Bresson was a great filmmaker, probably known best for A Man Escaped or L'Argent. He never gained a lot of fame in his lifetime and rarely used professional actors after his first several films. The National Gallery of Art is showing a retrospective of his work this coming month that I am definitely trying to get to, info below.
Robert Bresson
March 3, 10, 11, 17, 18, 24, 25, 31
April 1
April 1
Robert Bresson (1901–1999), one of the most refined and rigorous of
filmmakers, was also one of the most spiritual—indeed his Jansenist
perspective is fundamental to the coherence of his work. Pared-down
narratives and understated moral observations are realized through an
economy of means hardly matched in the cinema. From early on, the use of
nonprofessional actors, restrained though elegant camera style,
orchestrated dialogue, embedded sound effects and music, and elliptical
storytelling became his hallmarks. Bresson managed, with self-imposed
rules, to execute works of passion and suspense while still observing
the mysterious movements of fate. This retrospective of all extant works
has been organized by James Quandt and the Cinemathèque Ontario. With
special thanks to the Cultural Services of the French Embassy, the
Institut français, and Paramount.
Les Anges du Péché
March 3 at 2:00
Anne-Marie, a novice in the Sisters of Bethany convent, has to
confront her own bourgeois background and immature moral character when
she takes on the rehabilitation of the delinquent Thérèse, imprisoned
for crimes committed by a lover. Completed while the German army was
still occupying France, Les Anges du Péché was written in part by the noted dramatist Jean Giraudoux. (1943, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 100 minutes)
Pickpocket
March 3 at 4:15
Introduction by Keith Cohen
The all but lost art of the pickpocket—an occupation dependent on a perpetrator's economy of gesture and expressionless face (traits typical of Bresson's actors)—was the subject of one of the director's most memorable works. With a nod to Crime and Punishment, Pickpocket's portrait of a student consumed by a fatal fixation is so suited to the director's formalist practice that the understated action actually reveals a thorough knowledge of the subject matter—displayed in a tour-de-force sequence of takings, passings, and disposals in the Gare de Lyon. Untrained actors appear instinctively to grasp the maneuvers of this ancient form of scam. (1959, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 75 minutes)
The all but lost art of the pickpocket—an occupation dependent on a perpetrator's economy of gesture and expressionless face (traits typical of Bresson's actors)—was the subject of one of the director's most memorable works. With a nod to Crime and Punishment, Pickpocket's portrait of a student consumed by a fatal fixation is so suited to the director's formalist practice that the understated action actually reveals a thorough knowledge of the subject matter—displayed in a tour-de-force sequence of takings, passings, and disposals in the Gare de Lyon. Untrained actors appear instinctively to grasp the maneuvers of this ancient form of scam. (1959, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 75 minutes)
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne
March 10 at 4:30
Hélène (Maria Casarès), doubting her lover's devotion, plots a bitter
revenge. She will entice him into a relationship with a prostitute,
taking pains to disguise the true occupation of her innocent decoy.
Robert Bresson's screenplay and Jean Cocteau's dialogue for Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne loosely derive from an 18th-century story, Denis Diderot's Jacques le Fataliste et Son Maître.
Though the film's mise-en-scène appears outwardly conventional for its
period, Bresson's interior psychological rigor is abundantly evident:
"one could hardly be anywhere but in Bresson's world"—Tom Milne. (1945,
35 mm, French with subtitles, 90 minutes)
Diary of a Country Priest
March 11 at 4:30
By 1950 Bresson had attained his mature style—rational and reserved,
with carefully calibrated sound, ellipses, a stately pace, and low-key
performances. In this adaptation of Catholic fiction writer Georges
Bernanos's 1936 Le Journal d’un Curé de Campagne, the director
follows the novel's main idea and dialogue—the journal entries of a
young rural clergyman—and creates a controlled yet poignant cinematic
experience. The naive priest, settling into his first assignment after
seminary, dedicates himself to his local parishioners who, in turn,
often mock him and fail to appreciate his work. (1950, 35 mm, French
with subtitles, 114 minutes)
Four Nights of a Dreamer
March 17 at 4:30
Though Dostoyevsky's 1848 tale White Nights has had a number of cinematic interpretations over the years, none have been as visually compelling as Bresson's Four Nights of a Dreamer (Quatre Nuits d’un
Rêveur), which shifts the setting from Saint Petersburg to Paris.
The protagonist, an artist who dreams of finding an idyllic love,
discovers a young woman who has just lost her lover. Following a fateful
first meeting on the Pont Neuf, the couple shares three more
rendezvous, until finally the woman's truant suitor reappears. "I can
think of
nothing so ravishing as this strange romantic vision of the city, the
Seine, the softly lighted boats in the night"—Roger Greenspun. (1972, 35
mm, French with subtitles, 91 minutes)
Au Hasard, Balthazar
followed by Mouchette
followed by Mouchette
March 18 at 4:30
The donkey Balthazar, separated from his young companion, Marie (Anne
Wiazemsky), is the star of Bresson's taut parable. Subjected to
different owners—a teacher, a baker, a schoolgirl, even the
circus—Balthazar is mute witness to humanity's depravity, as each new
twist brings both love and pain but always a new insult. The donkey
bears his anguish with grace, and the film culminates in a kind of
deification in a field filled with sheep. "Bresson's supreme masterpiece
and one of the greatest movies ever made"—J. Hoberman. (1966, 35 mm,
French with subtitles, 95 minutes)
Georges Bernanos's Nouvelle Histoire de Mouchette was the source for Bresson's next feature, a study of a mute and solitary village schoolgirl forced to care for an ailing mother and brother. Hardly an idyllic existence, yet Mouchette is cannily able to survive on her instincts. The use of random sounds is effective—not only strategically placed tones throughout the narrative, but also the poignant use of Monteverdi on the music track during the final sequence. "Like the donkey Balthazar, Mouchette has no language with which to express despair"—Judy Bloch. (1967, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 82 minutes)
Georges Bernanos's Nouvelle Histoire de Mouchette was the source for Bresson's next feature, a study of a mute and solitary village schoolgirl forced to care for an ailing mother and brother. Hardly an idyllic existence, yet Mouchette is cannily able to survive on her instincts. The use of random sounds is effective—not only strategically placed tones throughout the narrative, but also the poignant use of Monteverdi on the music track during the final sequence. "Like the donkey Balthazar, Mouchette has no language with which to express despair"—Judy Bloch. (1967, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 82 minutes)
The Devil, Probably
March 24 at 2:00
"My sickness is that I see things clearly," remarks Antoine Monnier, the student protagonist of The Devil, Probably (Le Diable Probablement).
Anxious over the world's problems and growing greed, he begins in
protest to plan his own death. We see fragments of his life, his
spiritual decline in a world "where even the churches are empty, dirty
places." A scathing look at the inhumanity of modern life, often via
carefully edited documentary footage, the film is both "an affirmation
of a purity no longer possible within society, and a portent of the
millions of deaths, not self-willed, which must inevitably follow given
the course of society's crimes"—Verina Glaessner. (1977, 35 mm, French
with subtitles, 90 minutes)
A Man Escaped
March 25 at 4:30
In a cell in the Fort Montluc military prison in occupied Lyon,
Lieutenant François Leterrier starts thinking of escape. Moments of
chance are vital (a friend's unsuccessful escape attempt, the unwelcome
roommate who must be enlisted or killed, intense focus on small objects)
and, in a very quiet film, the orchestration of sounds—footsteps,
interjections of the Kyrie from Mozart's Mass, taps on the wall, and the
squeak of a guard's bicycle. Bresson based his first solo screenplay on
a first-person account by French Resistance fighter André Devigny (who
served as technical advisor), creating a work of intense mysticism and
mortal suspense. (1956, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 95 minutes)
The Trial of Joan of Arc
March 31 at 2:30
Court transcripts from Joan of Arc's 15th-century heresy trial have been the basis for many works, from Shaw's drama Saint Joan, to Dreyer's silent film La Passion de Jeanne d’Arc, to Bresson's The Trial of Joan of Arc (Procès de Jeanne d’Arc).
The direct, unadorned aesthetic of the last carries a sense of
detachment—her case is presented without pretext or emotion. Voices and
other sounds, such as the verbal invectives delivered by church
officials and sycophants, play a critical role in setting the tone.
Interestingly, there is no music. "To the faithful—witnesses to the
action in the courtroom—God is revealed through Joan's voice (as Joan's
'voices' had revealed God to her)"—Robert Droguet. (1962, 35 mm, French
with subtitles, 65 minutes)
Lancelot du Lac
March 31 at 4:00
In Lancelot du Lac (Lancelot of the Lake) Bresson's focus is
the knights' return to King Arthur's court after their failed quest for
the Grail. A sense that their fellowship is in decline casts a somber
mood, and the knights are anxious and unsettled. A deconstruction of the
legend leading to a devastating finale, the spare narrative draws
attention to random sounds like the clink of armor, and to visual
details—the centerpiece is a tournament viewed mainly through oblique
shots of horses' legs. With the roundtable about to come to an end,
Bresson foregrounds the love of Lancelot and Guenièvre—"the one positive
force amid the social decay in Camelot"—Kristin Thompson. (1974, 35 mm,
French with subtitles, 95 minutes)
Une Femme Douce
followed by L'Argent
followed by L'Argent
April 1 at 4:00
At the time he started to film in color, Bresson's work also turned darker. Une Femme Douce
is another Dostoyevsky adaptation (of the Russian writer's 1876
elliptical short story "A Gentle Creature"). The suicide of a young wife
(Dominique Sanda) leads her bewildered husband, the owner of a pawn
shop, to narrate their story in an attempt to make sense of the tragedy.
Was it because of something misaligned in their marriage? "The
extraordinary thing about the film is that any interpretation can be
read into it, still leaving, undisturbed at the bottom of the pool, an
indefinable sense of despair"—Tom Milne. (1969, 35 mm, French with
subtitles, 88 minutes)
In L’Argent, an innocent man is caught in an escalating cycle of evil when a forged 500-franc note, casually passed off, leads to bribery, imprisonment, a marriage breakup, multiple murders, and finally his arrest. Adapted from Leo Tolstoy's The False Note, "L’Argent has the manner of an official report, the tone of a spiritual autopsy . . . telling its ruthless tale without once raising its voice"—Russell Merritt. (1982, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 85 minutes)
In L’Argent, an innocent man is caught in an escalating cycle of evil when a forged 500-franc note, casually passed off, leads to bribery, imprisonment, a marriage breakup, multiple murders, and finally his arrest. Adapted from Leo Tolstoy's The False Note, "L’Argent has the manner of an official report, the tone of a spiritual autopsy . . . telling its ruthless tale without once raising its voice"—Russell Merritt. (1982, 35 mm, French with subtitles, 85 minutes)
No comments:
Post a Comment