Robert Bresson is a legendary French filmmaker whose films I've never wanted to see. His most famous work is about the miserable life of a donkey, and I've always expected his stuff to be dour and depressing and, well, pretty much this.
Recently, the Criterion Collection, or as I call them, The Real Heroes, recently struck a deal with Netflix to show some of their films on the Watch Instantly program. So, I decided that I was going to tackle this most difficult of directors, who Wikipedia describes thusly:
Bresson's early artistic focus was to separate the language of cinema from the theatre, which often heavily involves the actor's performance to drive the work. With his 'actor-model' technique, Bresson's actors were required to repeat multiple takes of each scene until all semblances of 'performance' were stripped away, leaving a stark effect that registers as both subtle and raw, and one that can only be found in the cinema. Some feel that Bresson's Catholicupbringing and Jansenist belief-system lie behind the thematic structure of most of his films. Recurring themes under this interpretation include salvation, redemption, defining and revealing the human soul, and metaphysical transcendence of a limiting and materialistic world.
LET'S GET READY TO PARRRRR-TTTAAYYYYYY!!!!!!
Pickpocket (1958) is about a pickpocket. No shit. I chose to watch Pickpocket first because it was 76 minutes. I'm not proud to admit that. Pickpocket starts with an artistic statement . . . in French. Oh God No, thought my brain, My Art Film Nightmare is coming true!
However, once the film started, that stuff went away. One thing that parodies of old French art films neglect to mention is that these films tell stories. Sure, the her...
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...with no artifice to distract, which ends up being distracting at times. (IRONY, YOU'RE A THING!). The dialogue is occasionaly stilted (although that may just be bad subtitle translation), but the themes aren't hidden: Salvation, redemption, and some guy named Jansen are all there. Bresson is definitely striving to make something universal.
I liked Pickpocket a lot, although I didn't have the full-on artgasm that I got from something like 8 1/2 or Bicycle Thieves. The profundity didn't really hit me in the gut like it did with those films. I'm guessing the power of his films will grow the more that I see and get used to what my man Bobby is trying to say. Or maybe I just like Italy better than France. Regardless, I shall press on with Bresson!
Next up on my Bresson-a-thon: Au Hasard Balthazar, the donkey movie I described above.
Works Cited
Wikipedia.org
Beginning the mid 1920s, Hollywood’s ostensibly all-powerful film studios controlled the American film industry, creating a period of film history now recognized as “Classical Hollywood”. Distinguished by a practical, workmanlike, “invisible” method of filmmaking- whose purpose was to demand as little attention to the camera as possible, Classical Hollywood cinema supported undeviating storylines (with the occasional flashback being an exception), an observance of a the three act structure, frontality, and visibly identified goals for the “hero” to work toward and well-defined conflict/story resolution, most commonly illustrated with the employment of the “happy ending”. Studios understood precisely what an audience desired, and accommodated their wants and needs, resulting in films that were generally all the same, starring similar (sometimes the same) actors, crafted in a similar manner. It became the principal style throughout the western world against which all other styles were judged. While there have been some deviations and experiments with the format in the past 50 plus ye...
Grainge, P., Jancovich, M., & Monteith, S. (2012). Film Histories; An introduction and reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
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The film is a fairly faithful adaptation of the book. The amateurish style of the book gives it some appeal as a more sleek and sophisticated style wouldn’t evoke a sense of angst’ desperation and confusion that the novel does.
... movie stars like royalty or mythical gods and goddesses, viewing the drama between great archetypal characters in a personal psychic realm. By considering the statements made and their societal impact from a Marxist perspective, Benjamin’s method is highly effective, as it does not simply consider art in terms of pure aesthetics anymore, but considers art’s place in a society capable of mechanically reproducing and endlessly duplicating film, photography, and digital art. His qualm with losing the aura and mystique of an original work is negated by the cult of movie stars, the adoration of fame, the incorporation of soundtracks which embody a particular time period, cinematographic allusions, and time-capsule-like qualities of a film such as Basquiat, a 90s tribute to the 80s, produced both as a part of and resulting from the art movements and trends it addresses.
The Bicycle Thief is a portrait of Italy's collective consciousness, haunted by its disturbing past and disillusioned towards its future. Works Cited for: "The ' URL:http://www.film.queensu.ca/Critical/Bonikowski.html.
France during World War II was a dark place for a film industry that had once experienced such successes. As a result of Nazi Germany’s occupation, the selection of films available in France was severely limited. With Hollywood films strictly banned, theatres during the war mostly exhibited German imports and only a handful of domestically produced and heavily censored features. Immediately following WWII the French film industry was in ruins like the rest of the country’s industry.
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
It is no doubt that Martin Scorsese has heavily influenced the emulating of American film making from European influences. He is a prime example of a ‘New Hollywood Cinema’ director, not only from his ethnicity and background, but from his sheer interest in this form
In recent times, such stereotyped categorizations of films are becoming inapplicable. ‘Blockbusters’ with celebrity-studded casts may have plots in which characters explore the depths of the human psyche, or avant-garde film techniques. Titles like ‘American Beauty’ (1999), ‘Fight Club’ (1999) and ‘Kill Bill 2’ (2004) come readily into mind. Hollywood perhaps could be gradually losing its stigma as a money-hungry machine churning out predictable, unintelligent flicks for mass consumption. While whether this image of Hollywood is justified remains open to debate, earlier films in the 60’s and 70’s like ‘Bonnie and Clyde’ (1967) and ‘Taxi Driver’ (1976) already revealed signs of depth and avant-garde film techniques. These films were successful as not only did they appeal to the mass audience, but they managed to communicate alternate messages to select groups who understood subtleties within them.
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despite him being my favorite director and I just watched it few weeks ago. By watching that film you can see his unique style and the technique he used to shot that film which is amazing.