps behind the camera, his TV reports from around the world, snatches of their memories and of our history.