History Creator / RobertBresson

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Bresson's films tend to be very Catholic in terms of subject matter and themes, though they can have quite a materialist bent to them. Some theorists have stated he was inspired by Jansenism, a French Catholic sect that emphasized austerity and simplicty. Bresson confused the issues further by calling himself a "Catholic atheist", whatever that means. Religion is less overt a subject matter in his later films than his earlier ones, and indeed by the time of his final film in 1983, Bresson was calling the description of him as a Jansenist 'madness'. By the 1970s at any rate, Bresson no longer seemed to believe in Christianity as a solution for anything.

-->--'''Creator/JeanLucGodard'''

* TropesAreTools: Largely averted. Bresson didn't really believe this, and went to enormous pains to not rely on existing cinematic tropes, but to make up new ways to tell the stories that he wanted to tell. Unsurprisingly, this has tended to alienate some cinema fans; those who hate Bresson tend to regard his films as being cold, mechanical or rigid; those who love him tend to regard him as just more perceptive, inventive and focused than most other directors in the entire history of cinema.

Bresson is sometimes associated with the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave movement, but he was actually considerably older than the likes of Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/JeanLucGodard, Creator/EricRohmer, and Creator/JacquesRivette. However, they all tended to revere him, especially Godard, and he was if anything even more of an influence on other filmmakers such as Creator/AndreiTarkovsky, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, Creator/TheDardennes, Creator/AkiKaurismaki, Creator/MartinScorsese (''Film/TaxiDriver'' is very Bressonian) and, in particular, ''Taxi Driver''’s screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader, whose book ''Ozu / Bresson / Dreyer: Transcendental Style in Film'' contains some of the acutest writing about Bresson.[[note]]Two of Schrader’s films, ''American Gigolo'' and ''Light Sleeper'', contain endings which are, as he freely acknowledges, a direct homage to the end of Bresson’s ''Pickpocket''.[[/note]]

Bresson is an unusual director from TV Tropes' point of view because he was notably ''trope-averse''. After his first couple of movies he started using non-professional actors, not because he was too cheap or was trying to make some point about actors as such but because he didn't like what professional actors bring to films, namely performances, and all the tropes that go with them, from MethodActing to ChewingTheScenery and all stops in between. Likewise, there are usually no [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Crowning]] [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments Moments]] of [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Anything]] in a Bresson film; his whole method of storytelling means that you just don't get those beats where the audience wants to punch its collective fist in the air, or burst out laughing, or go "Awwwww" -- those who admire his films generally regard the films themselves as being more or less Crowning Moments of True. This often has the effect of annoying non-admirers, and Bresson didn't make things better with some of his more pompous and oracular remarks on the subject, in which he sometimes came across as believing that only he made real cinema, and all other filmmakers were basically making filmed theater.

Bresson is an unusual director from TV Tropes' point of view because he was notably ''trope-averse''. After his first couple of movies he started using non-professional actors, not because he was too cheap or was trying to make some point about actors as such but because he didn't like what professional actors bring to films, namely performances, and all the tropes that go with them, from MethodActing to ChewingTheScenery and all stops in between. Likewise, there are usually no [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Moments]] of [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Anything]] in a Bresson film; his whole method of storytelling means that you just don't get those beats where the audience wants to punch its collective fist in the air, or burst out laughing, or go "Awwwww" -- those who admire his films generally regard the films themselves as being more or less Crowning Moments of True. This often has the effect of annoying non-admirers, and Bresson didn't make things better with some of his more pompous and oracular remarks on the subject, in which he sometimes came across as believing that only he made real cinema, and all other filmmakers were basically making filmed theater.

* ChristianityIsCatholic: Bresson's films tend to be very Catholic in terms of subject matter and themes. Some theorists have stated he was inspired by Jansenism, a French Catholic sect that emphasized austerity and simplicty. Bresson confused the issues further by calling himself a "Catholic atheist", whatever that means. Religion is less overt a subject matter in his later films than his earlier ones, and indeed by the time of his final film in 1983, Bresson was calling the description of him as a Jansenist 'madness'. By the 1970s at any rate, Bresson no longer seemed to believe in Christianity as a solution for anything.

Bresson is sometimes associated with the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave, but he was actually considerably older than the likes of Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/JeanLucGodard, Creator/EricRohmer, and Creator/JacquesRivette. However, they all tended to revere him, especially Godard, and he was if anything even more of an influence on other filmmakers such as Creator/AndreiTarkovsky, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, Creator/TheDardennes, Creator/AkiKaurismaki, Creator/MartinScorsese (''Film/TaxiDriver'' is very Bressonian) and, in particular, ''Taxi Driver''’s screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader, whose book ''Ozu / Bresson / Dreyer: Transcendental Style in Film'' contains some of the acutest writing about Bresson.[[note]]Two of Schrader’s films, ''American Gigolo'' and ''Light Sleeper'', contain endings which are, as he freely acknowledges, a direct homage to the end of Bresson’s ''Pickpocket''.[[/note]]

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/robert_bresson.jpg]]

Bresson is sometimes associated with the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave, but he was actually considerably older than the likes of Creator/FrancoisTruffaut, Creator/JeanLucGodard, and Creator/JacquesRivette. However, they all tended to revere him, especially Godard, and he was if anything even more of an influence on other filmmakers such as Creator/AndreiTarkovsky, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, Creator/TheDardennes, Creator/AkiKaurismaki, Creator/MartinScorsese (''Film/TaxiDriver'' is very Bressonian) and, in particular, ''Taxi Driver''’s screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader, whose book ''Ozu / Bresson / Dreyer: Transcendental Style in Film'' contains some of the acutest writing about Bresson.[[note]]Two of Schrader’s films, ''American Gigolo'' and ''Light Sleeper'', contain endings which are, as he freely acknowledges, a direct homage to the end of Bresson’s ''Pickpocket''.[[/note]]

Bresson is sometimes associated with the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave but he was actually considerably older than the likes of Francis Truffaut, Creator/JeanLucGodard and Jacques Rivette. However, they all tended to revere him, especially Godard, and he was if anything even more of an influence on other filmmakers such as Creator/AndreiTarkovsky, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, Creator/TheDardennes, Creator/AkiKaurismaki, Creator/MartinScorsese (''Film/TaxiDriver'' is very Bressonian) and, in particular, ''Taxi Driver''’s screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader, whose book ''Ozu / Bresson / Dreyer: Transcendental Style in Film'' contains some of the acutest writing about Bresson.[[note]]Two of Schrader’s films, ''American Gigolo'' and ''Light Sleeper'', contain endings which are, as he freely acknowledges, a direct homage to the end of Bresson’s ''Pickpocket''.[[/note]]

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/01.jpeg]]
->''"Bresson is to French cinema what Mozart is to German music and Dostoyevsky is to Russian literature."''

Robert Bresson (25 September 1901--18 December 1999) was a French film director known for working chiefly with non-professional actors and for his unique, inimitable and — if you’re in the mood — ultra-low-key but hauntingly powerful style of filmmaking.

* OneOfUs: As unlikely as it may seem, he was a big fan of the Franchise/JamesBond films, particularly ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}''.

* ''Une femme douce'' (''A Gentle Woman'') (1969)

* ''Film/Mouchette'' (1967)

* ''Mouchette'' (1967)

* ''L’argent'' (''Money'') (1983)

Bresson is sometimes associated with the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave but he was actually considerably older than the likes of Francis Truffaut, Creator/JeanLucGodard and Jacques Rivette. However, they all tended to revere him, especially Godard, and he was if anything even more of an influence on other filmmakers such as Creator/AndreiTarkovsky, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, the Dardenne Brothers, Creator/AkiKaurismaki, Creator/MartinScorsese (''Film/TaxiDriver'' is very Bressonian) and, in particular, ''Taxi Driver''’s screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader, whose book ''Ozu / Bresson / Dreyer: Transcendental Style in Film'' contains some of the acutest writing about Bresson.[[note]]Two of Schrader’s films, ''American Gigolo'' and ''Light Sleeper'', contain endings which are, as he freely acknowledges, a direct homage to the end of Bresson’s ''Pickpocket''.[[/note]]

''Les Anges du péché'' (''The angels of sin'') (1943)

''Les dames du Bois de Boulogne'' (''The Women of Bois du Boulogne'') (1945)

''Journal d'un curé de campagne'' (''Film/DiaryOfACountryPriest'') (1951)

''Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut'' (''Film/AManEscaped'') (1956)

''{{Film/Pickpocket}}'' (1959)

''Procès de Jeanne d'Arc'' (''The Trial of Joan of Arc'') (1962)

''Film/AuHasardBalthazar'' (''Balthazar'') (1966)

''Mouchette'' (1967)

''Une femme douce'' (''A Gentle Woman'') (1969)

''Quatre nuits d'un rêveur'' (''Four Nights of a Dreamer'') (1971)

''Film/LancelotDuLac'' (''Lancelot of the Lake'') (1974)

''Film/LeDiableProbablement'' (''The Devil Probably'') (1977)

''L’argent'' (''Money'') (1983)

!!Films:

Bresson is an unusual director from TV Tropes' point of view because he was notably ''trope-averse''. After his first couple of movies he started using non-professional actors, not because he was too cheap or was trying to make some point about actors as such but because he didn't like what professional actors bring to films, namely performances, and all the tropes that go with them, from MethodActing to ChewingTheScenery and all stops in between. Likewise, there are usually no [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome Crowning]] [[CrowningMomentOfFunny Moments]] of [[CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming Anything]] in a Bresson film; his whole method of storytelling means that you just don't get those beats where the audience wants to punch its collective fist in the air, or burst out laughing, or go "Awwwww" -- those who admire his films generally regard the films themselves as being more or less Crowning Moments of True. This often has the effect of annoying non-admirers, and Bresson didn't make things better with some of his more pompous and oracular remarks on the subject, in which he sometimes came across as believing that only he made real cinema, and all other filmmakers were basically making filmed theater.

As a result, it's probably easier to characterise his films in terms what tropes they avert. Nevertheless, tropes are present in his films as they are in everyone else's, and sometimes to great effect.

!Films:

''Le diable probablement'' (''The Devil Probably'') (1977)

Bresson is sometimes associated with the UsefulNotes/FrenchNewWave but he was actually considerably older than the likes of Francis Truffaut, Creator/JeanLucGodard and Jacques Rivette. However, they all tended to revere him, especially Godard, and he was if anything even more of an influence on other filmmakers such as Creator/AndreiTarkovsky, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, the Dardenne Brothers, Aki Kaurismaki, Creator/MartinScorsese (''Film/TaxiDriver'' is very Bressonian) and, in particular, ''Taxi Driver''’s screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader, whose book ''Ozu / Bresson / Dreyer: Transcendental Style in Film'' contains some of the acutest writing about Bresson.[[note]]Two of Schrader’s films, ''American Gigolo'' and ''Light Sleeper'', contain endings which are, as he freely acknowledges, a direct homage to the end of Bresson’s ''Pickpocket''.[[/note]]

''Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut'' (''A Man Escaped'') (1956)

Bresson is sometimes associated with the FrenchNewWave but he was actually considerably older than the likes of Francis Truffaut, Creator/JeanLucGodard and Jacques Rivette. However, they all tended to revere him, especially Godard, and he was if anything even more of an influence on other filmmakers such as Creator/AndreiTarkovsky, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, the Dardenne Brothers, Aki Kaurismaki, Creator/MartinScorsese (''Film/TaxiDriver'' is very Bressonian) and, in particular, ''Taxi Driver''’s screenwriter Creator/PaulSchrader, whose book ''Ozu / Bresson / Dreyer: Transcendental Style in Film'' contains some of the acutest writing about Bresson.[[note]]Two of Schrader’s films, ''American Gigolo'' and ''Light Sleeper'', contain endings which are, as he freely acknowledges, a direct homage to the end of Bresson’s ''Pickpocket''.[[/note]]