Yes, I do understand what you mean, absolutely, and it's a point well
taken, although a director (any artist) can go to an extreme, which
is what I feel Bresson started to do more and more and his films also
began to show less of a "poetic" feel in his imagery and his editing
became more deliberately and consciously abrupt. I could at least
discern some sadness in Mouchette's expression at times, and both
sadness and anguish in Claude Laydu's face in "Diary", even though
neither of them was "acting" in a very emotional manner. ..That
interview you mentioned is - I THINK -- the one that I've seen before
(indicates 1960) where the first shot is that of three empty chairs.
It's a rather strange interview --- whether it was produced purposely
with mock, 'tongue-in-cheek' seriousness or not, I don't know -- but
I'm wondering if it might have been a sort of gentle parody (just for
fun, and yet still with great admiration) of Bresson's own unique,
seemingly cold, unemotional(!) directorial style, while still at the
same time being a series of serious questions for him. Or maybe I'm
just imagining things.

Paul


--- In bresson-no-spam@yahoogroups.com, David Ehrenstein
<cellar47@...> wrote:
>
> 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.