The photographer we film is a bit like the “irrigated sprinkler,” that is, the one who suffers the same fate he inflicted on others.
Pointing her camera at Gabor Szilasi, the young director Joannie Lafrenière, herself a photographer, just repeated what the famous Montreal photographer of Hungarian descent allowed herself to do on thousands upon thousands of people. More than 80,000 negatives of all the ordinary Quebecers he photographed are now safe for everlasting life in the vaults of the Library and Archives Canada.
Even if this man, whom everyone only calls Gabor by his first name, is at the end of a career as memorable as that of Henri Cartier-Bresson, one of the most famous photographers in history, too few know him, even if most could on to see his photos. I met Gabor a few times a long time ago when he was doing his job at the Office du Film du Québec. Hundreds of photography students at Cégep du Vieux Montréal and Concordia University will long remember this warm-hearted and talkative professor, who after so many years still marvels at the magic that happens in a darkroom.
GABOR FALLS IN LOVE
Like the well-known film producers Robert Lantos and André Link, Gabor fled Hungary in 1956 when the communist government mercilessly crushed the civil uprising. A little older than his two Hungarian compatriots Lantos and Link, Gabor first tried to escape from Budapest in 1949, but was caught and thrown in prison. After a short stay in Paris, Gabor settled in Montreal. Like Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault (the directors of the film Pour la suite du monde), he fell in love with the people of Île-aux-Coudres, Charlevoix and Bas-du-Fleuve. Gabor photographed her from all angles.
The documentary by Joannie Lafrenière shows the hero constantly with his camera to his eye as if it were a monocle or eye patch. One of the things the film does best is bringing the color image that Gabor just froze in his camera to the big screen in black and white. This trick has the merit of reminding us that a scene that seemed banal even in color, once framed by a brilliant photographer, turns out to be extraordinary in black and white.
PART OF OUR HISTORY
Joannie’s film, which has already toured several festivals including Toronto’s Hot Docs, the Atlanta Film Festival and Vues sur mer de Gaspé, where it received a special mention, will be released tomorrow night (Friday) at the Cinéma Beaubien. It will then be shown at the Cinéma Le Clap in Sainte-Foy and then at the Maison du Cinéma in Sherbrooke.
The documentary often shows Gabor thinking out loud. “Photography, he says, is a poem, while cinema is a novel! »
If I had to paraphrase Gabor, I would rather say that Joannie Lafenière’s film is a “river novel”. His film lasts 1 hour and 41 minutes, is often repetitive and drags on. The headmaster would do well to step back and see him again. She would no doubt be swept away by the undeniable benevolence and obvious humanity of this exceptional photographer, whose photos have marked an entire period of our history. “My father, his daughter Andréa rightly says, it’s just creativity and love! »
