Robert Bresson

The only published writing by the great French flimmaker, Robert Bresson.

Notes on the Cinematographer

A collection of short notes about cinematography by Robert Bresson.

Notes on Cinematography

La "politica de los autores," expresion abundantemente utilizada incluso en nuestros dias en el campo del cine, se ha convertido en un concepto trillado por culpa de un uso cada vez mas restrictivo: la reivindicacion de un supuesto estatuto de "artista" que se debe otorgar al cineasta en el mismo grado que a un pintor o a un escritor. Las entrevistas contenidas en este libro, realizadas por los criticos de la revista Cahiers du cinema en los anos cincuenta y sesenta, ponen en duda la importancia historica del concepto de "politica." Para los Cahiers de la epoca, se trataba mas bien de elegir a un autor y no a otros, juzgados menos importantes desde el punto de vista de su estetica, de su singularidad o del caracter realmente innovador de su obra.Asi, algunos de los directores que entonces se encumbraron se muestran aqui al desnudo, a veces incluso contradiciendo las virtudes que sus entrevistadores pretenden atribuirles. Desde los franceses Jean Renoir y Robert Bresson, dos de los pocos que aquellos jovenes criticos rescataron de su herencia cultural, al espanol Luis Bunuel o el aleman Fritz Lang, a los que convirtieron en la quintaesencia del autor capaz de superar todas las dificultades para expresar su mundo interior, pasando por Alfred Hitchcock y Howard Hawks, los mas despreciados por la critica tradicional a causa de su aparente adscripcion a un cine de genero y de entretenimiento, el lector encontrara en estas conversaciones los cimientos de una vision del cine que aun hoy en dia desempena un papel fundamental, para cualquier aficionado, a la hora de ver una pelicula.

Entrevistas

La Política de Los Autores

Robert Bresson, the director of such cinematic master-pieces as Pickpocket, A Man Escaped Mouchette, and L’Argent, was one of the most influential directors in the history of French film, as well as one of the most stubbornly individual: He insisted on the use of nonprofessional actors; he shunned the “advances” of Cinerama and Cinema-Scope (and the work of most of his predecessors and peers); and he minced no words about the damaging influence of capitalism and the studio system on the still-developing—in his view—art of film. Bresson on Bresson collects the most significant interviews that Bresson gave (carefully editing them before they were released) over the course of his forty-year career to reveal both the internal consistency and the consistently exploratory character of his body of work. Successive chapters are dedicated to each of his fourteen films, as well as to the question of literary adaptation, the nature of the sound track, and to Bresson’s one book, the great aphoristic treatise Notes on the Cinematograph. Throughout, his close and careful consideration of his own films and of the art of film is punctuated by such telling mantras as “Sound...invented silence in cinema,” “It’s the film that...gives life to the characters—not the characters that give life to the film,” and (echoing the Bible) “Every idle word shall be counted.” Bresson’s integrity and originality earned him the admiration of younger directors from Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette to Olivier Assayas. And though Bresson’s movies are marked everywhere by an air of intense deliberation, these interviews show that they were no less inspired by a near-religious belief in the value of intuition, not only that of the creator but that of the audience, which he claims to deeply respect: “It’s always ready to feel before it understands. And that’s how it should be.

Bresson on Bresson: Interviews, 1943-1983

Pendant près de vingt-cinq ans, le réalisateur de Pickpocket a noté, pour lui-même et pour nous autres, les idées que lui apportait son métier. R. Bresson oppose notamment le "cinématographe", écriture d'images et de sons formant un texte visuel et auditif, au "cinéma" qui reste, selon lui, du théâtre filmé.

Notes sur le cinématographe

Michel Estève

The films of Robert Bresson

Robert Bresson, the director of such cinematic master-pieces as Pickpocket, A Man Escaped Mouchette, and L’Argent, was one of the most influential directors in the history of French film, as well as one of the most stubbornly individual: He insisted on the use of nonprofessional actors; he shunned the “advances” of Cinerama and Cinema-Scope (and the work of most of his predecessors and peers); and he minced no words about the damaging influence of capitalism and the studio system on the still-developing—in his view—art of film. Bresson on Bresson collects the most significant interviews that Bresson gave (carefully editing them before they were released) over the course of his forty-year career to reveal both the internal consistency and the consistently exploratory character of his body of work. Successive chapters are dedicated to each of his fourteen films, as well as to the question of literary adaptation, the nature of the sound track, and to Bresson’s one book, the great aphoristic treatise Notes on the Cinematograph. Throughout, his close and careful consideration of his own films and of the art of film is punctuated by such telling mantras as “Sound...invented silence in cinema,” “It’s the film that...gives life to the characters—not the characters that give life to the film,” and (echoing the Bible) “Every idle word shall be counted.” Bresson’s integrity and originality earned him the admiration of younger directors from Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette to Olivier Assayas. And though Bresson’s movies are marked everywhere by an air of intense deliberation, these interviews show that they were no less inspired by a near-religious belief in the value of intuition, not only that of the creator but that of the audience, which he claims to deeply respect: “It’s always ready to feel before it understands. And that’s how it should be.”

« Le film est le type même de l’œuvre qui réclame un style. » Pendant quarante ans, Robert Bresson a accordé nombre d’entretiens à la presse française et étrangère, à la radio et à la télévision. Ses réponses aux multiples questions, de toutes sortes, apportent d’importantes précisions sur ses films, son art et l’évolution de sa pensée. Et elles accompagnent, devancent, prolongent ses Notes sur le cinématographe. Interrogé par Yvonne Baby, François-Régis Bastide, Michel Ciment, Serge Daney, Pierre Desgraupes, Jean Douchet, Jean-Luc Godard, André Parinaud, Georges Sadoul, Roger Stéphane ou Serge Toubiana, entre autres, Robert Bresson parle avec passion, simplicité, détermination et humour de tous les éléments d’un film qui, savamment combinés, font du cinématographe un art à part entière. L’ouvrage est illustré de photos dont beaucoup sont inédites. Création Studio Flammarion. Couverture : Portrait de Robert Bresson pris par Hélène Jeanbrau durant le tournage du film Au hasard Balthazar, 1965. © Adagp, Paris 2013.4e de couverture : © Ministère de la Culture / Médiathèque du Patrimoine, Dist. RMN / Sam Lévin.

Robert Bresson

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