Thanks, James. I'm going to check out Cinefile. I do have the
videotape of L'Argent and plan to keep it. I'll see if I can buy or
rent the DVD to "Les Dames" at Cinefile. I hope they have it. After
writing my comments I DID suspect, and anticipate, after I thought
about it, that someone was going to respond that indeed the
characters IN ALL OF BRESSON'S FILMS act emotionless, and that that's
what some viewers have always critized him for. I don't
know...perhaps I'm being overly critical. It's just that for some
reason there seems to be a certain purity and grace in his earlier
works (even through Mouchette, but especially his first three feature
films) -- in his beautiful compositions and editing and the rhythm
and "feel" and naturalness of the films -- as well as at least an
inkling of what people are thinking, or their suffering and anxiety,
that can be detected in their demeanor and even subtle facial
expressions.

I can't access YouTube at the moment -- on my work computer -- but
if that link you mentioned is the one where Tarkovsky and Bresson are
presented their awards by Orson (at Cannes), I HAVE seen that
clip.... but I'll check again to be sure. It's a shame (and sad, and
disgusting) that Bresson was booed, but some Cannes audience members
evidently aren't exactly the most civilized and open-minded of
people. They could have at least shown Bresson some respect, or just
remained silent. And speaking of Tarkovsky, by the way, if I wanted
to see one film of his, can you or someone in this group recommend
one that would be a good "starter"? -- one that's representative of
his best film-making?

-- Paul (forlino@...)

<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

--- In bresson-no-spam@yahoogroups.com, James Day <james_f_day@...>
wrote:
>
> Paul,
>
> If you make the trip to LA's Cinefile on Santa Monica Blvd. &
Sawtelle you will find Les Dames in the Bresson collection. Cinefile
organizes their titles by director so you can browse other Bresson,
such as L'Argent, and I do hope you give it another shot because I
believe it's one of the best final films of a director of any time
period, of any country. Yes, they are human beings, not robots. And
if these characters walk around and speak expressionless and robot-
like, where in Bresson are his characters any different? I believe in
L'Argent Bresson reached the zenith of his discipline, of his
dedication to his notion of cinematography, so much so that his film
fueled such emotion from his audience -- like me, people loved it;
like you, they hated it. And isn't that the ultimate goal of
filmmaking, to make people feel? Whatever the emotion at least they
feel something. The worst you can say about L'Argent or any film is,
Ehh. Whatever. I'm over it. You should search on
> YouTube Bresson Tarkovsky 1983 Cannes. You'll see what I mean.
>
> Best,
>
> James