There's a difference between "not acting emotional"
and "acting emotionless." Bresson's models are the
former.

There's also an interview with Bresson at the time of
"Pickpocket" on YouTube. He's very funny, flirty and
sly in it. He responds to the question of whether he
ever knew any pickpockets as if the questioner asked
him if he were gay.

--- Paul <forlino@...> wrote:

> 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
>
>




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