The Road to Bresson

With his creative oeuvre,

he managed to elevate cinema

to the same height

as the related, more ancient art forms and genres.

That is the first reason.

Bresson is extremely intolerant.

His way is the only way. He has only contempt for everything else.

He thinks no other kind of cinema, no other directors exist.

I felt like I learned to be very choosy about everything.

I was already like that, but Bresson brought it out.

THE ROAD TO BRESSON

A film by Jurrien Rood and Leo de Boer

A MAN ESCAPED

Thank you, Officers.

Please be seated.

If you don't stop, he simply won't come back.

Did you hear me, sir?

Sorry, that's how it is.

The Cannes Film Festival.

The 81-year-old French filmmaker Robert Bresson

is giving a press conference

upon the premiere of his latest film.

It has been a long time since this cineast,

who hates publicity,

has appeared in public for the eye of the camera.

Let's begin the press conference for the film you've just seen, L'Argent.

Who has the first question?

Who is the question for?

I didn't understand either.

Check the mic.

Okay, it's on.

- We can't hear him. - Move closer.

I said I didn't understand either.

Nor did the woman. No one did.

It's not about understanding.

It's about feeling, which is not the same thing.

Mr. Bresson, I find your film rather unpleasant, but interesting.

Your style is quite specific. I'd say it frustrates viewers.

Do you agree with that description?

If so, why do you make films that frustrate viewers?

Why make films that what?

Are frustrating for the viewer. Frustrating.

- Frustrating. - Oh, right.

What viewer are you talking about?

Bresson is not well known to the general public.

But within film circles, he's seen as one of the great masters

because of his unique style.

A style he calls "cinematography"

to distinguish it from common film style, cinema.

To us, as film students,

our introduction to Bresson's films came as a shock.

They were different from everything we'd learned at film school.

His style stands out due to its great austerity.

THE DEVIL, PROBABLY

- Do you know where you're going? - Yes.

- Where? - His place.

- He's homeless. - He has a place.

- You'll break your parents' hearts. - I can't help it.

You love him that much?

It's you I love, Michel.

With him, it's different. Not real love.

What, then?

I don't know.

He asked me to be here at 5:00 so here I am.

He might not even come.

Here he is.

We saw that style in his old black-and-white movies,

but also in his most recent films, about our generation.

We decide to investigate,

but Bresson does not want to be filmed.

He refused for many years, he tells us over the telephone.

THE FILMMAKER

There is very little biographical information about Bresson.

Born in 1901, but according to him, it was six years later.

After his studies, he worked as a painter and fashion photographer.

In the '30s he made his move to film.

He wrote some screenplays and directed a short comedy,

which has never been found.

During the war, as a POW, he gets the idea for his first feature film

which he makes in 1943.

1945.

1951.

DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST

1956.

A MAN ESCAPED

I remember watching him work.

DIRECTOR

It seemed so simple, yet totally incomprehensible.

No one on the set seemed to understand what he was doing.

For example, for a very simple shot,

he might reshoot it 50 times.

No one really knew why it had to be done 50 times.

But now that I make films, I completely understand,

because it also happens to me.

And sometimes, the crew looks at me like I'm crazy

because I'm looking for something, but I don't know what.

When it happens, "There! That's it."

That's what I was looking for, but I couldn't explain.

I think Bresson's method is to search continually.

When he works, I don't think he knows exactly what he's after,

which is why he's often criticized for going over schedule, over budget.

He's searching

and he searches alone.

And he ends up finding it,

but it's always very mysterious.

I don't think even he knows what it will be in advance.

WITH PICKPOCKET BRESSON HAS FOUND...

He was a big influence.

He was our role model:

He refused to make any commercial concessions.

He made pure cinema.

In France, he was the consummate auteur.

He conceived his film from start to finish.

He was the sole master of his work.

We all deeply admired him for that.

I wouldn't say that Truffaut, Godard, Chabrol

or even Rohmer are --

Their films are very different from Bresson's,

as are mine,

although I'm said to be the most influenced by Bresson.

However, he was our guiding light.

We admired him. We all wanted to be Bresson.

1959.

1962.

THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC

At our institute in Moscow, we studied Western cinema.

DIRECTOR

But the films I watched weren't part of the curriculum.

I was interested in other problems.

I was interested in the pictures I myself was able to unearth

in our archive, in the cinema archive --

in the cinematheque.

I was utterly astounded by Joan of Arc,

by its absolute independence from the viewer,

by its complete incompatibility:

to such a degree that the picture appeared before the audience not as a spectacle,

but rather as a fragment of nature and of life.

You may watch it if you like or not watch it.

You may accept this film as art or not accept it.

In other words, this independence of one's art

from the viewers' opinions and from the critics,

this for me forever became a symbol

of a director's behavior vis-a-vis the audience.

Bresson appeals to me precisely because,

among the many artists who strive for simplicity and depth,

he is alone among the very few who've managed to achieve it in his work.

This is the most important part.

Of course, we all strive for simplicity,

any artist who is more or less serious strives for simplicity,

and yet not many of us succeed in achieving this simplicity.

But Bresson is one of the few who have succeeded.

1966.

1967.

1969.

When I worked with Bresson, there were things, I remember,

that seemed really odd.

First, the tone of voice to use.

The way he worked with the voice.

The way he worked with the person,

I think he seeks --

This is how I explain it:

When you want to lose control,

you can spin one way, then the other, dancing like a dervish,

and after that, you're disoriented.

It's like a weight has been lifted.

Shooting with Bresson is like that. Every day, at each moment is like that.

You really feel

that he's trying to empty your mind,

to free you from thoughts like "Should I do this? Should I do that?

What do I have to do?"

No more questions.

That meant, for example,

that when I had to speak to someone --

I usually look people in the eye.

But every day, systematically,

he'd tell me to look at their ear.

Always.

No matter what, I had to look at their ear as they spoke.

It made a huge difference, it seems so strange.

WITH BRESSON, EVERYTHING IS WEIGHED AND CALCULATED

DOWN TO THE TINIEST DETAIL

After working with Bresson,

it's very difficult to "act,"

to express...

because you tend to "underact."

But when acting in other films,

on the contrary, actors are asked to exaggerate emotions.

Like everything in life,

you gain something, you lose something.

1971.

FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER

1974.

LANCELOT OF THE LAKE

1977.

THE DEVIL, PROBABLY

1983.

Bresson has made only 13 films in a period of 40 years.

Films that won a lot of awards, but didn't attract a big audience.

In some cases, they even led to the bankruptcy of the producers.

Hello, is this the Majestic?