When one conjures iconic memories from cinema history, they might be of your favorite shot or sequence, but my mind often travels to behind-the-scenes photos featuring director, cast, crew, and beyond.
These photographs often have a unifying connection: they come from Magnum Photos. Since 1947, the photographic cooperative — founded by such iconic names as Robert Capa amd Henri Cartier-Bresson — has been responsible for legendary images and now they deservedly are the subject of a documentary.
Directed by Sophie Bassaler, Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum, premiered at Telluride last month and will be debut on FilmStruck this Friday. Along the documentary, they will also be streaming a selection of short films each featuring a different photographer, as well as The Misfits and Voyage to Italy, both featured in the film.
We’re pleased to exclusively debut a clip from the documentary, along with a gallery of Magnum images, which can be seen below.
For seventy years, the photojournalists of Magnum have observed the world of cinema starting when founder Robert Capa took Magnum’s first photo of cinema – a photo of Ingrid Bergman on the set of Alfred Hitchcock’s Notorious, cementing the relationship between the agency and the world of films.
Using original, unseen stories and interviews including Bergman’s daughter, Isabella Rossellini, Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum tells the story of a confrontation of two seemingly opposite worlds: fiction and reality, and offers a unique look behind the scenes of cinema in the making.
Cinema Through the Eye of Magnum begins streaming on FilmStruck starting Friday, October 20.