ROBERT BRESSON
1901 – 1999, Fr.



"Bresson is perhaps the only man in the cinema to have achieved the perfect fusion of the finished work with a concept theoretically formulated beforehand. I know of no other artist as consistent as he is in this respect. His guiding principle was the elimination of what is known as expressiveness, in the sense that he wanted to do away with the frontier between the image and actual life; that is, to render life itself graphic and expressive. No special feeding in of material, nothing laboured, nothing that smacks of deliberate generalisation."
- Andrei Tarkovsky

"My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water."
- Robert Bresson

FILMOGRAPHY
1943 Les Anges du péché (Angels of the Streets)
1945 Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne)
1951 Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest)
1956 Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped)
1959 Pickpocket
1962 Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (The Trial of Joan of Arc)
1966 Au hasard Balthazar (Balthazar)
1967 Mouchette
1969 Une femme douce (A Gentle Woman)
1971 Quatre nuits d'un rêveur (Four Nights of a Dreamer)
1974 Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot of the Lake)
1977 Le diable probablement (The Devil Probably)
1983 L'argent (Money)

Recommended First Watch: A Man Escaped

A Man Escaped for first watch, no doubt.

Balthazar is one of the best movies I've ever seen for sure, I've only seen it once and it left an impression on me, would watch it again, but my DVD's back in Cali. Pickpocket was next on my list, but I guess I'll go for Man Escaped Instead.

drew i rarely remark on your red/bold system because i usually agree with it, but i think "the ladies of the bois de bologne" should be bolded... it's different from the rest of his work (the cocteau influence is obvious and huge) but it is regarded as a major movie, in french cinema, at least
you may have read this essay, but in case not:
http://www.criterion.com/current/posts/ ... rt-bresson

You are correct. Bolded.

"It is not to speak of originality in relation to me, I would rather speak in relation to anyone else at all rather than me. But there is, in this connection, a definition of originality which is magnificent and which could perhaps serve us- but perhaps by transforming it, by rewriting the thing--it is: "Originality is wanting to do as others do, but without ever succeeding."

<3

Just watched The Trial of Joan of Arc. Didn't think it was particularly brilliant. Not a bad film at all, but I kinda fail to see what reason Bresson might have had for making the film. Am I missing something?