Reporters(1981)

Reporters is a documentary that captures the frenetic world of Paris press photographers in October 1980. Co-founder of the Gamma press agency Raymond Depardon spent a month shadowing these photojournalists as they staked out restaurants and hotels, waiting for celebrities to emerge. The film cuts between long stretches of tedium and explosive moments of action—cameras firing as subjects appear. Depardon documents how different public figures react to the relentless pursuit: some, like then-mayor Jacques Chirac, become unwitting comedians, while others, including Catherine Deneuve, Gene Kelly, and Jean-Luc Godard, navigate the chaos with varying degrees of grace. The result is an intimate, unglamorous look at the machinery behind celebrity photography and the cat-and-mouse game between hunters and hunted.