Institute History
Description
As a down-and-out young photographer in Paris, the Hungarian-born Andre Friedman reinvented himself as an American named Robert Capa, and suddenly his pictures began to sell. Poetically, Friedman became the man he had created-a successful American photographer always away on assignment. A handsome, talented renegade, Robert Capa captured thousands of breathtaking images from all over the world, becoming a celebrated photographer specializing in documenting war.
Anne Makepeace's newest film, Robert Capa In Love and War, expertly brings to life a legendary photographer as well as an intriguing man about town. Makepeace combines Capa's own striking images with perfectly matched archival footage. Capa's life unfolds as the dramatic story of a principled, adventuresome wanderer with a camera who wished to tell stories through pictures. In war, he followed the infantry, not the big brass, and in his civilian photos, he chose to show the action of life rather than compose portraits. Not one for avoiding dangerous situations, he was the only photographer in the first wave at Normandy, snapping shots as soldiers fell around him.
Using an elegant score and well-placed interviews with Capa's colleagues and friends, Makepeace crafts a richly textured, seamless story about an extraordinarily captivating man.