French Directors - Robert Bresson

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French Directors - Robert Bresson

Au Hasard Balthazar Robert Bresson Inspired by a passage from Dostoyevsky's The Idiot, Robert Bresson's masterpiece follows the tragic journey of Balthazar, a sad-eyed donkey who experiences a series of cruelties as he's passed from owner to owner. The animal's plight mirrors the situation of his first owner, Marie (Anna Wiazemsky), while simultaneously evoking the martyrdom of Christ. The finest realization of Bresson's unique approach to framing, sound design, and narrative, this is a film "for which the words 'sublime,' 'transcendent,' and 'masterpiece' can seem somehow lacking" (Manhola Dargis, Los Angeles Times). The DVD is a Criterion Collection Edition and includes video interview with film scholar Donald Richie, a French TV program about the film featuring Bresson, Jean-Luc Godard, Louis Malle, and members of the film's cast and crew (Un Metteur en Ordre: Robert Bresson), trailer, essay by Bresson scholar James Quandt, and more. In French with English subtitles. France 1966 95 mins. DVD | $44.95

Diary of a Country Priest Robert Bresson The story of an ailing priest who believes he has failed. Pauline Kael said: "Diary of a Country Priest is one of the most profound emotional experiences in the history of the cinema." A young priest arrives in the French country village of Ambricourt to attend to his first parish, but the apathetic and hostile rural congregation rejects him immediately. Through his diary entries, the suffering young man relays a crisis of faith that threatens to drive him away from the village and from God. The fourth film by Robert Bresson (Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne) finds the director beginning to implement his stylistic philosophy as a filmmaker, stripping away all inessential elements from his compositions, the dialogue and the music, and exacting a purity of image and sound. The DVD is a Criterion Collection edition, and features an audio commentary by film historian Peter Cowie, deleted scenes and the trailer. In French with English subtitles. France, 1951, 116 mins. DVD | $59.95

Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne Robert Bresson This rarely-seen second feature by Bresson was co-scripted by Jean Cocteau based on an anecdote in a novel by Diderot. Two sophisticated lovers, Helene and Jean, agree to remain friends even when their ardor for one another has died. Helene good-naturedly introduces her ex-lover Jean to a new woman and everything seems fine as a new romance begins. But this woman harbors a mysterious past that threatens to unsettle everything. Maria Casares stars in a rigorous, intense film remarkable for Cocteau's layered dialog. French with English subtitles. The Criterion Collection DVD edition includes English subtitles, stills gallery and essays by Francois Truffaut & David Thompson. France, 1944, 83 mins. DVD | $44.95

Mouchette Robert Bresson "Bresson constructs a drama of extraordinary tension and adventure," wrote The New York Times. "The adventure leads to escape from life, to a moment when nature and the supernatural meet in a fleeting intimation of grace so powerful that even an awareness of what the camera cannot show us is happiness enough." A 14-year-old friendless schoolgirl, Mouchette, lives with her alcoholic bootleg father, and her mother is dying. She is more sensitive than anyone around her and thus, paradoxically, less able to communicate. Based on the novel La Nouvelle Histoire de Mouchette by Georges Bernanos, Mouchette, says Bresson, "is found everywhere: wars, concentration camps, tortures, assassinations." Criterion Collection edition, with restored high-definition digital transfer; includes audio commentary by film scholar Tony Rayns, Au hasard Bresson, a documentary about the director, "Traveling," a set of interviews with Bresson, Nortier, and Guilbert, a theatrical trailer cut by Godard, improved English subtitles, and an essay by Robert Polito. France, 1967, 81 mins. DVD | $59.95

Pickpocket Robert Bresson Robert Bresson's masterpiece is a magnificent drama about a thief, his techniques, motives and secret existence. Loosely based on Crime and Punishment, it tells the compelling story of an insignificant man who drifts into crime. "One of the four or five great dates in the history of cinema! A film with deep inspiration, free, instinctive, burning, bewildering" (Louis Malle). The DVD is a Criterion Collection edition and includes audio commentary by film scholar James Quandt, video introduction by Paul Schrader, The Models of "Pickpocket" documentary featurette, 1960 interview with Bresson, Q&A with actress Marika Green and filmmakers Paul Vecchiali and Jean-Pierre Ameris, footage of slight-of-hand artist Kassagi from 1962, trailer, essay by culture critic Gary Indiana, and more. In French with English subtitles. France 1959 75 mins. DVD | $59.95