The Films of Robert Bresson

UGGGH. Netflix has pulled L'Argent from its roster. Saw it years ago but wanted to refresh my memory.

Yeah the New Yorker Video DVD is long OOP. I saw it when Doc Films played it here the year before last and I'll see it again when it plays at GSFC (which would make it my most-watched Bresson).

I watched L'Argent on Hulu Plus a few weeks ago. Don't know if it's still there.

bleh, we're not getting this retro til may

getting it again in Brooklyn in April....

I didn't know this abt Man Escaped:

Original author Andre Devigny served as adviser on the film, which was actually shot in the same Montluc prison where he was incarcerated. Devigny also loaned Bresson the ropes and hooks he had used in his escape.

iirc, l'argent is part of Criterion's hulu lineup, with a dvd/blu forthcoming.

also: Olive films has The Devil, Probably in their pipeline.

Four Nights of a Dreamer was brilliant — certainly explodes the narrative of his oeuvre sliding from bleak to bleaker in his later films. I had read that it was supposedly more "comedic" than his others but I didn't think it would be so funny! I hope a new DVD is in the works.

it has been a while since i saw it but i remember thinking it was kinda bresson's blow up, maybe just in setting - something so funny about even just seeing the bressonian leads hazily marching along against a backdrop of like guitar-strumming parisian folkies

Posting on Bresson during the Super Bowl--the most solitary of the solitary.

I watched the first quarter, now I'm over here to see what's buzzing

it has been a while since i saw it but i remember thinking it was kinda bresson's blow up, maybe just in setting - something so funny about even just seeing the bressonian leads hazily marching along against a backdrop of like guitar-strumming parisian folkies

― quick brown fox triangle (schlump), Sunday, February 5, 2012 5:39 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

guitar-strumming parisian BOSSA NOVA band. on a BARGE. for the win.

How does it compare to this Bossa Nova?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNuMoVqKEuE

it's in b+w.

no it isn't!

yes, it is. the bresson.

no, it isn't actually.

is it?

see what i did there?

actually i just forgot.

it is a very 'blue' film iirc
ty for bossa nova clarification

Looking forward to A Man Escaped tonight, the start of our Toronto series. Bart Testa, one of my film professors 30 years ago (he does the Frank Zappa entry in the first Rolling Stone Record Guide), is introducing.

I ended up seeing five of these: A Man Escaped, Mouchette, Diary of a Country Priest, Angels of Sin, and Four Nights of a Dreamer. I went in tired every time, so staying alert was a struggle. A Man Escaped, which I'd never seen and thought I'd like, I didn't care for at all. Mouchette was good, but when you know you're not nearly as moved at the end as you're supposed to be, that's a problem. I liked Four Nights of a Dreamer, which I saw today, best. I guess this a Kael thing, but after the pronounced flatness of the first four, it was a relief to have some beautiful colour photography, a little music, and pretty girls. The lead guy, who looks so much like a young Scorsese in the still you always see, had some good comic timing reminiscent of Jean-Pierre Léaud at times.

http://altscreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/four-nights.jpg

Meant to add, I think Woody Allen may have gotten the idea for Annie Hall's penultimate scene--where Alvy's play fixes everything that went wrong in his final meeting with Annie--from Four Nights.

those elements you list are why I found 4 Nights to be his most "ordinary," if that's the word.

Other Bresson films have different virtues but Pickpocket (which I know isn't on your list) and A Man Escaped generate, in my judgment real suspense.

They're also very short.

I saw Pickpocket years ago and think I liked it fine (can't be sure, though). Four Nights is definitely the odd film out. I'm sure my general susceptibility to the look and feel of '70s films is a part of what I liked--hard to believe that that would apply to a Bresson film, but Four Nights felt very much of its era.

Clemenza, you were at the Lightbox in Toronto, right? I hope you weren't sitting in the back next to me, and if you were, I apologize for all of my fidgeting and distracting behaviour. It wouldn't have happened if only I got there earlier.

I was real confused by the way the female lead acted. I think it's because she delivered all of her lines in that mildly apprehensive tone, but I found it somewhat difficult to believe she could really be in love with anyone. And what a cocktease too. It is very likely that I missed the whole point of the film.

L'Arent is in color and also probably his best film other than, depending on my mood, the ass Christ.

Une Femme Douce is in color and probably his most visually-gorgeous film. Not very cheery, though.

xpost I can't think of another filmmaker who could spend minutes on someone taking money from an ATM (admittedly fraudulently) and have it feel like the most riveting cinema evah

Ascai: that's funny--I'm a tyrant about noise, but no, I didn't hear a thing. (I was towards the front-left.) As my friend pointed out to me, the female lead was Léaud's former girlfriend in The Mother and the Whore. She seemed comparable to the female leads in the other Bressons I saw. I thought her sudden choice at the end was effectively hurtful.

Every time I hear pebbles crunching under feet I think of Bresson

Four Nights of a Dreamer def got more laughs out of an audience than any other bresson film i've seen (low bar, but still). quite beautiful as well.

i also recall Four Nights as odd in that it was so 70's, i saw it like 10 years ago and was so thrown off because it wasn't what i expected. wikipedia tells me there are quite a few films made of this story (White Nights, Dostoevsky).. is it really that maudlin in the original russian or is this a translation issue?

Now think I'd put Mouchette #2 behind Man Escaped.

Went to see Lancelot Du Lac earlier today, which is starting to rival Diary of a Country Priest for my "favourite Bresson film". I adore it. Audience I saw it with didn't seem too keen based on grumblings upon exit.

I'm afraid I was one of those who weren't very into Lancelot, even if I didn't say anything out loud. But I really liked Jeanne d'Arc.

Were you at Une Femme Douce/L'Argent tonight?

I was, yes. Was really impressed with L'Argent.

http://www.filmcomment.com/entry/kent-jones-and-b-kite-on-bresson-part-one

Jone's essay was really good.

Video essay was tedious. If any film sequence doesn't need that treatment, it's the LdL tournament one.

I've seen Au Hasard Balthazar, A Man Escaped and Pickpocket. I think AHB and AME are a smidge better than Pickpocket. What should I see next?

Diary of a Country Priest. Mouchette. Then move to the colour ones, specifically Lancelot and L'Argent.

L'Argent is my favorite.

still havent seen 'au hasard' or 'priest' but my faves are devil probably and mouchette

Thanks I'll probably go the Gukbe route.

L'ARGENT also my favorite.

diary of a country priest!

awesome vampire scenes too

Une femme douce and four nights of a dreamer are ones I've checked out in the last couple of years after seeing the "essentials"
Both so beautiful
My fave remains diary tho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=FED1zl5p-kA

Donald Richie on Au Hasard Balthazar