Robert Bresson

[domino harvey]

Finally topped off Bresson’s oeuvre tonight, to mixed results:

Unfortunately I saved the worst for last, Quatre nuits d'un rêveur, an embarrassing detour from Bresson completely removed from the pleasures of his best films. Forgoing the obvious detriment of we already had Le notti bianche so we didn’t need this, Bresson’s approach is beyond silly— Bresson’s specific stylistic approaches in his later films are so bold that they always teeter on the edge of being ludicrous, but stuff like the protagonist blasting his tape recorder (playing his own voice, no less, mantra-ing his crush’s name like he’s the protagonist in Joyce’s Araby) on the bus is cringe-inducing.

Bresson’s first film, Les affaires publiques, sticks out like a sore thumb, even among the more “traditional” early Bresson films, but given his own high rankings of Chaplin in that Cahiers list, it’s perhaps not as surprising that he’d write some jokes in the same vein. However, while there are some funny bits and sight gags, such a regiment of soldiers being told to rest “at ease” and immediately falling backwards into a line of waiting lawnchairs, the film is ineptly constructed and composed and rather incoherent on the whole.

But luckily I quite enjoyed Une femme douce, which I’d rank in the upper tiers of Bresson’s work. Stylistically and money motif-wise this seems a sister film to L’argent, and I loved Bresson’s idea of a pawn shop here: sellers wordlessly approach the buyer, who slides their item towards himself and then hands over an unspecified amount of money without the two parties ever exchanging words. Shades of the bizarre yet mutually understood system of the bookshop in One Plus One. And, unlike the movie scene in Quatre nuits d'un rêveur, which I’m reasonably certain is a Bresson creation, the pic the central couple attends here is a real film, Michel Deville’s Benjamin. And of course the context in which it is used by Bresson is a perfect thematic fit (and further indication that, as Cahiers' private detective attested, Bresson was actually quite well-versed in modern film), as Deville’s film is about the burgeoning carnal knowledge of its central figure, and here Bresson uses events occurring during the viewing of the film to signal the first instance of the husband’s mistrust and awareness of sexual threat from others towards his wife, a different brand of sexual awakening!

[Rayon Vert]

Une femme douce was the one Bresson that left me cold, finding it obtuse and dull. I remember wondering if the pretty flat color photography (especially in contrast to the wonderfully atmospheric B&W's in the preceding films) played a role. But I've only seen it once and hopefully it'll get a quality release at some point and I'll revisit it then. Re: Quatre nuits I felt the Bresson style veered towards self-parody at some points, with the non-actor performances a bit stiff at times, but at the same time that it had moments of compelling beauty and power. I'd also like to see that one again in good quality if that's eventually possible (?).

[Big Ben]

If y'all don't mind me asking what's the deal with the two missing Bresson films? I've tried for years to see Un femme douche and Quatre Nuits and I...can't find them anywhere. I think it was David Ehrenstein who told me that it Mme Bresson had some sway, perhaps not legally over how the films screened but I'm not sure about the veracity of those statements? I imagine Bresson fans would eat them up regardless of what they thought of them. It's just weird that someone so beloved has these two films unavailable.

[Rayon Vert]

I saw Quatre Nuits from the quite mediocre internet file, from a really rough print, that was floating around some years back, the other one I don't remember. Just checked and Youtube has Quatre Nuits up in an apparently better looking version, but without subtitles. A Gentle Woman is also up.

[dda1996a]

They are easily available through back channels (pm me), the only one in horrendous condition is A Public Affair

[GoodOldNeon]

Quatre nuits has a Japanese Blu-ray release which is perfectly adequate, except that it doesn't have English subtitles. I grabbed some English subs I found online and synced them up with the film myself, so if your player is capable of playing external .srt subtitles that is one option.

[senseabove]

I may have watched everything out of order to reach Domino's conclusions... I saw Un femme douce before L'argent and found the former mostly uninteresting and uninvolving, but perhaps now knowing how some of those themes were later developed in L'Argent will help when I see it again. And I saw Quatre nuits... before I saw the Visconti, and quite liked it (though it didn't evoke the giddy headiness I felt on seeing the Visconti the first time last year). Quatres... felt like splitting the difference between the desperate need of Mouchette and the desperate antipathy of Le diable..., and in that sense I think that both of those moods are better handled in more specificity in the other films, but I liked the blend and I never got the sense that Bresson was caught out by his own intentions. It's been two years and too long for me to get very specific about my thoughts, but I've been looking forward to the chance to revisit Quatre Nuits..., which I can't say for Un femme douce.

FWIW, Quatre Nuits... and Les affaires publiques were the only two films that didn't play in an otherwise complete Bresson retro near me two years ago. (And much to my chagrin, I discovered that I apparently saw Les affaires... years ago, before a screening of Les anges du peche, but had no idea how rare it was and didn't remember that at all until I was trying to look up when I last saw the latter!)

Quatre nuits has a Japanese Blu-ray release which is perfectly adequate, except that it doesn't have English subtitles. I grabbed some English subs I found online and synced them up with the film myself, so if your player is capable of playing external .srt subtitles that is one option.

This might be better served in the Technical Question thread, but... What players are capable of side-loading subtitles to sync and play alongside BDs? I'd love to do this for some of the Rohmer box extra features, but while I've heard many rumors of this capability, I've yet to find anyone able to say which BDPs can or how to do it.

[domino harvey]

I know Oppos could do it, but every other Google search of people asking this returns “advice” to just burn your Blu-ray to an MKV and then add subs to the video file, like that’s an equivalent step to putting an SRT on a USB drive!

[senseabove]

Yeah, I've read mention that Oppos can do it, but I've asked in a few places and never been able to get anyone to confirm which models can or how to actually do it. It would be nice to be able to sideload subs instead of having to rip all those extras.

[Stefan Andersson]

For the record:

In Colin Burnett´s book "The Invention of Robert Bresson: The Auteur and His Market", I read that, after L´Argent, Bresson was interested in making a film of the short story "La grande vie" (1982) by Jean Marie Le Clézio, "a road story about two girls who save money to travel to Italy".

The story has been translated into English as "The Great Life", in Le Clézio, J. M. G.; Translated by C. Dickson. "The Round and Other Cold Hard Facts." Lincoln, Nebraska,USA: University of Nebraska Press.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grande_Vie_(novella), footnote no. 1

https://www.amazon.com/Round-Other-Cold ... 0803280076

Also:
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Grande_Vie_(Le_Clézio)

[dda1996a]

While reading Schrader's section on Bresson, he mentions Marvin Zeman's essay "The Suicide of Robert Bresson". Yet I couldn't find said essay anywhere online, not even through my University's library resources. Anyone know where I could find it? Couldn't even find the magazine it was originally published in (Cinema vol. 6, Spring 1971, p. 37-42 if it helps)

[Matt]

As far as I can tell (and I’m a librarian) no online journal database contains this publication. If your university does not have the print issues, you can request a copy of the article through their interlibrary loan or document delivery service. You’ve already got a complete citation, which you’ll need, but the ISSN of the journal, which will help them get the right journal, is 0009-7047. The journal was published by Spectator International Inc. in Beverly Hills, CA, which might also be helpful information to include in your request.

[Matt]

Or just click this link

[domino harvey]

Excellent, thanks Matt!

[dda1996a]

Wow, thanks!

[dda1996a]

Just finished watching Four Nights, and as usual I have to vehemently disagree with Domino. This is way better than Visconti's. Where Visconti slavishly adheres to the text, almost suffocating it and not bringing much new to the story, Bresson finds ways to bring out the themes and suit them to his worldview. The only part of the Visconti I found actually good we're the parts that weren't in the novella, which is the dance scene (absolutely brilliant), that help make the ending stick. Bresson in my opinion gets inside the characters a lot better; I love Mastoriani but I didn't really feel his character was believable in the film (not his acting fault, which is fine). But Bresson manages to elicit such deep understanding from his "models" that I was as heartbroken as he is come the ending. And I did like the tape recorder.
This might be Bresson's most hopeful and romantic film (and knowing what I have next sure makes me giddy) until that ending, and even then it is heartbreaking but not depressing like usual. Which isn't a criticism. Loved A Gentle Woman and this as well, so I guess I'm grooving more than others with Bresson's color films.

[Calvin]

The restoration of Une Femme Douce is receiving its UK premiere as part of the Cinema Rediscovered festival in Bristol next month. It notes that "after its premiere at Cinema Rediscovered, Une Femme Douce is touring UK venues."

[quim_font]

Not sure how many people here are familiar with the great Robert Creeley, but here is one of his poems entitled Bresson’s Movies:

A movie of Robert
Bresson’s showed a yacht,
at evening on the Seine,
all its lights on, watched

by two young, seemingly
poor people, on a bridge adjacent,
the classic boy and girl
of the story, any one

one cares to tell. So
years pass, of course, but
I identified with the young,
embittered Frenchman,

knew his almost complacent
anguish and the distance
he felt from his girl.
Yet another film

of Bresson’s has the
aging Lancelot with his
awkward armor standing
in a woods, of small trees,

dazed, bleeding, both he
and his horse are,
trying to get back to
the castle, itself of

no great size. It
moved me, that
life was after all
like that. You are

in love. You stand
in the woods, with
a horse, bleeding.
The story is true.

[Black Hat]

Creeley's great.. Mia Hansen Løve memorably used The Rhythm to end her best film.

Spoiler

Eden

[FrauBlucher]

I got such a kick from the Bresson: Without a Trace extra from Criterion’s A Man Escaped release where he talks about seeing Goldfinger. Talk about a vision of Bresson sitting in a theater watching Goldfinger makes me chuckle inside. His next film was Au Hasard Baltazar. No inspiration there

[dda1996a]

I recently saw Camilo Restrepo's Los Conductos at the Berlinale, and Darezhan Omirbayev's Student. Both have clearly been influenced greatly by Bresson's minimalism, close-ups and editing style. I also love early Haneke which was clearly influenced by Bresson (glaciation trilogy, Funny Games, The Castle). These are the only ones I know.

I was wondering if there any other similar films that share this style (and I am not looking for transcendental cinema [per say] like Ozu, Dreyer or Tarkovsky, or for films using non-actors like Pedro Costa). I am looking specifically for films using that specific visual style. Much appreciated

[SomethingWild]

I think that Hal Hartley has a similar visual style. I especially noticed it in Trust, which is also my favorite film of his I've seen.

[MichaelB]

Aki Kaurismäki has always been cheerfully open about the huge influence that Bresson has had on him - practically any random selection will pay dividends, but I particularly recommend The Match Factory Girl, Take Care of Your Scarf Tatjana and Lights in the Dusk.

[Michael Kerpan]

MichaelB -- Great recommendations!

i.e. - I agree completely

[whaleallright]

The Kazakh director Darezhan Omirbaev built his own style out of some very Bressonian techniques. His Killer is almost too indebted to L'Argent (and feels almost programmatic for that), but his two earlier features, Kairat and Cardiogram are two of the greatest "Bressonian" films I know. They are on a French DVD (still available) with English subtitles.

Another example would be the Indian director Mani Kaul, whose first feature, Uski Roti, is very indebted to Bresson. I believe a restored version of that one is on some streaming services.

Certain of Jean-Claude Brisseau's films take elements of Bresson's style in some unexpected (to say the least) directions. I'd recommend Sound and Fury (Du bruit et du fureur) as a place to begin; it's one of the greatest French films of the '80s, or possibly ever.