Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

MAY 1-10, TUESDAY–THURSDAY
 
Over the last five years, nearly every visiting filmmaker to Northwest Film Forum has cited Robert Bresson as one of the key influences on their work. Each has digested his outstanding “Notes On The Cinematographer,” a dictum for filmmaking that lays out his elliptical style, epigrammatic prose, obtuse meanings, material rigidity, conciseness and frugality of means. It’s also a text that has served as a guide for our film programming. 
 
In a career that spanned over forty years, Bresson directed only thirteen feature films—plus a single short. It's not a large body of work for a man who ranks high in the critics’ pantheon of cinema gods. Bresson never had a major box office success; after his second feature, he ceased working with professional actors entirely. His work with non-professionals—or models, as he like to call them—emphasized movement and gesture over thought. He’d often shoot many takes, gradually stripping all affectation and intention from his models. 
 
We present in this series six of Bresson’s harder-to-find features. Several of his other films have recently screened at Northwest Film Forum, and two more will screen in coming months for longer engagements in new 35mm prints. 
 

Thanks to the following individuals and institutions for their generous support of this retrospective: TIFF Cinematheque and James Quandt, Toronto, who undertook the organization of the North American touring series; Institut Français, Paris; Delphine Selles Alvarez at the French Cultural Services, New York; Denis Bisson and Nora Orallo, French Consulate San Francisco; La Cinémathèque Française, Paris; Mylène Bresson, Paris; Pierre Lhomme, Paris; Jake Perlin, The Film Desk, New York; Bruce Goldstein and Eric Di Bernardo, Rialto Pictures, New York; Sarah Finklea and Brian Belovarac, and Janus Films, New York. 

 

Visit the film pages below for individual film passes, or BUY SERIES PASS HERE

Series pass: $50 general, $30 member

 

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Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

Les Anges du Peche

New 35mm Print! 

May 01

(Robert Bresson, 1943, France, 35mm, 121 min)

Bresson’s first feature film was unavailable for many years on revival circuits or video, and is the only Bresson film released during the German occupation of France.

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Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

Les dames du Bois de Boulogne

May 02

(Robert Bresson, 1945, France, 35mm, 90 min)

Critic David Thomson calls this “a landmark in cinema history.”   

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Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

The Trial of Joan of Arc

May 03

(Robert Bresson, 1962, France, 35mm, 65 min)

 “Trial seems like a historical document from an era in which cinema doesn’t exist” —Jean Cocteau 

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Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

Lancelot of the Lake

May 08

(Robert Bresson, 1974, France, 35mm, 85 min)

“Stunningly beautiful, mesmerizing, exhausting, uplifting, amazing—all the things you could possibly expect from a masterpiece” —Time Out 

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Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

Four Nights of a Dreamer

New 35mm Print! 

May 09

(Robert Bresson, 1971, France, 35mm, 94 min)

“A movie about the condition of being in love. It is shockingly beautiful…and may well be Bresson’s loveliest film” —New York Times 

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Notes on the Cinematographer: The Films of Robert Bresson

Une Femme Douce

May 10

(Robert Bresson, 1969, France, 35mm, 88 min)

Adapted from a Dostoevsky short story. 

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