day-blurb

Spent yesterday watching, then studying, Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket. The new Criterion version is a wonderful package – a perfect assortment of supplements. Bresson was the pure genius of film control – control in the best sense of the word. The image, sound, and motion, lack of motion – and story for that matter – were exactly as he intended. His style of filmmaking, in comparison to music, reminds me of Charlie Parker or King Crimson. For most first-time-listeners, Parker and Crimson offer much difficulty. You have to learn how to listen to them. The same is true for encountering, for the first time, the films of Bresson. A learning experience is needed. But, once you learn how to watch a Bresson film, the universe will be a much larger place than you ever imagined.

In terms of filmic style, Bresson could be compared – of course, by degrees – to Dreyer (The Passion of Joan of Arc, Ordet, Vampyr) and, most recently and oddly enough, Kieslowski (Dekalog or – and here some might disagree –Three Colours Trilogy). The best Bresson film for a starter would either be Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne or Diary of a Country Priest.