Everything about Robert Bresson totally explained
Robert Bresson (in French) (
September 25,
1901 –
December 18,
1999) was a
French film director known for his spiritual, ascetic style.
Early life
Robert Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe. Little is known of his early life and the year of his birth, 1901 or 1907 varies depending on the source. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal à Sceaux, Paris, and turned to painting after graduating.
Born in central
France and educated in
Paris, Bresson's early ambition was to become a
painter. Three formative influences in his early life seem to have a mark on his films - his
catholicism, work as a
painter and his experiences as a
prisoner of war.
Initially a painter and photographer, Bresson made his first short film,
Les affaires publiques (Public Affairs) in
1934. During
World War II, he spent over a year in a prisoner-of-war camp--an experience which informs
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (
A Man Escaped).
In a career that spanned fifty years, Bresson made only 13 feature-length films. This reflects his meticulous approach to the filmmaking process and his non-commercial preoccupations. Difficulty finding funding for his projects was also a factor.
Style and themes
Bresson's early artistic focus was to separate the language of cinema from the
theatre, which often heavily involves the actor's performance to drive the work. With his 'actor-model' technique, Bresson's actors were required to repeat multiple takes of each scene until all semblances of 'performance' were stripped away, leaving a stark effect that registers as both subtle and raw, and one that can only be found in the cinema.
Some feel that Bresson's
Catholic upbringing and
Jansenist belief-system lie behind the thematic structure of most of his films. Recurring themes under this interpretation include
salvation,
redemption, defining and revealing the human
soul, and metaphysical transcendence of a limiting and materialistic world. An example is his 1956 feature
A Man Escaped, where a seemingly simple plot of a prisoner of war's escape can be read as a
metaphor for the mysterious process of salvation.
Bresson's films can also be understood as critiques of French society and the wider world, with each revealing the director's sympathetic if unsentimental view on its victims. That the main characters of Bresson's most contemporary films,
L'Argent and
The Devil, Probably (
1977), reach similarly unsettling conclusions about life indicates to some the director's feelings towards the culpability of modern society in the dissolution of individuals. Indeed, of an earlier protagonist he said, "Mouchette offers evidence of misery and cruelty. She is found everywhere: wars, concentration camps, tortures, assassinations."
In
1975, Bresson published
Notes sur le Cinématographe (most commonly translated as "notes on cinematography"), in which he argues for a unique sense of the term, "
cinematography". For Bresson, cinematography is the higher function of cinema. Whereas a movie is in essence "only" filmed theatre, cinematography is an attempt to create a new language of moving images and sounds.
Legacy
Bresson is often referred to as a '
patron saint' of cinema, not only for the strong Catholic themes found throughout his oeuvre, but also for his notable contributions to the art of film. His original directorial language can be detected through his use of sound, associating selected sounds with images or characters; paring dramatic form to its essentials by the spare use of music; and through his infamous 'actor-model' methods of directing his almost exclusively non-professional actors.
He has influenced a number of other filmmakers, including
Andrei Tarkovsky,
Michael Haneke,
Jim Jarmusch and
Paul Schrader, whose book
Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer (ISBN 0-306-80335-6) includes a detailed critical analysis.
Quotes
"Robert Bresson is
French cinema, as
Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and
Mozart is the German music" —
Jean-Luc Godard, French film director (
Robert Bresson (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 2), edited by
James Quandt).
"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
Awards and nominations
Robert Bresson was given the
Career Golden Lion in 1989 by the
Venice Film Festival
Filmography
Feature films
Les Anges du péché (1943)
Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945)
- The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne
Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951)
- Diary of a Country Priest
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (1956)
Pickpocket (1959)
Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962)
Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
Mouchette (1967)
Une femme douce (1969)
Quatre nuits d'un rêveur (1971)
Lancelot du Lac (1974)
Le diable probablement (1977)
L'argent (1983)
Short films
Les affaires publiques (1934)
Bibliography
By Robert Bresson
Notes sur le Cinématographe — translated as notes on cinematography and notes on the cinematographer in different English editions.
About Robert Bresson
La politique des auteurs, edited by Andre Bazin.
Robert Bresson (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs, No. 2), edited by James Quandt
Transcendental Style in Film: Bresson, Ozu, Dreyer by Paul Schrader
Robert Bresson: A Spiritual Style in Film, by Joseph Cunneen
Robert Bresson, by Philippe Arnauld, Cahiers du cinema, 1986
The Films of Robert Bresson, Ian Cameron (ed.), New York: Praeger Publishers, 1969.
Robert Bresson, by Keith Reader, Manchester University Press, 2000.
"Robert Bresson", a poem by Patti Smith from her 1978 book BabelFurther Information
Get more info on 'Robert Bresson'.
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