20:05 Correction. White Nights is also Dostoyevsky, and previously adapted by Visconti in a 1957 film of the same name.

I love Bresson's cinematography creations! He was a real artist!

This is the only channel I could find with a video about Bresson. Very good work and thanks for the video!

This is great content!! Just subscribed and excited to see what else is in store

Thanks man, splendide work. Keep it up.

“White Nights” the story “4 nights of a Dreamer“ is based on IS by Dostoyevsky, not Tolstoy!

Thank you for this clear and concise essay. I will send it to my relatives before they watch their first Bresson movie. Or maybe after...

Diary of a Country Priest is one of the best films ever made, imo

White Nights isn't a Tolstoy story, but a Dostoevsky one. L'argent is the one based on a Tolstoy story, 'The False Coupons'.

This was great! Love Bresson.

Super informative and comprehensive. Thanks man!

Masterful filmmaker, one of the directors who got me to consider cinema seriously. Diary of a Country Priest, A Man Escaped, Pickpocket and L'argent are my favorites from him

Thank you for making this!!

Clean and precise presentation.

As someone who watched Pickpocket, A Man Escaped, and Le diable probablement, I'd definitely recommend A Man Escaped as the starting point. Not only is it easily captivating for anyone due to it being extremely thrilling and gripping ; but the prison setting makes the minimalism and internal monologues seem much more "justified" for someone who's just getting into that. I feel like his movies are a smidge harder to get into if you're a french speaker, though, because the apatheitc enunciation is so hard to get used to at first.... The actor's intonations are so far from what you would expect in a movie that sometimes I don't even understand what they're saying even though I'm french.

Great work!

thanks for educating me!

This is so “Pro-Bresson”. I think this video is a fantastic introduction for new comers. Great video

wow thank you for this. liked the part 4 well all of it, actually

It's really great that you have mentioned Aparajito (the unvanquished ) in the last and Maybe you could do a similar video on Satyajit ray, because more people needs to know about his works

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THIS

Thank you. You have articulated what makes Bresson's art uniquely cinematic in a way, I think, only rivaled by Tarkovsky and Malick. To me, these are the Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven of movies.

Talk about music being used make the image transcendent - the end of Au Hasard Balthasar with the Schubert Piano Concerto..... perhaps one of the greatest moments of music and film together.

Ahahah the double non-features of Napoleon and Genesis 😂😂 love the video 🙌 fantastic work. Subscribed.

great content!

25:46 you could just pair it with Visconti’s White Nights. Admittedly I am a Bresson newby but I’ve been getting more and more into his filmography. This video gets me excited to dive deeper.

I appreciate Bresson, haven't gotten fully into his word, but understand in principle his innovations as a visual, cinematic artist. Was actually just skipping thru Au Hasard B and noticed a kinship between him and Tarr, and especially between the endings of AHB and that of Wrekmeister Harmonies.

The Bach of filmmakers. Albert Schweitzer: “Bach is thus a terminal point. Nothing comes from him; everything merely leads to him.”

Wow this was so good. Found out about Breson from a Tarkovsky interview.

Thanks very much. I agree, worth the trouble. I was looking for teaching materials and curious to see how others introduce and discuss films, conscious of the student predicament of not grasping all the many references to other films. The pace is too fast, rushed, but students can overcome that by watching again and being given activities, tasks, while watching. Concepts are explained, but so much is made to fit in that one wonders if it would be better for something of this scope to be broken down into three short documentary guides, divided into Parts 1, 2, and 3. Where pauses, silence, can also give students the mental space to think, make the valuable connections that are made. One notable example of this is where his Notes on the CInematograph is cited. The paragraphs appear on the screen fleetingly, the comment is made, but these concepts and aesthetic principles of his require unpacking, explaining. So much is assumed. A film culture is contained in them, that means they function more as signposting, than explanations. So, yes, a tall order! The whole of Bresson in 25 minutes or so! Heroic feat. Very helpful, more for experts than for newcomers though.

For me the suggestions to have double feature nights with one film by Bresson and another is totally out of Bresson's "philosophy". For me a good idea after watching one of his films is to leave some time to your self for absorbing it and appreciating life.

It could be be interesting to draw a parallel between the films of Robet Bresson and Raoul Ruiz, because both are trying to make films specific to their medium but the means used are quite different

most of bresson movies use copious amount to dialogue from dostoyevsky's books, even when they are not direct adaptations of dostoyevsky' works as with "four nights of a dreamer"(which you wrongly call was from tolstoy) and "a gentle creature" . in fact, most of language in his movies, starting with "pickpoket", except "trial of joan of arc", "lancelot of the lake" , and "mouchette", are based on actual words of dostoyevsky, more or less. even in case of some unimportant scenes . for instance, in case of "the devil, probably", which uses lots of words from "demons" , has a scene with instructions on how to minimize shoe heel wear, words of which are taken from dostoevsky's "adolescent". with regard to comparison, "four nights of a dreamer" and "le notti bianche" by luchino visconti, are based on same story, as is (sort of)"two lovers"(2008) with joaquin phoenix. there are in fact lots of other adaptations as well, from all over the world too, since that story is made for movies.

Awesome video! I'm having trouble finding where to watch A Gentle Woman, Four Nights of a Dreamer and Lancelot of the Lake. Any suggestions on where I could watch these?

Excelent vídeo

It is a shame Diary or A Country Priest, Tarkovsky’s favorite Bresson film, is so hard to find and watch.

Thanks for this short introduction to Bresson. Towards the end of The Devil Probably piano music is played from a building with the window open. Does anybody know what it is.

I'd love to watch you talk about Krzysztof Kieślowski. If you're familiar with his work.

Excuse me but 4 nights of a dreamer is not written by Tolstoy, as its said in the video...

does anyone know where i can find diary of a country priest on a streaming service of some sort?

Where can I find a a reason film aside from Torrent?

I bought a Taiwanese of "Diary of a Country Priest" of the movie since I can't find any place to stream it.

24:30 Some alternate double features Les dames du Bois de Boulogne and Stephen Frears's Dangerous Liaisons [betrayal, sexual politics and class warfare] The Diary of a Country Priest and I Confess [a community turns against a beleaguered priest] Pickpocket and Pickup on South Street [also about a pickpocket] Au Hasard Balthazar and EO [of course] Four Nights of a Dreamer and Visconti's White Nights [same source novel] Lancelot of the Lake and Rohmer's Perceval le Gallois [French takes on Arthurian legends] Triple feature The Devil Probably, La Chinoise and The Mother and the Whore [the death of 60s radicalism]

I love you

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻❤❤❤

How did you analyze his work and turn it into an essay

è tutto vero

Anyone knows where i can watch pickpocket?? (Well illegally ofc since i couldn’t find it anywhere and im not from the states)

10:34-10:40 Une Femme Douce labeled as Four Nights....

Bresson is meditation y budismo

Anyone know where I can watch 70s Bresson films? Pretty much all his colored films except l argent.

White Nights is Dostoevsky, not Tolstoy.

For those who have yet to see a film by Bresson, I suggest they watch it before watching this video. To see a Bresson film is to experience and feel it. First and foremost. Not to think and analyze it - which corrupts the raw experience of seeing his cinematographic manifestations with a virgin eye. And, if you are intrigued by your first viewing, I would then suggest that you watch another of his films. Then, and only then, perhaps read about his work - from unimpeachable sources. That, rather than from sycophants who parrot what they've read/heard elsewhere -- or from academics who sterilize the man's artistry to frozen death - without genuine, palpable, real human insight of their own. A level of (neither amateur nor pretentious) insight -- honest, if not truly brilliant - which Bresson's films arouse. In depth and in silence. And with great emotional courage. Bring yourself, honestly and openly, to Bresson's work. For you need not seek. That is a hindrance. The right sources will find you.

O:44. That looks like Jacques Tati, not Bresson.

man you're funny

White Nights is Dostoevsky not Tolstoy

Dhere bol dhere

"...of the king..." Surely that was supposed to be "of the kind"?

Convinced L’argent is a comedy

I know nothing about Bresson but if he is the director who did Bernanos's Diary (Journal) he did a poor job in that. Missed the spirit of the book.

17:26 is such a cope on bresson's part lmao

Spielberg ? Who is this Fellow ? ... Robert Bresson, the filmmaker of "Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne" ? ... Of course I know him !

Michel & Jacques are not brothers

Sound quality of this video is horrible!!!

è tradotto malissimo

The narration is too bl… fast, we had to stop the wideo every few seconds just to ponder what is being said as the ideas are not that straightforward. Otherwise, it’s just one endless ramble (with a few mistakes to boot - e.g., White Nights is not by Tolstoy). Pity!

Acceptable, but it needs serious work. The voiceover narration is too low-key, too lackadaisical, and it needs to be louder. A video class on Bresson doesn’t have to imitate his movies in terms of a lack of physical energy. It’s also too long as there’s a lot of repetition.

Corny

Last night TCM showed Au Hasard Balthazar and Mouchette (I had already seen Pickpocket and parts of other films). I can't say I enjoyed the films - exceot for certain moments - but it was a welcome change of pace. i was trying to articulate to myself what bothers me about his films and so I will make an attempt here in case others care. I have grown to despise film and literary criticism because most of it is pretentious twaddle, but have read more of it than I should have - not knowing better. What I have read from scholars, and Bresson himself in interviews, over the yars about his films annoys me because I feel it is pretentious or simply wrong. If you've ever read music criticism you might know what I mean. I am mostly referring to the criticism of "serious" composers of the 20th century whose music is often painful to listen to, but according to the reviews, it is something otherworldly to be worshipped. So who cares? Challenge yourself and your presumptions, sure, but once you start allowing others to influence you, you lose your intuitive guide. One question I asked myself as i was watching is, are these amateur actors interesting to watch? I have to answer yes for the most part but also acknowledge the often absurd dispassion in situatons where one would not be listless or apparently passive. By using amateurs instead of trained professionals (who actually have a real craft that Bresson has contempt for), I feel I am not watching individuals people but 'standins" who exist to put Bresson's point across. I find nothing interesting about that choice - except, like experimental music, as much of it is absurd, now and then something interesting occurs. Same with the actors here. Anyway, though I can't appreciate his reasons for using amateurs, I admit there are sometimes interesting results that presumably wouldn't exist without this choice. I don't like dogma generally and Bresson was certainly dogmatic about the way he made his films. But I think what I most dislike about Bresson is his - quite typical - anti-materialist views. A lot of his contemporaries were either Marxists or certainly very skeptical of consumerism in how they felt this was impacting the "natural" person or incentivizing greed and other sins and vices. While I don't deny this, I think it is absurd to pretend we can simply divide people into materialists or naive innocents who are being victimized. We have to adapt - spiritually - to whatever culture throws at us. I know Bresson was Catholic and there is an austerity to his films that I don't find charming in an "old world" sort of way; I simply find it bleak. I don't believe there is any reason to believe that human beings are better off - spiritually - in the past than we are now and I don't like the moralists who suggest it, and I do see that kind of moralistic framing in Bresson's work. So, I couldn't care less about what Bresson is trying to tell me in his films, I simply respond to aesthetic choices - the mise en scene - which is what the art of film is.