At one point in Avedon, Ron Howard’s documentary about the famed photographer Richard Avedon, the claim is made that Avedon captured much of the 20th century. It’s a bold assertion, but Howard’s film, which distills a dizzying archive provided by the Richard Avedon Foundation, makes a compelling case over its 100-minute runtime.
After becoming the preeminent photographer at the height of American fashion magazines, Avedon was the inspiration behind the Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire musical comedy Funny Face. His notoriety led him to capture the most famous faces in entertainment, politics, society and culture, from James Baldwin and Allen Ginsberg to Marilyn Monroe and Charlie Chaplin to the Reagans and Warhol’s Factory. In between his portraiture and commercial work (you have Avedon to thank for Brooke Shields’ seminal Calvin Klein campaign), he documented the rubble of post-War Paris, the architects of the American Civil Rights movement and the napalm victims of the Vietnam War.
All of this, as well as the photographer’s personal life and more, is explored in Avedon, which is getting a special screening in Cannes on May 17.
Howard is no stranger to biodocs. With a focus on prolific creatives, he has directed docs about Luciano Pavarotti (2019’s Pavarotti) and Jim Henson (2024’s Jim Henson Idea Man), the latter of which also bowed at Cannes. He says of his choice of subjects, “We’re all appreciative of their work, but maybe we didn’t recognize quite what it entailed.”
