Robert Bresson
罗贝尔·布列松
French director, 1901–1999. He declined to use professional actors, directing those he cast to speak flatly and without performing and calling them models; he relied on close shots of hands and objects and used little music. A Man Escaped, Pickpocket and Au Hasard Balthazar are among the best known.
Career
Bresson trained as a painter, was taken prisoner by German forces in 1940 and held for more than a year. He directed features from 1943 onwards and completed thirteen in all.
From Diary of a Country Priest in 1951 he stopped using professional actors, working instead with non-professionals he called models and directing them to speak flatly and without expression. The later films largely dispense with score, carrying the narrative through ambient sound and close shots of objects; A Man Escaped, Pickpocket and Au Hasard Balthazar all proceed this way.
Suggested Viewing Order
- 01
- 02
- 03
