Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne is great, has some really breathtaking scenes. It's definitely an early work, but I'd butter it in the better half of his.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 21:35 (seven years ago) link
otm -- I love early films where an artist's processes are still embryonic (e.g. Tori Amos' debut)
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 22:11 (seven years ago) link
butter? have no idea how that happened...
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 22:21 (seven years ago) link
tbh Bresson's rep for emotional devastation is one reason I haven't gone out of my way to see, eg, the donkey, so I was actually pretty intrigued by Les Dames, which sounds a little too mannered to be too depressing (?). Just thought I'd check in with y'all since the thread got bumped
― rob, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 22:25 (seven years ago) link
I butter both halves, personally.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 16 November 2016 22:26 (seven years ago) link
The Donkey is overrated. I also rewatched Mouchette recently, and was a bit disappointed, remembered it better. I think his fifties films are the best, of course, but after that I prefer his 70's films like Four Nights of the Dreamer and The Devil, Probably. But they're advanced work, they definitely only work if you accept the style completely. Lancelot is a bridge too far, even for me.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 22:36 (seven years ago) link
Lancelot and Country Priest are my two favourites. I wouldn't say The Donkey is overrated but it's the closest to that bridge too far for me.
― Gukbe, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 22:38 (seven years ago) link
Lancelot is just too silly... I mean, the skeleton hanging from a tree with his armor still on... Every Bresson film has a minimalist feel, but Lancelot just feels too wrong to me. And it's not just because it's a historical film, Jeanne d'Arc is much better. Agreed on Country Priest, that one is fantastic, though.
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 23:25 (seven years ago) link
Balthazar is the best - the scene where the donkey encounters the other caged animals in particular is a transcendent bit of filmmaking. I don't understand what this 'bridge too far' business means in this context, but Lancelot is great as well, even if the echoes with Monty Python and the Holy Grail (especially the way violence is treated in both of them) is a bit disconcerting.
The only Bresson I've seen that comes close to being a disappointment is A Gentle Woman (haven't watched Four Nights of a Dreamer).
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 17 November 2016 15:23 (seven years ago) link
“I began writing these notes 20 years ago. At that time, I still went to see films. Now I don’t go any more. I’ll tell you why: I don’t go, as I say in the book, because I can’t abide these actors who—in close-ups that reveal every detail—are there only to provide mimicry and theatrical gestures. And this feeling has grown even stronger—something has changed and I simply can’t do it, I can’t bear to see it or hear it.”
http://lithub.com/robert-bresson-im-not-a-director-i-am-a-filmmaker/
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Thursday, 17 November 2016 19:41 (seven years ago) link
Another link which I saw shared on Facebook. There was some chat that Bresson was a bit of a big fibber sometimes, that he was in fact a frequent moviegoer, and that he continued to work with 'professional' actors throughout his career.
http://www.publicbooks.org/artmedia/the-intrusion-artist
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Thursday, 17 November 2016 19:51 (seven years ago) link
notes on the cinematographer is good to dip into
― diary of a mod how's life (wins), Thursday, 17 November 2016 19:57 (seven years ago) link
A Man Escaped is such an amazing movie. It maintains the doomy tautness to the death and has really brilliant use of off camera events and truncated faceless nazis to create atmosphere of indifferent evil. Brilliant use of Mozart as well.
― calzino, Wednesday, 23 November 2016 01:12 (seven years ago) link
L'Argent creates the same effects with the so-called villains.
― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 November 2016 01:13 (seven years ago) link
RB is Dennis Cooper's fave artist
http://denniscooperblog.com/happy-birthday-to-me-robert-bresson-day-restored/
― Supercreditor (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 21:13 (seven years ago) link
A Facebook friend asked just the other day if there was any 'good' anti-Bresson criticism; as with Ozu, it seems thin on the ground.
― Darcy Sarto (Ward Fowler), Wednesday, 11 January 2017 21:43 (seven years ago) link
― Frederik B, Wednesday, 16 November 2016 23:25 (nine months ago)
Oh man the skeletons with their armour still is so grimly effective and surreal that John Boorman re-used it for Excalibur, where knights dying from the plague were hung on trees. Im halfway throguh Lancelot, but I just wanted to reguister how unique the tone is, how great it looks, how Brittanic Arthurian it feels in an uninhibited, unabandoned way.
― glumdalclitch, Tuesday, 29 August 2017 01:30 (six years ago) link
I want to agree with yuo about Diary of a Country Priest though. I haven't watched Jean D'Arc yet.
L'Argent is one of his best, isn't it? I was heistant after Le diable probablement, but this is much more enjoyable.
― glumdalclitch, Tuesday, 6 February 2018 16:17 (six years ago) link
Yep. I bought the Criterion last year, a rarity these days.
― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 6 February 2018 16:18 (six years ago) link
Saw this image on Facebook today - Tarkovsky, Welles, Bresson at Cannes in 1983
https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjK9cD_2JHZAhVM6aQKHbOoCCAQjRx6BAgAEAY&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%2Fpin%2F790663278303356930%2F&psig=AOvVaw0x-SOHD5705p6ADOBKcCom&ust=1518020338204499
― Agharta Christie (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 6 February 2018 16:21 (six years ago) link
Reading Bresson's Notes on the Cinematograph, which is half great advice and half "wow, this guy is a massive asshole"
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 21:12 (five years ago) link
it's only 88 pages, all brief diary entries, aphorisms, self-reminders, and some veiled criticism. there's a lot of fantastic advice and insights, this is the one I've found most true so far:
What no human eye is capable of catching, no pencil, brush, pen of pinning down, your camera catches without knowing what it is, and pins it down with a machine's scrupulous indifference.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 21:18 (five years ago) link
I give that book to a friend as a birthday present and then he proceeded to make a great show of adding his own marginal notes to every page and I was thinking “no, dude, don’t go there.”
― Buckaroo Can't Fail (James Redd and the Blecchs), Wednesday, 14 November 2018 22:02 (five years ago) link
Laugh at a bad reputation. Fear a good one that you could not sustain.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 14 November 2018 22:56 (five years ago) link
donkey film = perfect film
― flappy bird, Monday, 8 April 2019 16:19 (five years ago) link
just saw A Man Escaped, it was pretty great!
― Dan S, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 02:16 (four years ago) link
Gonna assign Pickpocket to my students next week as an example of sound design and editing.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 9 October 2019 02:20 (four years ago) link
that's my next one
― Dan S, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 02:21 (four years ago) link
also just noticed that Diary of a Country Priest is on the criterion channel
― Dan S, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 02:26 (four years ago) link
saw it originally years ago, only remember the feelings of estrangement and loneliness
― Dan S, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 02:40 (four years ago) link
remember really liking Au Hasard Balthazar, looking forward to seeing that one again
― Dan S, Wednesday, 9 October 2019 02:53 (four years ago) link
loved Pickpocket as much as A Man Escaped
― Dan S, Thursday, 17 October 2019 01:38 (four years ago) link
I Lancelot of the Lake a lot. It’s strange.
― circa1916, Thursday, 17 October 2019 01:59 (four years ago) link
I like*
want to see Lancelot du Lac, not sure how at the moment, going to watch Diary of a Country Priest again and looking forward to Mouchette and L'Argent
― Dan S, Thursday, 17 October 2019 03:13 (four years ago) link
yeah that one rules
The Devil, Probably escaped me
― flappy bird, Thursday, 17 October 2019 04:06 (four years ago) link
loved man escaped, thought pickpocket was trash soz
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 17 October 2019 07:26 (four years ago) link
I assigned Pickpocket to my students this week, and they've written well about it.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 October 2019 10:17 (four years ago) link
don't know how my post could be improved on really
though i should have mentioned that the photography is just jawdroppingly gorgeous
― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand), Thursday, 17 October 2019 10:40 (four years ago) link
just saw Mouchette, it is also great, with perfectly economical storytelling
― Dan S, Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:01 (four years ago) link
didn't know Bresson beyond Balthazar before now
― Dan S, Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:10 (four years ago) link
all three of the ones I've seen - A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Mouchette - have a ruthless, closed-off quality
― Dan S, Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:31 (four years ago) link
Good description
― Ferlinghetti Hvorostovsky (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 27 October 2019 22:40 (four years ago) link
L'Argent is another incredible film. I really like his style as a director
― Dan S, Friday, 8 November 2019 01:00 (four years ago) link
A Man Escaped is so good. The truncated Gestapo guards in it is something that sticks in the memory, if I'm remembering it right you only see angled/restricted shots of them mostly and that adds to the feeling of de-humanised hopeless dread.
― calzino, Friday, 8 November 2019 01:15 (four years ago) link
enjoyed reading Ebert's tribute article from when he died in 1999:
https://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/robert-bresson-was-master-of-understatement
― Dan S, Friday, 8 November 2019 01:32 (four years ago) link
I like the quote: "If the eye is entirely won, give nothing or almost nothing to the ear. One cannot be at the same time all eye and all ear."
― Dan S, Friday, 8 November 2019 01:54 (four years ago) link
I went to a screening of Pickpocket once and another random guy who was there followed me afterward trying to get me to admit it was pretentious bullshit.
― Chris L, Friday, 8 November 2019 02:10 (four years ago) link
Good one
― Irae Louvin (James Redd and the Blecchs), Saturday, 9 November 2019 02:41 (four years ago) link