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Robert Bresson
Jean-Luc Godard pronounced that "Robert Bresson is French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music." With Godard and Jean Renoir, Bresson (1901-1999) was the most revered and influential French director of the postwar period. His body of work was small — thirteen features and one short film, made over five decades — but it established him as one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.
Though Bresson's subjects and sources ranged widely — his films are derived from Diderot, Dostoevsky, Bernanos, and Tolstoy, from the transcripts of the trial of Joan of Arc and the Arthurian legends — his severe style remained constant. Awed, inspired, and sometimes mystified by the beauty and austere perfectionism of Bresson's style, critics and directors have been moved to passionate debate about his singular ideas on the use of sound, actors, editing, and music.
Despite, or perhaps of, his rejection of the core tenets of traditional filmmaking, Bresson exerted a profound influence on many directors, from the French New Wave and American independents to countless contemporary Asian and European auteurs.
Robert Bresson (Revised) , as its title suggests, updates and amends the original volume, which accompanied a major retrospective of the director's films and was the first English-language collection of essays on Bresson in many decades. Greatly expanded and richly illustrated, this examination of Bresson's vision and style draws together over two dozen important articles by leading critics and scholars, including classics studies by Susan Sontag and André Bazin, and commentaries by Roland Barthes and Alberto Moravia. Provocative new analyses by such august film historians as David Bordwell, Jean-Michel Frodon, and Shigehiko Hasumi join a selection of articles by emerging scholars that break new ground in relating Bresson's cinema to hitherto unexamined intellectual, aesthetic, and philosophical currents. The book is rounded out by four essential interviews with Bresson; the illuminating testimony of L. H. Burel, the cinematographer of four of his greatest films; and several essays by leading directors, from Michael Haneke tot the Dardenne brothers, which reveal why Bresson is considered first and foremost "a film-maker's filmmaker.
Though Bresson's subjects and sources ranged widely — his films are derived from Diderot, Dostoevsky, Bernanos, and Tolstoy, from the transcripts of the trial of Joan of Arc and the Arthurian legends — his severe style remained constant. Awed, inspired, and sometimes mystified by the beauty and austere perfectionism of Bresson's style, critics and directors have been moved to passionate debate about his singular ideas on the use of sound, actors, editing, and music.
Despite, or perhaps of, his rejection of the core tenets of traditional filmmaking, Bresson exerted a profound influence on many directors, from the French New Wave and American independents to countless contemporary Asian and European auteurs.
Robert Bresson (Revised) , as its title suggests, updates and amends the original volume, which accompanied a major retrospective of the director's films and was the first English-language collection of essays on Bresson in many decades. Greatly expanded and richly illustrated, this examination of Bresson's vision and style draws together over two dozen important articles by leading critics and scholars, including classics studies by Susan Sontag and André Bazin, and commentaries by Roland Barthes and Alberto Moravia. Provocative new analyses by such august film historians as David Bordwell, Jean-Michel Frodon, and Shigehiko Hasumi join a selection of articles by emerging scholars that break new ground in relating Bresson's cinema to hitherto unexamined intellectual, aesthetic, and philosophical currents. The book is rounded out by four essential interviews with Bresson; the illuminating testimony of L. H. Burel, the cinematographer of four of his greatest films; and several essays by leading directors, from Michael Haneke tot the Dardenne brothers, which reveal why Bresson is considered first and foremost "a film-maker's filmmaker.
745 pages, Paperback
First published June 4, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
March 12, 2013
A Bresson movie can leave you speechless and breathless with its artistry. Perfection, says UK critic John Russell Taylor. For contrasting experiences take the obsessive world of "Pickpocket" and the enameled liaisons of "Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne." It's unfortunate that a new generation of filmgoers is unaware of this genius who only made movies to please himself. This entry is a fine guide toward appreciating Bresson's seductive beauty.
July 1, 2018
I read about half of the articles and essays gathered in this anthology, and here is what I thought about each one:
Introduction by James Quandt
A solid intro into Bresson, the literature written about him, his influences, methodology, and ways of studying his cinema, which also serves as an overview of the book.
Journal d’un cure de campagne and the Stylistics of Robert Bresson by Bazin
The classic text on Bresson, that for the first time articulated many of the terms and concepts are now taken for granted in Bresson criticism. It’s as much about Bresson and Journal as it is about the subject of adapting films from literary sources.
The Universes of Robert Bresson by Amedee Ayfre
Another classic study of Bresson’s cinema. Certain much-debated concepts (or dichotomies, rather) like transcendence and immanence, loneliness and communication and abstraction v. realism are explained fabulously.
Spiritual Style in the Films of Robert Bresson by Susan Sontag
The last of the three essays which James Quandt calls the three classic texts on Bresson in the introduction: texts that have informed subsequent critical approaches towards his films more than any other. Sontag’s prose is simple and straightforward, she focuses on the development of The Bresson Style, and pays special attention to Bresson’s emphatic use of form. She also makes interesting links and comparisons between Bresson with Brech and Cocteau.
The Rhetoric of Robert Bresson by P. Adams Sitney
Extensive profile of Bresson’s filmography from Journal to Une Femme, that assumes different analytical approaches for each film-most conspicuously a philologic one. While it doesn’t initially strike you as the most exciting article in the book, it certainly is one of the most important. The section devoted to Balthazar is the best (and longest) part of the essay and is one of the deftest and solid instances of close analysis in the whole book. It really enlightened me about many of the films formal intricacies.
Affaires publiques by Rosenbaum
A short review that makes some interesting connections between this early short and the rest of Bresson’s oeuvre.
The Exchange: Narration and Style in Les Anges du peche by Bordwell
A detailed analysis of style and narration of the film, that specifically tracks where the film deviates and when it conforms to the common stylistic tropes of Occupation-era French films, as well as comparing and contrasting the film to Bresson’s later films.
On Robert Bresson’s Film Les Anges du peche by Barthes
A very brief appraisal of the film, in which Barthes admires different aspects of the film while maintaining the difficulty of making a film of this kind.
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne by Tony Pipolo
An extensive and revealing analysis, paying special attention to shot transitions (fades and dissolves) as well as motifs present throughout the film.
Film Form/Voice-Over: Diary of a Country Priest by Nick Browne
An almost incomprehensible account of voice-over narration’s function, in relation to other parts of the film such as decoupage etc. as well as other-cinematic or otherwise-texts’ use of voice-over narration.
Bresson’s Un Condamne a mort: The Semiotics of Grace by Allen Thiher
At times confusing and somewhat difficult to understand, it’s a look at the semantics and theology of the film, which fails to properly address (or at least say anything genuinely interesting about) either.
Pickpocket-Revisited, Again by Mark Rappaport
An accessible collection of mostly interesting wonderings and ideas, very similar in style to Rappaport’s video essays that focuses on sexuality and intertextual comparisons with other films.
“The Sum of a Mysterious Operation”: Bresson’s Joan of Arc by Richard Suchenski
This is really more of a brief history of Joan of Arc’s cinematic treatments rather than one about Bresson’s film. While the emphasis is mainly on the Dreyer, Bresson, and Rivette adaptations, others are also touched on.
“D’ou cela vient-il?”:Notes on three films by Robert Bresson by Keith Reader
Looks at Lacanian psychoanalysis combined with a Christian lens, counting the similarities between the two seemingly disparate methods, and then applying them to a reading of three of Bresson’s films (Diary, Pickpocket, and Mouchette). Due to frequent reference to other texts (Lacan, Pascal, Christian theology etc.), it’s a bit of a difficult read if you are not familiar with the mentioned theories and ideas.
Terror and Utopia of Form-Addicted to Truth: A Story About Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar by Michael Haneke
An excellent and passionate piece, that describes the philosophy (and indeed necessity) of Bresson’s “model” theory of acting (and its purest distillation in Balthazar the donkey) better than any film critic or scholar has. It also provides illuminating context (from critical theory to literature) for the importance and uniqueness of Bresson and his cinema (oops, sorry Monsieur Bresson, I meant “cinematographe”) as well as the significance and unity of form and content and their indistinguishability in Bresson’s films.
Sound as Symbol in Mouchette by Lindley Hanlon
Informed study of the functions of sound as a means to create an ambiance of entrapment, as an emblem for character dispositions, the use of music, in both descriptive and more technical analyses.
Bresson, Vermeer by Jean-Claude Rousseau
A vehement and poetic ode to Bresson and Vermeer which compares their unique styles and aesthetics, mostly by relying on Une femme douce.
The Sheen of Armour, the Whinnies of Horses: Sparse Parametric Style in Lancelot du Lac by Kristin Thompson
A monumental close analysis that studies Bresson’s use parametric form (motifs, themes, and variations etc.) in great detail, both as a means of narration as well as (and more prominently) autonomous stylistic and aesthetic entities that have their own logic and progression, separate from that of the narrative. She reads Bresson (along with the likes of Ozu and Tati) as at once a narrative filmmaker and a structuralist.
Bresson a Stylist by Harun Farocki
Farocki counts the crucial elements of Bresson’s cinema that form the basis of his film: avoidance of long and establishing shots, use of close-ups, frontal camera positions etc.
The Organ and the Vacuum Cleaner by Serge Daney
Ostensibly about Le diable probablement, but uses the film only as the starting point for a series of (rather odd) musings about sound in cinema.
A Stranger's Posture: Notes on Bresson’s Late Films by Kent Jones
A personal story, rather a scholarly analysis, one that mostly focuses on the political and societal position of Bresson’s later films.
L’Argent by Alberto Moravia
One page comparison between Tolstoy story and Bresson’s adaptation of it, and mainly on the two auteurs worldviews, especially those about “good” and “evil.”
L’Argent by Dardenne brothers
Another single page tribute to L’Argent, in which the Dardennes talk about the diabolical role of money in Bresson’s film, and briefly mention how they have been influenced by him in the way they use money in their films.
Led by the Scarlet Pleats: Bresson’s L’Argent by Hasumi
A somewhat peculiar and unique essay by the renowned Japanese critic that is essentially about hands, and objects that they interact with: money, doors, desks etc., with special emphasis on the role and function of money.
Question by Interview Jean-Luc Godard and Michel Delahaye
A lengthy interview from Cahiers du cinema 1966, after the release of Balthazar, between Bresson and Godard (Delahaye is also there, but there are very few questions from him). Most of the length of the interview is dedicated to Bresson’s use of actors and theories on acting, and there are some interesting back and forths between the two legendary filmmakers.
Introduction by James Quandt
A solid intro into Bresson, the literature written about him, his influences, methodology, and ways of studying his cinema, which also serves as an overview of the book.
Journal d’un cure de campagne and the Stylistics of Robert Bresson by Bazin
The classic text on Bresson, that for the first time articulated many of the terms and concepts are now taken for granted in Bresson criticism. It’s as much about Bresson and Journal as it is about the subject of adapting films from literary sources.
The Universes of Robert Bresson by Amedee Ayfre
Another classic study of Bresson’s cinema. Certain much-debated concepts (or dichotomies, rather) like transcendence and immanence, loneliness and communication and abstraction v. realism are explained fabulously.
Spiritual Style in the Films of Robert Bresson by Susan Sontag
The last of the three essays which James Quandt calls the three classic texts on Bresson in the introduction: texts that have informed subsequent critical approaches towards his films more than any other. Sontag’s prose is simple and straightforward, she focuses on the development of The Bresson Style, and pays special attention to Bresson’s emphatic use of form. She also makes interesting links and comparisons between Bresson with Brech and Cocteau.
The Rhetoric of Robert Bresson by P. Adams Sitney
Extensive profile of Bresson’s filmography from Journal to Une Femme, that assumes different analytical approaches for each film-most conspicuously a philologic one. While it doesn’t initially strike you as the most exciting article in the book, it certainly is one of the most important. The section devoted to Balthazar is the best (and longest) part of the essay and is one of the deftest and solid instances of close analysis in the whole book. It really enlightened me about many of the films formal intricacies.
Affaires publiques by Rosenbaum
A short review that makes some interesting connections between this early short and the rest of Bresson’s oeuvre.
The Exchange: Narration and Style in Les Anges du peche by Bordwell
A detailed analysis of style and narration of the film, that specifically tracks where the film deviates and when it conforms to the common stylistic tropes of Occupation-era French films, as well as comparing and contrasting the film to Bresson’s later films.
On Robert Bresson’s Film Les Anges du peche by Barthes
A very brief appraisal of the film, in which Barthes admires different aspects of the film while maintaining the difficulty of making a film of this kind.
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne by Tony Pipolo
An extensive and revealing analysis, paying special attention to shot transitions (fades and dissolves) as well as motifs present throughout the film.
Film Form/Voice-Over: Diary of a Country Priest by Nick Browne
An almost incomprehensible account of voice-over narration’s function, in relation to other parts of the film such as decoupage etc. as well as other-cinematic or otherwise-texts’ use of voice-over narration.
Bresson’s Un Condamne a mort: The Semiotics of Grace by Allen Thiher
At times confusing and somewhat difficult to understand, it’s a look at the semantics and theology of the film, which fails to properly address (or at least say anything genuinely interesting about) either.
Pickpocket-Revisited, Again by Mark Rappaport
An accessible collection of mostly interesting wonderings and ideas, very similar in style to Rappaport’s video essays that focuses on sexuality and intertextual comparisons with other films.
“The Sum of a Mysterious Operation”: Bresson’s Joan of Arc by Richard Suchenski
This is really more of a brief history of Joan of Arc’s cinematic treatments rather than one about Bresson’s film. While the emphasis is mainly on the Dreyer, Bresson, and Rivette adaptations, others are also touched on.
“D’ou cela vient-il?”:Notes on three films by Robert Bresson by Keith Reader
Looks at Lacanian psychoanalysis combined with a Christian lens, counting the similarities between the two seemingly disparate methods, and then applying them to a reading of three of Bresson’s films (Diary, Pickpocket, and Mouchette). Due to frequent reference to other texts (Lacan, Pascal, Christian theology etc.), it’s a bit of a difficult read if you are not familiar with the mentioned theories and ideas.
Terror and Utopia of Form-Addicted to Truth: A Story About Robert Bresson’s Au hasard Balthazar by Michael Haneke
An excellent and passionate piece, that describes the philosophy (and indeed necessity) of Bresson’s “model” theory of acting (and its purest distillation in Balthazar the donkey) better than any film critic or scholar has. It also provides illuminating context (from critical theory to literature) for the importance and uniqueness of Bresson and his cinema (oops, sorry Monsieur Bresson, I meant “cinematographe”) as well as the significance and unity of form and content and their indistinguishability in Bresson’s films.
Sound as Symbol in Mouchette by Lindley Hanlon
Informed study of the functions of sound as a means to create an ambiance of entrapment, as an emblem for character dispositions, the use of music, in both descriptive and more technical analyses.
Bresson, Vermeer by Jean-Claude Rousseau
A vehement and poetic ode to Bresson and Vermeer which compares their unique styles and aesthetics, mostly by relying on Une femme douce.
The Sheen of Armour, the Whinnies of Horses: Sparse Parametric Style in Lancelot du Lac by Kristin Thompson
A monumental close analysis that studies Bresson’s use parametric form (motifs, themes, and variations etc.) in great detail, both as a means of narration as well as (and more prominently) autonomous stylistic and aesthetic entities that have their own logic and progression, separate from that of the narrative. She reads Bresson (along with the likes of Ozu and Tati) as at once a narrative filmmaker and a structuralist.
Bresson a Stylist by Harun Farocki
Farocki counts the crucial elements of Bresson’s cinema that form the basis of his film: avoidance of long and establishing shots, use of close-ups, frontal camera positions etc.
The Organ and the Vacuum Cleaner by Serge Daney
Ostensibly about Le diable probablement, but uses the film only as the starting point for a series of (rather odd) musings about sound in cinema.
A Stranger's Posture: Notes on Bresson’s Late Films by Kent Jones
A personal story, rather a scholarly analysis, one that mostly focuses on the political and societal position of Bresson’s later films.
L’Argent by Alberto Moravia
One page comparison between Tolstoy story and Bresson’s adaptation of it, and mainly on the two auteurs worldviews, especially those about “good” and “evil.”
L’Argent by Dardenne brothers
Another single page tribute to L’Argent, in which the Dardennes talk about the diabolical role of money in Bresson’s film, and briefly mention how they have been influenced by him in the way they use money in their films.
Led by the Scarlet Pleats: Bresson’s L’Argent by Hasumi
A somewhat peculiar and unique essay by the renowned Japanese critic that is essentially about hands, and objects that they interact with: money, doors, desks etc., with special emphasis on the role and function of money.
Question by Interview Jean-Luc Godard and Michel Delahaye
A lengthy interview from Cahiers du cinema 1966, after the release of Balthazar, between Bresson and Godard (Delahaye is also there, but there are very few questions from him). Most of the length of the interview is dedicated to Bresson’s use of actors and theories on acting, and there are some interesting back and forths between the two legendary filmmakers.
January 21, 2008
The best resource I've found on Bresson. Like Quandt's anthology of Imamura resources, this one provides a number of essays and interviews.
February 26, 2012
I began reading the earlier volume while working my way through Bresson's filmography. However, when this revised version came out, I read them side by side, retaining the few pieces that were dropped from this volume, and benefiting from the many more that were added. The collection of essays is at times inscrutable, but overall extremely informative and thought-provoking. My favorite bit of added material was most certainly the Dardenne's brief reflection on L'Argent--both for its opening up of the film and for its revealing qualities about the Dardenne's themselves. I missed the lengthy filmmaker reflections collected at the end of the original volume, though I noticed many of the best of those bits quoted in the existing essays, making the absence more muted. This is a magnificent companion to Bresson's work, with a variety of voices that make clear the multi-faceted ways to approach the work of this masterful filmmaker.
Read
February 7, 2010Essential reading for anyone with an interest in the greatest filmmaker of the 20th century. Interviews, articles, reminiscences, you name it. A long and rambling interview with Jean-luc Godard, a piece on Pickpocket by Louis Malle, and a terrific anecdote by Bernardo Bertolluci that may just be Bresson in a nutshell.
September 4, 2010
This volume retains value for a few essays dropped from the revised version, including the lengthy filmmaker reflections at the end. Otherwise, see my comments on the revised version.
February 10, 2021
I picked up this book of 43 essays by different authors on Robert Bresson and his work in 2013, and sporadically read about a third of my way through it before putting it down sometime in 2014. Then in early autumn of last year I picked it up again, which brought me to rewatch 12 of Bresson's 13 feature films (eleven I have on DVD, one which I don't have streams on Filmbox) and watch for the first time the other of his 13 feature films on YouTube (obviously not the best way to view his films, but in Metro Phoenix AZ you're pretty limited). And I continued to read this book, off and on, until I finally read the last essay today. And despite that the amount of time it took me to complete it makes it appear to be a laborious and weighty feat to take on, it was rarely tedious. I think it's a really great book. It is expansive, full of insights, answering questions I hadn't come up with yet, I might never have -- it comes at you from many different directions (43 to be exact). You'll find an article comparing Bresson's imagery to Vermeer; another a short time afterwards stating that appreciating Bresson is akin to appreciating atonal music. Bresson is sometimes a Christian and embraced by such, sometimes an atheist and also embraced by such and sometimes something he called a "Christian atheist" (many a genuine religious man who seriously seeks the truth is an atheist at least couple a times a year, if not more often). It's a worthy book dedicated to exploring the work and the person of the man who made difficult films by purging everything unnecessary, including the sentimental, emotional and psychological expressed in theatrical acting and actors in general (he used non-actors he called "models"); never switching from a 50mm camera lens for 30 or so years and, at all costs, avoided the spectacular; striving for only that which was simple, direct and essential.
Read
March 30, 2023invaluable collection of writing on Bresson in English. Definitely interested in procuring the Kon Ichikawa monograph from this Cinematheque Ontario series.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews