Robert Bresson
Posted: November 4th, 2011, 8:39 am
Yesterday I watched A Man Escapes directed by Robert Bresson and it struck me how much I've enjoyed his style of movie making. Other movies I've seen by him are Les Dames Du Bois De Boulogne, Dairy of a Country Priest, Pickpocket and Au Hasard Balthazar. He doesn't qualify as a New Wave director in my mind as he made his first film in 1945 but he has a very simplistic way of telling his stories, usually in black and white, resorting to the visuals to create the mood, his actors, for me seen to be minimalistic, developing the stories almost by what they don't say rather than what they do.
A Man Escapes is a great example of this, it's set in a Nazi prison were the men are kept seperate and not allowed to talk to one another during their short break out of their cell every day, having contact is a battle against the constant presence of the Nazi guards. The only contact they really get is through talking through the bars at the window to their nearest neighbours, despite the lack of conversation we get to find out quite a bit about some of the other men in the cells. The men communicate by coughs etc. Francoise needs to get out of prison and the whole film is about his quest, it moves along, slowly yet compellingly, using Mozart to great effect and a voice over narration. The result is that I felt more involved than in any other prison break story. It's not a film that is easy to predict, apart from the title A Man Escapes which did give away the fact that he gets away, which gave me some relief when watching it because his case seemed hopeless but the addition into his cell of Jost just as he gets sentenced to death, I was worried about Jost's fate as he was such a young man with a seemingly unformed set of opinions. The break itself seemed to take forever, in a good way, the obstacles were more than I would have thought. My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known what happened to the two men in real life. The end shot of the smoke rising above the railway bridge as the men steal away into the darkness was the perfect way to end the movie.
I remember having strong feelings when watching his other movies, Au Hasard Balthasar, I got myself quite tearful over that poor donkey. Pickpocket is one of the best crime dramas in terms of suspense I've ever seen and Diary of a Country Priest, simplicity, the fighting of prejudices and his stomach ailment, again it got me right in the eye with the emotions.
Bresson wasn't a very prolific director but I'd certainly search out more of his work.
A Man Escapes is a great example of this, it's set in a Nazi prison were the men are kept seperate and not allowed to talk to one another during their short break out of their cell every day, having contact is a battle against the constant presence of the Nazi guards. The only contact they really get is through talking through the bars at the window to their nearest neighbours, despite the lack of conversation we get to find out quite a bit about some of the other men in the cells. The men communicate by coughs etc. Francoise needs to get out of prison and the whole film is about his quest, it moves along, slowly yet compellingly, using Mozart to great effect and a voice over narration. The result is that I felt more involved than in any other prison break story. It's not a film that is easy to predict, apart from the title A Man Escapes which did give away the fact that he gets away, which gave me some relief when watching it because his case seemed hopeless but the addition into his cell of Jost just as he gets sentenced to death, I was worried about Jost's fate as he was such a young man with a seemingly unformed set of opinions. The break itself seemed to take forever, in a good way, the obstacles were more than I would have thought. My only criticism is that I would have liked to have known what happened to the two men in real life. The end shot of the smoke rising above the railway bridge as the men steal away into the darkness was the perfect way to end the movie.
I remember having strong feelings when watching his other movies, Au Hasard Balthasar, I got myself quite tearful over that poor donkey. Pickpocket is one of the best crime dramas in terms of suspense I've ever seen and Diary of a Country Priest, simplicity, the fighting of prejudices and his stomach ailment, again it got me right in the eye with the emotions.
Bresson wasn't a very prolific director but I'd certainly search out more of his work.