Robert Bresson


Director
Robert Bresson

About

Birth Place
France
Born
September 25, 1901
Died
December 18, 1999

Biography

Bresson originally pursued a career as a painter but turned to film in the early 1930s, gaining his first experience as a script consultant on "C'etait un musicien" (1933), directed by Frederic Zelnick and Maurice Gleize. In between other, unexceptional assignments as a screenwriter, he made a medium-length film, the long-lost "Les Affaires publiques," in 1934. During WWII, Bresson was a...

Family & Companions

Leidia Vand der Zee
Wife
Married from 1926 until his death.

Bibliography

"Notes on Cinematography"
Robert Bresson (1975)

Biography

Bresson originally pursued a career as a painter but turned to film in the early 1930s, gaining his first experience as a script consultant on "C'etait un musicien" (1933), directed by Frederic Zelnick and Maurice Gleize. In between other, unexceptional assignments as a screenwriter, he made a medium-length film, the long-lost "Les Affaires publiques," in 1934. During WWII, Bresson was a prisoner of war from June 1940 to April 1941--an experience which profoundly marked his subsequent work in the cinema.

Bresson made a stunning feature debut with "Les Anges du peche" (1943), scripted by him and with dialogue by Jean Giraudoux. A melodramatic tale of a convent novice who sacrifices her life to save the soul of a murderer, it nevertheless defined the thematic territory of grace and redemption which Bresson would continue to explore. Like "Les Anges," "Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne" (1945) featured dramatic cinematography, atmospheric music and professional actors--all elements which Bresson would later shun in his quest to forge a purer cinematic art.

Bresson's next three films marked the development of his own personal, mature style. "Diary of a Country Priest" (1950) is an account, adapted from the 1936 novel by Georges Bernanos, of an awkward young priest who saves the souls of others while he himself is dying of stomach cancer. "A Man Escaped" (1956) is based on the real-life experiences of Andre Devigny, a French resistance fighter imprisoned by the Nazis. "Pickpocket" (1959) tells of a lonely young thief who finds redemption in love.

All three films are narrated in the first person and bear what are now known as the hallmarks of Bresson's work: a spare, abstract visual style which concentrates on objective details to create a sense of timelessness; natural sounds in place of mood-creating music; elliptical narrative structures which preclude suspense and invoke spiritual isolation; an absence of character psychology; and nonprofessional actors giving flat, expressionless "performances." ("What I am seeking is not so much expression by means of gesture, speech, mimicry, but expression by means of the rhythm and combination of images, by position, relation and number," Bresson explained.)

Perhaps the ultimate expression of Bresson's unique cinematic voice is "The Trial of Joan of Arc" (1962) which, with his films of the late 1950s, was much admired by the filmmakers of the New Wave. In the austere documenting of Joan's imprisonment and trial, physical objects--chains, stones, walls, windows--become metaphors for her spiritual isolation and sounds--the scratching of a pen during her hearing--contribute to the minimalist musicality of the experience.

In "Balthazar" and "Mouchette" (both 1966), a mule and a young girl, respectively, endure the indignities, cruelty and callousness of existence. Balthazar is exploited and mistreated by a series of owners before finding peace in a memorable death sequence, on a hillside surrounded by sheep. Mouchette drowns herself to escape the abuse and humiliation she suffers at the hands of her parents. (The film was Bresson's second to be adapted from the work of Bernanos.)

"Une Femme douce" (1969) tracks the failure of a marriage between an inquisitive, self-educated wife interested in the arts and archeology and a husband who values money and security. The wife takes her own life, marking the director's increasing concern with suicide; he went on to articulate the theme in such color films as "Four Nights of a Dreamer" (1971).

In "Lancelot du Lac" (1974), Bresson found his most fitting subject matter since "Joan of Arc." Lancelot and the Knights of King Arthur undertake a fruitless search for the Holy Grail in an age of chivalry defined by clumsy, episodic bloodshed, cumbersome armor and jealous in-fighting. At the film's conclusion Lancelot's horse, an arrow impaled in its neck, surveys the human carnage, as if recognizing a futility and horror to which the humans are blind.

Bresson's last masterpiece was "L'Argent" (1983). Chance events lead to the arrest of Yvon, an oil delivery man, for using counterfeit bills palmed off on him by a store clerk (perjury and a bribe protect the guilty). Now unemployable, Yvon commits a crime. While in jail his daughter dies, his wife abandons him and he unsuccessfuly attempts suicide. Upon release Yvon kills the family of an old lady who shelters him in a horrific ax-murder, for which Bresson refuses to provide a motivation.

No filmmaker has had a darker vision of man's inhumanity to man, nor has portrayed it with such consistent and remarkable style. In 1975, Bresson published "Notes on Cinematography," an apologia for his singular cinematic vision which argues that film is a blend of music and painting rather than--as traditionally understood--theater and photography.

Filmography

 

Director (Feature Film)

L'argent (1983)
Director
The Devil, Probably (1977)
Director
Le Diable probablement (1977)
Director
Lancelot of the Lake (1974)
Director
Quatre nuits d'un reveur (1971)
Director
Au hasard, Balthazar (1970)
Director
Mouchette (1970)
Director
Trial of Joan of Arc (1965)
Director
Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1964)
Director
A Man Escaped (1956)
Director
Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951)
Director
Les Anges du peche (1943)
Director
Affaires publiques, Les (1934)
Director

Cast (Feature Film)

Words In Progress (2004)
Himself
De Weg Naar Bresson (1984)
Himself
Mouchette (1970)

Cinematography (Feature Film)

Affaires publiques, Les (1934)
Director Of Photography

Writer (Feature Film)

L'argent (1983)
Screenwriter
The Devil, Probably (1977)
Screenplay
The Devil, Probably (1977)
Writer (Dialogue)
Lancelot of the Lake (1974)
Screenwriter
Quatre nuits d'un reveur (1971)
Screenwriter
Au hasard, Balthazar (1970)
Screenwriter
Trial of Joan of Arc (1965)
Screenwriter
Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1964)
Screenwriter
A Man Escaped (1956)
Writer (Dialogue)
A Man Escaped (1956)
Writer (Adaptation)
A Man Escaped (1956)
Screenplay
Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951)
Screenwriter
Courrier Sud (1936)
Screenwriter
Courrier Sud (1936)
Adaptation
Jumeaux de Brighton, Les (1936)
Screenwriter
Affaires publiques, Les (1934)
Screenwriter
C'etait un musicien (1933)
Dialogue
C'etait un musicien (1933)
Screenwriter

Editing (Feature Film)

Affaires publiques, Les (1934)
Editor

Title Design (Feature Film)

Quatre nuits d'un reveur (1971)
English Subtitles

Misc. Crew (Feature Film)

De Weg Naar Bresson (1984)
Other

Life Events

1933

First film credit as script consultant, "C'etait un musicien"

1934

First short film as director, writer, co-photographer and editor, "Les Affaires Publiques"

1939

Joined French army

1940

Spent year in German POW camp

1943

Feature film directing debut (also co-writer), "Les Anges du peche"

Videos

Movie Clip

Mouchette (1967) -- (Movie Clip) I Feel A Fit Coming On The teenage title character (Nadine Nortier), empathetic and not suspicious after taking shelter from a storm with the alcoholic epileptic local poacher Arsene (Jean-Claude Guilbert), does not foresee trouble, in Robert Bresson's Mouchette, 1967.
Mouchette (1967) -- (Movie Clip) He'll Spend The Night Outside Another grim morning in the home of Nadine Nortier (title character), her father (Paul Hebert) commenting on the drunken local poacher, then scornfully watching her better-off schoolmates, in director Robert Bresson's acclaimed Mouchette, 1967.
Mouchette (1967) -- (Movie Clip) Warmth Is What I Need Part of director Robert Bresson's powerful sketch of his title character (teenage non-actor Nadine Nortier), tending for her mother (Marie Cardinal) as her alcoholic bootlegger father (Paul Hebert) arrives home, then at school, Liliane Princet the teacher, in Mouchette, 1967.
Pickpocket (1959) -- (Movie Clip) He Taught Me Generously Afraid that he's being watched by the cops, Michel (Martin La Salle) discovers that his observer is really a fellow thief (Henri Kassagi, a well-known French illusionist of the time), who offers advice, illustrated in the austere style of writer-director Robert Bresson, in Pickpocket, 1959.
Man Escaped, A (1956) -- (Movei Clip) Courage Fontaine (Francois Leterrier) in early episodes in his downstairs cell, in Nazi custody in 1943 France, working through Terry (Roger Treherne), his not-yet-trusted friend in the prison yard, in Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped, 1956.
Man Escaped, A (1956) -- (Movei Clip) Lyon, 1943 Following the director's pledge to present only the truth, and opening credits, the first scene, set in Lyon, as French resistance fighter Fontaine (Francois Leterrier) is in Nazi custody, from Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped, 1956.
Pickpocket (1959) -- (Movie Clip) I Have Done Them Writer and director Robert Bresson from his first original screenplay, novice actor Martin La Salle as "Michel" narrating, at the race track and later meeting a police inspector (Jean Pelegri), opening Pickpocket, 1959.
Pickpocket (1959) -- (Movie Clip) Honest And Resourceful Emboldened Michel (Martin La Salle) with no preamble introducing his friend Jacques (Pierre Leymarie), in a Paris cafe, then joined by his own arresting police inspector (Jean Pelegri), early in writer-director Robert Bresson's Pickpocket, 1959.
Man Escaped, A (1956) -- (Movei Clip) I Had No Plans Fontaine (Francois Leterrier), imprisoned in Nazi occupied France, begins to consider a way to break through his cell door, presented in detail by director Robert Bresson, in A Man Escaped, 1956.
Man Escaped, A (1956) -- (Movei Clip) What Kind Of Men Imprisoned French resistance fighter Fontaine (Francois Leterrier) is moved upstairs by his Nazi captors, surveying his new surroundings, then dumping his slop pail, in Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped, 1956, from a memoir by Andre Devigny.
Diary Of A Country Priest -- (Movie Clip) Especially Seraphita The lonely priest (Claude Laydu) narrating, hoping catechism class will revive his spirits, young Seraphita (Martine Lemaire) his favored pupil, early in Robert Bresson's Diary Of A Country Priest, 1951.
Diary Of A Country Priest -- (Movie Clip) Evil Indeed From a diary entry, the priest (Claude Laydu) leads into a visit from the count (Jean Riveyre), who offers some encouragement, but won't discuss his troubled daughter, in Robert Bresson's Diary Of A Country Priest, 1951.

Family

Leon Bresson
Father
Marie Elizabeth Clausels
Mother

Companions

Leidia Vand der Zee
Wife
Married from 1926 until his death.

Bibliography

"Notes on Cinematography"
Robert Bresson (1975)