"Bresson has been able in his work to raise cinematography to the level of comparable older art forms and genres." "Bresson is very intolerant." "He is very scornful of any filmmaking that is not his own and he regards himself as the only filmmaker that matters." "I feel as if I've learned to be picky about everything." "I think I already had that in me but I feel as if Bresson revealed it to me." "The Road To Bresson" "A Man Escaped" "Could you please sit down?" "We have to stop or he won't come back." "It's simple." "Did you hear me, sir?" "I'm sorry, but that's the way it is." "The Cannes Film Festival." "The 81-year-old French film director, Robert Bresson, gives a press conference for his new film." "The director usually avoids publicity." "Now, for the first time in years, he lets himself be filmed and photographed." "We're starting the press conference for the film you have just seen" " Money." "Who is that question for?" "I didn't understand why, either." "I said I didn't understand why, either." "Neither did the wife." "No one understood it." "Mr Bresson, I didn't find your film very pleasant but it was interesting." "Your very specific style has been described as being frustrating for the spectators." "Do you agree with that adjective?" "What do you think?" "And why do you make films that are frustrating for the spectators?" "Why do you make films that are what?" " Films that are what?" " Frustrating for the spectators." "Frustrating." "Bresson is not known to a large audience." "But in film circles he is regarded as a great master because of the unique style of his films." "He calls this style "cinematographe", to distinguish it from usual film styles - the "cinema"." "For us as film students, Bresson's films were a shock." "They dimered from everything we had learned." "His style is characterised by great sparsity." "The Devil Probably" " Do you know where you're going?" "Yes." " Where?" " His place." " He hasn't got one." " He's got a room." " You'll break you parents' hearts." " l can't help that." "Do you love him that much?" "You're the one I love, Michel." "With him it's something else, not true love." "What then?" "I don't know." "He asked me to be here at five, so here I am." "He might not come at all." "Here he is." "We recognised this style in Bresson's old black-and-white films, but also in his most recent one about our generation." "We decided to investigate it." "But Bresson doesn't want to be filmed." "He has refused it for years, he tells us by phone." "THE FILM-MAKER" "Not much is known about Bresson." "Born in 1901, although he claims six years later." "After a classical education, he works as a painter and fashion photographer." "In the thirties he switches to film." "He writes a few scenarios and directs a short comedy that has never been recovered." "As a prisoner of war, he gets the idea for his first feature, which he makes in 1943." "1945." "1951 ." "1956." "I remember seeing him work and it seemed to be both very simple and completely incomprehensible." "No one on set seemed to understand what he was doing." "For example, he would reshoot a very simple shot 50 times." "And no one really knew why he reshot it 50 times." "But I understand it very well now that I make films myself because it happens to me, too." "Sometimes when I'm directing the crew look at me as if I'm mad because I'm looking for something and I'm not really sure what." "And then it happens and I say, "That's it."" ""That's what I was looking for, I just didn't know it."" "And I think Bresson's method is about searching." "I don't think he knows exactly what he's doing when he's working." "I think that's why he's often criticised for overspending on his films, for going over budget." "It's because he's searching, and he's searching on his own." "And he finds it, he ends up finding it, but it's always very mysterious and I don't think it's something he himself can know in advance." "With Pickpocket Bresson has found it" "He had a big influence on us because he was our model." "He set an example as someone who refused to make any concessions to commerce, who made pure cinema and who, of all the French directors, was the one who made arthouse films." "He pictured his films in their entirety." "He was the sole and total master of his work." "And in that sense, we all really admired him." "I cannot say that Trumaut, Godard, Chabrol or even Rohmer ever really had..." "Their films are very dimerent to Bresson's, as are mine, I imagine, even though I could be said to have been the most influenced by Bresson." "But he was definitely our beacon." "Bresson was the man we admired and we all wanted to be him." "1959." "1962." "In Moscow we studied films from the West." "But I was interested in other problems, in films which I selected from our archives in our film library." "I was fascinated by Joan Of Arc, by it's absolute independence from the audience watching the film." "Absolute independence in the sense that the film didn't come across as a spectacle but as a piece of nature, a piece of life" "You could watch it or not." "You could regard the film as art." "Or not." "Such independence of someone's work from the opinion of the audience or critics became forever the symbol for me of a director's attitude towards his audience." "I feel very close to Bresson." "Of all the artists seeking simplicity and depth he is one of the few to achieve this in his work." "That is essential." "We all seek simplicity." "All serious artists seek simplicity but only a few achieve it." "Bresson is one of the few who succeeded." "1966." "196T." "1969." "When I worked with Bresson, there were things which... which I remember well and which seemed e_raordinary." "First there was the tone of voice you had to use." "What he does to your voice and what he does to your being." "He seems to be searching." "Later I decided it was like when you want to lose your balance and you spin round, for example, several times in each direction, as if you were dancing." "Then you start to lose consciousness and it's as if a weight has dropped om you." "Working with Bresson was a bit like that." "Every time, every day was like that." "You really feel as if he has managed to get you to empty yourself of any thoughts " ""Should I do this?" "Should I do that?"" ""How on earth do I do this?"" "All those questions." "I saw the emect, for example, when I had to speak to someone." "Usually when I speak, I look people in the eye." "Every day, systematically, he asked me to look at the person's ear." "Always at their ear." "Whatever happened, I had to look at the person's ear." "And obviously that completely changes things." "It feels so strange." "Every thing Bresson does is calculated down to the tiniest detail" "Once you've worked with Bresson, it's hard to really act afteM/ards, in other words, to show om..." "You end up playing down the pe_ormance so that when you come to make other films..." "As a rule, actors are asked not to play down the pe_ormance but, on the contrary, to exaggerate it." "So, like everything in life, in gaining something, you lose something else." "19T1." "19T4." "19TT." "1983." "Bresson has only made 13 films in 40 years." "His films have won lots of prizes but attracted only small audiences and some even bankrupted the producer." "Hello, is that the Majestic?" "Good evening." "Can you put me through to Mr Bresson's room, please?" "OK, I'll call back later." "Thank you." "Goodbye." "THE STYLE" "Bresson doesn't like talking about his films." "But a few years ago a book by him appeared with notes on his style, accumulated over the years." "Notes on the Cinematographer" "Getting rid of accumulated mistakes and falsehoods." "Knowing and securing my powers." "The cinema didn't come from nowhere." "Everything must be challenged." "CAMERA" "Lancelot of the Lake" "Lancelot." "Lancelot." "Bresson's camera does not show much." "We often only see parts of a greater whole." "Here a tournament is represented by just a few shots of a flag, horses' legs, a lance." "We never see the whole track." "The shots only show what is needed, the essential." "Applying myself to insignificant images" "(not significant ones)" "Teaching the audience to imagine the whole when you are only giving them a part." "Making them imagine." "Making them want to." "ACTING" "Lancelot of the Lake" "Lancelot." "Guinevere." "You are alive and you are here." "Nothing shall ever take you away from me again." "All is lost for us here in Brittany." "I can wait no longer." "Say it." "I love you." "Again." "Say it once more." "I love you." "You must believe me." "I believe you." "But what is the matter?" "Give me your hand." "The one you are hiding from me." "Your finger is bare." "You have taken om my ring." "Speak." "You are frightening me." "I saw the Grail." "The Grail?" "One night I sought refuge in a ruined chapel." "A voice challenged me, accusing me of deceit and treachery." "I can still hear that voice ringing in my ears." "You dreamt it." "I can no longer be your lover, Guinevere." "I swore to God with my sword drawn." "You did that?" "I did." "For God to hear you, you must be absolved of another vow." "I ask you to absolve me of that vow, Guinevere." "I gave myself wholly to you, and you took me." "In Bresson's films there is no traditional acting." "Even the most emotional things are spoken in a monotone with a blank facial expression." "These people seem to be talking to themselves." "Bresson never works with professional actors" "They belong in the theatre in his view." "He only uses novices." "He calls them "models"." "He often rehearses them at great length in speaking their te_s without any intonations." "No actors." "(No directing actors)." "No roles." "(No studying roles)." "No pe_ormance." "But the use of models, taken from real life." "BEING (models) instead of SEEMING (actors)." "Completely suppress the intentions of your models" "Move your camera across faces as long as no grimace (intended or otheM/ise) intervenes." "Filmmaking made from internal movements which can be seen." "MODELS: inward movement." "(Actors: outward movement.)" "action # tension" "A Man Escaped" "After three weeks, working as quietly as possible, I managed to separate three planks, Iengthwise." "But they were still attached at the top and bottom, fastened by joints which bent my spoon." "In order to dislodge them from the frame I n_ed another spoon so I could apply enough pressure." "The Bible?" "I'm lucky." "It's a miracle." "Everything has changed since yesterday." "Silence." "No talking." "I'm lucky too." "I'd splintered the frame but over a wider area than I'd intended." "I managed to put the piece back and hold it in place." "It seems as if Bresson deliberately removes tension." "The title of this film gives the end away." "There is little action and no spectacular events." "There is a lot of repetition." "A rhythm of evenness dominates." "The prisoner often describes what can already be seen." "Nor is music used to create tension." "This bare style often seems cool and distant." "Tension is suppressed, emotions are restrained." "Yet tension and emotion are palpable." "You have to say things mechanically, but while you are saying things mechanically, a change takes place inside you and there is a turnabout that makes the mechanical come alive." "It's very similar to the way one great pianist plays the piano - not a virtuoso, but a great pianist - namely Lipatti." "Lipatti conveyed emotion with restraint and regularity." "It was by holding back his emotion, trying to suppress it even, and regulating it as much as possible that he managed to convey an emotion that no virtuoso ever achieved." "Well, this is similar." "By both holding back and speaking mechanically, something suddenly sticks." "Create emotion by resisting emotion." "Empty the pond to get the fish." "Hello." "Could you put me through to Mr Robert Bresson's room, please?" " Bresson?" " Yes." "A THEORY" "The American director and scriptwriter, Paul Schrader wrote, at the age of 26, Transcendental Style In Film, in which he analysed Bresson's films." "THE STORIES" "A young country priest is consumed by holy sumering." "He finds peace in accepting death." "A condemned man tries to escape." "He succeeds thanks to perseverance and chance." "Joan of Arc resists enormous pressure, convinced that God sent her." "Death at the stake is her relief." "They are stories of sumering and purification." "The main characters eventually find deliverance." "Accepting their fate provides liberation." "In Bresson's later films something changes." "A young girl finds no response from a heartless world and chooses to die." "A man wants to know if he is to blame for his wife's suicide." "In a world without humanity," "Lancelot has no choice but death." "A schoolboy finds no reason to stay alive and eventually has himself shot." "The tone seems more sombre." "The films always end in death or suicide." "The Devil, Probably" "Where are we going?" "Wherever you like." "Here or there?" "I thought at a time like this I'd have sublime thoughts." "Shall I tell you...?" "THE question" "Good evening." "Is that Mr Bresson?" "It's Jurriën Rood, the Dutchman." "I'm sorry to call you at this hour." "I wanted to ask you whether you might have a bit of time for us tomorrow, as we discussed when we met in Paris." "Oh, no, I saw the film this morning." "Yes." "So for us..." "Right." "Yes, to come with two or three short questions, as we discussed." "OK, just one." "Right." "Here comes the Monty Python team." "Meanwhile, to the right of the steps the festival is revealing its charms." "It is an honour to present the award for Best Director to Robert Bresson for Money." "Mr Bresson, when I watch your films, I get the feeling that they contain a moral - a rather dark, pessimistic moral - and that in your later films, the moral gets even darker." "So there there seems to be almost a contradiction between this pessimism and the beauty of the form." "Let me tell you something." "You are confusing pessimism with lucidity." "Being lucid is not the same as being pessimistic." "As for the moral, that's a bigger issue." "The moral hasn't... I don't have..." "There's nothing dark about the moral." "There are two things." "is Greek tragedy pessimistic?" "So it's lucid instead?" "To me it seems more lucid than pessimistic." "I never say what's going to happen." "I simply record what I see." "I find it dimicult now to tackle subjects from another era." "I have to stay within our times." "There are very serious threats around the world and that it is better to be lucid than pessimistic." "So you don't regard yourself as a pessimist?" "The search for beauty and the search for lucidity are in no way contradictory." "I don't see any contradiction." "But beauty in filmmaking has to be new." "I mean, cinematography is an art form because all art has its beauty." "You have to make the most of two e_raordinary appliances - the camera and the tape recorder combined - to write something on the screen." "And it has to be new because the appliances are new." "They are heaven-sent and brand new." "You have to make something new with new equipment." "And this newness must be beautiful if we aspire to an ideal of beauty for things and people in general." "Do you think you have changed over the course of your career?" "I certainly hope I have evolved." "This last film has something new about it." "At least for me it has." "It came both from a determination to make something concentrated and fast and new and from a sense of freedom - great spontaneity and freedom." "I do it because I feel it so I do it." "Never mind if it's no good." "If it is good, great." "But that's how I work." "Unfortunately there's the audience, the cinemagoers, or moviegoers as they're known, who just expect to see theatre photographed." "They want to see the whole person and not just their hands or their face or their elbow or their leg." "When I cross a street, I see legs walking, so I don't hesitate to show legs in motion." "That is what a Parisian boulevard is for me." "People didn't see that there was beauty in the character who arrived in the midst of these legs as a pair of legs himself, and who suddenly sat down so that we could see all of him, in full view." "They didn't see it." "Or rather, they didn't feel it." "They wait for explanatory dialogue and there isn't any." "The explanation comes from the image combined with the sound." " Do the audience understand your style?" " No, they don't understand." "They watch films that are photographed plays all the time so they can't understand." "They want to see actors acting by the way they speak, by the modulation in their voices, the narrative." "That's all they're looking for." "If there is no pe_ormance and no famous actors, they see a void." "I understand them well." "But the cinema must evolve." "It can't stay like this forever." "The cinema could be huge." "It has to evolve. I'll end on that." "Can I ask what your advice to young filmmakers would be?" "That's my last question." "I'll end with a wonde_ul line from Stendhal that I am sure you know " ""The other arts taught me the art of writing."" "And Andrej Tarkovsky for Nostalghia." "Silence." "You have to admit, it's an exceptional line-up." "Thank you very much."