Robert Bresson

[dda1996a]

I actually just watched the last two films Omirbayev made: Chouga and Student. Student is incredibly indebted to Bresson, and while it lacks quite a lot I still rather liked it. Chouga was much better in my opinion, Omirbayev's ellipses and minimalism making me really giddy almost through the whole film. They both also use Bresson's silence, expressionless actors and are both adapted from Russian classics (Crime and Punishment and Anna Karenina), but it is his style that really makes the difference (and indeed what I was looking for). But I hope this brings his films to more people!
Thanks for the other two. I have most of Brisseau's films, but have yet to watch a single one. Of Kaul I have never heard actually!

[whaleallright]

Of those I only saw Chouga and I was not too keen on it; as with Killer, the Bressonian stylistics were "applied" in an fashion I found drab and lacking in invention compared to Omirbaev's earlier films. (FWIW, Bresson's widow, Mylène, uncharitably referred to Killer as "L'argent raté.") That said, it's probably been 10 years since I saw either, so I might need to revisit.

I follow Omirbaev on Facebook, and his posts are largely quotations from Notes on the Cinematographer translated into Russian!

Btw, his wonderful short July is on YouTube (in three parts IIRC); motifs from that little film pop up in nearly all of his subsequent features.

... and if it hasn't come up, I ought to mention Walter Hill's The Driver, which features some very Bressonian action cutting(!) and uses Ryan O'Neal and Isabelle Adjani much as Bresson used his modèles.

[accatone]

There is German bluray available now of Lancelot du Lac:

https://alive-ag.de/detail/index/sArtic ... tegory/339

The link says Engl. subtitles. The amazon page is showing the back cover that also says Engl. subtitles. I have no idea about the image quality but ordered the disc anyway in support of releasing Bresson films in Germany (at all)…

[jegharfangetmigenmyg]

It's also out in France next month. It's probably the same restoration that was released on blu-ray in Japan back in 2019. I saw some screenshots that looked completely off, colourwise. Don't remember if it was a Ritrovata or Eclair job, but definitely one of those.

[tenia]

The Gaumont disc looks a bit dark but other than that, it looks balanced. I'd guess Hiventy. Certainly not Ritrovata. If it's Eclair, then I'd be happy with them doing things this way now.

[jsteffe]

The Gaumont disc looks a bit dark but other than that, it looks balanced. I'd guess Hiventy. Certainly not Ritrovata. If it's Eclair, then I'd be happy with them doing things this way now.

Have you posted screencaps? I'd like to see the Gaumont compared to the Japanese disc.

[tenia]

Not yet. I received the disc only yesterday, only had a quick look at it before launching the BD Info scan, and probably won't have the time to give it a deeper look before next Wednesday at least. I'll try and do a couple of screencaps this evening if I can find the time.

[RobertB]

Looks like the French disc doesn't have English subtitles. Can you confirm this? Making the German the one to get for me in that case.

[tenia]

I doubt the extras are subtitled in English but the main feature is.
Here are some caps I just made :

[jsteffe]

Thanks! I'm looking forward to comparing these to the Japanese Blu-ray.

[hearthesilence]

Hey, this actually looks pretty good! A touch on the dark side, but probably within reasonable bounds - I actually saw this projected at BAM, and this looks comparable to what I remember.

[RobertB]

I doubt the extras are subtitled in English but the main feature is.

Thank you. That will do. I was going to get a couple of discs from France anyway, and will include this. Hopefully Criterion will release it some time in the future, but I have double-dipped most of the Bresson films on Blu Ray already, so why stop now? It's my way of supporting the releases.

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

The Gaumont disc looks a bit dark but other than that, it looks balanced. I'd guess Hiventy. Certainly not Ritrovata. If it's Eclair, then I'd be happy with them doing things this way now.

It's Eclair: https://eclair.digital/en/news/eclair-a ... ture-films

[tenia]

Thanks for the find, I didn't take the time to look first as I didn't think I'd have it and rushed to do the caps instead.

There are a couple of spots that looked like something only Eclair would do (caps 5 and 12), but usually, faces in darker shots (like caps 2 and 4) are also typically tealed, and since those aren't and I couldn't find other spots typically tealed, that got me think it might not be them. I've never been so glad not to be able to guess whose work this is from.

[jsteffe]

Thanks for the find, I didn't take the time to look first as I didn't think I'd have it and rushed to do the caps instead.

There are a couple of spots that looked like something only Eclair would do (caps 5 and 12), but usually, faces in darker shots (like caps 2 and 4) are also typically tealed, and since those aren't and I couldn't find other spots typically tealed, that got me think it might not be them. I've never been so glad not to be able to guess whose work this is from.

I agree, it's far from the most obvious example of their work. Your screen caps look marginally brighter and less green/teal than the Japanese Blu-ray, but it's very subtle.

[reaky]

While on a short break in Paris last weekend (first trip out of the UK in two years), I made a pilgrimage to Robert Bresson’s home on the Île St-Louis. I believe he lived on the top floor.

[henry001]

Getting more and more Bresson films on blu ray recent years (mostly coming from France and Japan), and the latest is Le Diable Probablement (Devil Probably) came from Japanese source. I wonder why US/UK manufacturers are not doing anything at all. Une Femme Douce is also restored and screened in theaters in Europe and Japan. Hopefully its blu ray comes out sooner.

By the way, when Charles (the main character in Le Diable Probablement) was on the way to have him killed by his heroine addicted friend, he heard Bach's piano piece was played on a TV monitor on someone's house, does anyone know which piano music it is? It is possibly The Chronicle of Anna Magdalena Bach, but not sure.

Thanks in advance.

[yoshimori]

Not Bach. Mozart Concerto K. 488, second movement.

[henry001]

Not Bach. Mozart Concerto K. 488, second movement.

That is right, thanks for correcting my misunderstanding.

[Calvin]

There will be a retrospective at the BFI Southbank, London next month minus Four Nights of a Dreamer, that they seemingly couldn't get permission to screen

[GaryC]

There will be a retrospective at the BFI Southbank, London next month minus Four Nights of a Dreamer, that they seemingly couldn't get permission to screen

More a matter of availability, it seems. But there is a restoration on the way. From the BFI Southbank "Programme Changes" page:

Four Nights of a Dreamer
Fri 17 June 20:30 NFT2; Sun 26 June 13:10 NFT2 p28
Although we had hoped to include this rare title in the Robert Bresson retrospective, we are now unable to screen this film due to delays on the restoration and alternative screening materials being in very poor condition. The restoration should be completed in 2023 and we hope to present this film in the future. We apologise for any disappointed caused.

[Calvin]

Ah, that's actually fantastic news. Thanks for that. Though I am a little surprised that the BFI couldn't get a hold of anything decent for this season, considering there was a DCP made of the restoration that ended up getting a Blu-Ray release in Japan.

[Petty Bourgeoisie]

Has anybody else gotten the sensation from a film that they have been given some secret type of knowledge? It's only happened to me several times and the last time was after watching McCabe and Miss Miller for the first time several years ago. My best attempt at a description is waking up the next morning after viewing the film, you've processed it in your subconscious and somehow you now have knowledge that assists you in making better sense of the world around you. Anyone?

I watched Four Nights of a Dreamer last night on youtube and I had that sensation this morning. Amazing film. Thanks to dvdbeaver for reminding me that this film was on my to-watch list.

[Stefan]

Has anybody else gotten the sensation from a film that they have been given some secret type of knowledge? It's only happened to me several times and the last time was after watching McCabe and Miss Miller for the first time several years ago. My best attempt at a description is waking up the next morning after viewing the film, you've processed it in your subconscious and somehow you now have knowledge that assists you in making better sense of the world around you. Anyone?

I watched Four Nights of a Dreamer last night on youtube and I had that sensation this morning. Amazing film. Thanks to dvdbeaver for reminding me that this film was on my to-watch list.

Are you kidding us? Please specify. The differences between those two films by Altman and Bresson and ludicrously big, so you should give us some clue(s) as towards your inner experience.

[Matt]

I was going to reply to Petty Bourgeoisie’s post with my similar experience of watching Four Nights of a Dreamer during a Bresson retrospective and having a similar reaction. And I also don’t really know how to describe that reaction. I know it is not Bresson’s best film (just historically one of the most difficult to see), but it had an effect of circumventing my rational mind and appealing directly to my emotions and my aesthetic sensibilities. And it was not necessarily a spiritual reaction like I might have had after Balthasar, the recognition of and identification with suffering, the bestowal of grace, etc. Perhaps more of a simple and humane identification with a good but fundamentally flawed hero.

That was a very long time ago, and I have not watched the film since, so I have nothing more than that to contribute. I would say that the experience of having just watched the film was similar to how I felt after the first time I saw a 35mm print of McCabe and Mrs. Miller and after seeing several other deeply affecting (but otherwise quite different) films like All That Jazz, Margot at the Wedding, and Claire Denis’s L’intrus that seem to reveal deep truths about human nature and human relationships purely through motion, gesture, facial expressions, cutting, cinematography, and music. These truths maybe can’t be expressed well by language, or maybe neither the filmmaker nor the viewer are able to find those right words.

Maybe I’m just getting old and soft, but maybe also we don’t need to demand that everyone who posts here post long, reasoned critique as if it were the norm. Sometimes it’s enough to say that you loved a film because it was beautiful or because it made you feel things you can’t quite express.