For the holidays, this might be the ideal gift if you've ever dreamed of living in a French film from the 1960s. Philippe R. Doumic. The Eye of Cinema, with its 200 black and white portraits, is the souvenir book of an eternally young era.
All the icons of French cinema from the 1960s posed for him: Anna Karina, Alain Delon, and Catherine Deneuve, to name a few. Some of his photographs have become legendary, known to every film buff, like the image of Jean-Luc Godard, sunglasses on and cigarette in hand, examining a piece of film. Yet, during his lifetime, Philippe R. Doumic never achieved fame. When he passed away in 2013, many had forgotten his name, while his photographs continued to grace magazine covers. They bear witness to an era when French cinema was rich, youthful, and vibrant.
At that time, when the New Wave was beginning to make its mark, Philippe R. Doumic was hired by Unifrance, the agency that promotes the image of French cinema internationally.
In a decade, he produced over 20,000 portraits. Upon his death, as was often the case, when the house needed to be sorted and emptied, his daughter, Laurence Doumic-Roux, discovered two large boxes, untouched for years. Inside were hundreds of negatives, including many previously unpublished photographs. Discovering them today in the beautiful book published by Capricci, accompanied by a moving introduction, is like stepping back sixty years, as if it were yesterday.
Jacques Perrin is so young, Jean Marais so handsome. All these filmmakers—Agnès Varda, François Truffaut, Jacques Demy—they're not yet forty, they still have their whole lives ahead of them. And these faces, not entirely unfamiliar: Dany Carrel, Geneviève Page, Jean-Louis Maury. What became of them? Here they are, at least, frozen in their happiness for eternity, in this extraordinary collection of portraits that will delight all film lovers and those feeling nostalgic.
Philippe R. Doumic. The Eye of Cinema
Text by Laurence Doumic-Roux
Capricci Editions
55,90 €