Journal De France review

Acclaimed photojournalist Raymond Depardon has been shooting documentaries for over 50 years.

In this film essay, Claudine Nougaret dives into his archive while the man himself tours France, taking photos through an old-fashioned view camera.

The framing device is charming but slight; we learn little about Depardon beyond his passion for imagery, but his back catalogue teems with riveting glimpses of history: recording civil wars and hostage crises or observing a hilarious courtroom stand-off.

Even in fragments, the humanism of Depardon’s gaze moves and inspires.