Film review: Imagine... The Many Lives of William Klein, BBC One, 2012, 60m.

Made in advance of a retrospective of Klein’s work at the Tate Modern when he was 82 years old and very much a part of the design of the exhibit, this film serves as an informative introduction to Klein’s career.  BBC executive and presenter Alan Yentob escorts Klein from his Paris studio to the site of his childhood home in NYC, where they walk the old neighborhoods in which Klein produced much of his iconic street photography, and meet with some of the models with whom Klein worked during his years at Vogue.  Most interesting to note is that many of his street images were posed, and many were also taken with one of Cartier-Bresson’s cameras (though how he came into possession of such is not revealed).

Two copies of the film are currently available at YouTube, in addition to at least one copy on peer-to-peer sites.

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