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Raymond CAUCHETIER (1920–2021)
See original version (French)
14
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Raymond CAUCHETIER (1920–2021)
See original version (French)
Estimate €2,500 - €3,500
Voluntary lot
Description
Raymond CAUCHETIER (1920–2021)
*À bout de souffle*, Jean-Luc Godard. *Le Baiser des Champs-Élysées*. Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, Champs-Élysées, Paris, 1959.
Period silver print, printed in late 1959, signed in pencil and numbered “P004–56” (lab reference), with copyright and title stamps on the reverse.
Dimensions: 17.5 × 22.5 cm
“Another photograph has become almost as famous: the one known as *The Kiss on the Champs-Élysées*. Paradoxically, it does not correspond to any close-up in the film. That day, Jean-Luc Godard had set out to film the two actors walking up the Champs-Élysées once again, but, to avoid crowds gathering, the camera had been set up on the roof of a building on the avenue. It was a wide shot, and Jean Seberg was saying goodbye to Belmondo, planting a quick kiss on his cheek. Filmed from the sixth floor, the scene went virtually unnoticed, and I thought that was a shame. So I asked Jean and Jean-Paul to re-enact it for me. It only lasted a few seconds.
Like many of the photographs I took during the Nouvelle Vague era, this close-up of Seberg and Belmondo on the Champs-Élysées spent half a century in a box, all but forgotten. It was only very recently, and to my great surprise, that this image achieved worldwide success […] it evokes a defining moment; it illustrates a remarkable chapter in the history of cinema."
Raymond C in: Raymond Cauchetier, *La Nouvelle Vague*, preface by Philippe Garner, Paris, Hugo Image, 2022, p. 17.
Provenance:
Raymond and Kaoru Cauchetier Collection
Bibliography:
Raymond CAUCHETIER, *La Nouvelle Vague*, preface by Philippe Garner, Paris, Hugo Image, 2022, pp. 17, 151 and 235.
BERGALA, Alain. Godard au travail: les années 60. Paris: Cahiers du cinéma, 2006, p. 18.
SEBERG, Jean (with a foreword by Antoine de Baecque). *Jean Seberg: album, photos and documents*. Paris: Mercure de France, 2014, p. 60.
DE BAECQUE, Antoine. *La Nouvelle Vague: portrait of a generation*. Paris: Flammarion, 1998 & 2009, front cover.
DOUIN, Jean-Luc. Screens of Desire. Paris: Éditions du Chêne-Hachette Livre, 2000, p. 16.
Expert Analysis:
Taken on the set of Jean-Luc Godard’s *À bout de souffle*, this iconic photograph shows Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo kissing in front of a newsstand on the Champs-Élysées, an image which, however, does not appear in the final cut of the film.
Cauchetier points out that this is not a still from the long panoramic shot filmed from the rooftops: the kiss, being too far away, remained almost invisible in that shot. He therefore chose to “direct the photograph in this way”, emphasising Seberg’s distant tenderness and Belmondo’s amiable indifference, to capture the spirit of the film in a single moment.
Over the years, the press and the public have made this image—which “should never have existed”—famous, to the point where it has become one of the most recognisable images of the French New Wave, on a par with the film’s posters.
Exhibition(s):
Paris, Salon de la Photo, Porte de Versailles, ‘Flashback on Raymond Cauchetier’, November 2013
Jimei, Jimei x Arles 2020: International Photo Festival, November 2020–January 2021
Further information:
© Raymond Cauchetier / rights: Kaoru Cauchetier
See original version (French)
Auto-translation. Refer to original language for legal validity.
About the sale
Ode to Love | The Kaoru and Raymond Cauchetier Collection
Auction location
Auction time
10/12/2026 at 5:30 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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