Bresson (on Cinema)

[@evanwaller2109]

I like to think that "do you feel alone?" is just a standard closing question in French interviews.

[@groupdraw]

Ha! That would be awesome.

[@MrVIIsevenVII]

The interviewers looked just like a Bressonian character.

[@bernardguy1130]

Je suis particulièrement étonné que ce soit les anglo- saxon qui rendent hommage à cet immense metteur en scène qui est inimitable dans sa manière de travailler. Les français semblent abandonner leur plus valeureux héritage..............Cela me consterne profondément..............

[@evavazquez4376]

@@MrVIIsevenVII I thought the same

[@MsFreshadenu]

@Akash Akks it seems as though shes asking if he feels alone as a director. If there are contemporaries that he can relate to or feel is moving in the same direction artistically. He says yes, but that he's not happy to be the one guy doing that kind of work. She was basically following up on the question "Do you think youre in the vanguard of the film world?"

[@jfjvhgsieofl]

This film is called 'Two reporters vs. master director.'

[@diogofernandes9474]

The Master ate them alive!

[@goback3spaces]

He was a completely honest, direct, straightforward man, and the most uncompromising and intuitive of artists.

[@diogofernandes9474]

I don't think he was the most "intuitive", he worked like hell, precisely because he didn't trust his intuition.

[@JeongjinLeeCinema]

“Build your film on white, on silence and on stillness.” - Robert Bresson

[@jammyyoon949]

this interview plays like a bresson film

[@19Edurne]

Both Chalais and Roche were among the best and well known journalists writting on cinema. They loved cinema and knew it very well. Beeing french myself, I don't understand all those critics I read here. I think it's a very good interview, with acurate questions, for people who really love cinema. Remember, this is not the kind of promotionnal interview with standard questions as we have today ; they were journalists doing their job and with respect.

[@paulfrantizek102]

Agree, the questions may seem excessively direct to an American, but they at least allowed Bresson the courtesy to reply without interruption.

[@barringtonnoworries2004]

When he is trying to explain the difference between the Un Condamné... and Pickpocket Chalais is interrumping him two times and pressume the words hi is trying to say, because Bresson was stutterer... that is very disrespectful (this is part from the deontological code of periodism? I don think) ... this interview seem the Procès de Jeanne d’Arc...

[@Ralhumaidi]

I agree! I've seen and read most of Bresson's interviews in English and this one is among my favorite ones.

[@19Edurne]

@@barringtonnoworries2004 Your comment is a bit over the top... No, a lot over the top. I don't remember him being tortured and burnt at the stake... Exagerating much?

[@barringtonnoworries2004]

@@19Edurne not at the end of the film, but some points during the interviews... and of course i was exagerating because it was writen with irony. In any case, she doesnt seem to me a good journalist (at least in this interview). As far as i know, Bresson didnt like interviews and most of medias, so if you have the rare chance to have an interview is not very clever (and respectful) to interrupt him continuously while is speaking, specially if he is trying to express himself. Just in my opinion they didnt create a good atmoshphere to speak comfortably with this genius...

[@nicholas5728]

His films will still be recognised in thousands of years

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

LOL, i b e t n o t .

[@fhmxlx9246]

he's above bergman, tarkovsky and renoir in my opinion. so yes

[@kmanet4118]

Not above Tarkovsky or Béla Tarr, but quite close. An equal of Bergman, Godard, Fassbinder, Antonioni, Mizoguchi, Teshigahara, Fellini, etc.

[@TheRealLordRama]

God I hope cinema doesn't survive that long.

[@br5448]

depends on how many more morons are bred, and if people will finally COMPLETELY IGNORE all of hollywood

[@willieluncheonette5843]

Regarding the last question and answer about being alone. It is very interesting to note that the more you run from yourself the more you will have to run -- the more you will get scared of loneliness. The more you accept to be with yourself the more you will be able to find that the loneliness is not loneliness but aloneness. There is a difference between loneliness and aloneness. Loneliness means that you miss the presence of the other. To be alone means that being by oneself is enough. Loneliness is painful but there is bliss in being alone. Being lonely means that you feel the absence of the other. Aloneness means that you are happy to be with yourself. Aloneness means you have fallen in love with yourself. Meditation means to be in love with yourself. Meditation means to make such a relationship with yourself that there is no need to make a relationship with anyone else. Meditation means to be fulfilled in oneself. Your world, your whole world is in you. There is nothing lacking. You are complete, you are whole, you are the divine, there is no need for you to go anywhere.

[@lauriejillstrickland7302]

What an angel of art... it breaks my heart to watch this and uplifts my soul... thanks for posting this.

[@groupdraw]

;)

[@mayainmotion]

that last expression.

[@ethidian3444]

If only he could allow something beautiful like that into one of his films.

[@ethidian3444]

paul w I’m sorry. Show me the example where a Bresson film uses a nuanced character performance to convey a strong, complicated emotion or internal experience. Again, through performance: emoting (something that Bresson suppressed his actors from doing unlike any other director who ever lived).

[@SP990]

@paul w could you elaborate?

[@tyt1762]

holy shit ahhahah even the way this interview is shot inspires tension.

[@WalterLiddy]

It seems more like an interrogation.

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

It's the french culture, not one of those interviews from America that are full of fake laughs.

[@WalterLiddy]

What has America got to do with it? French culture involves hostility toward guests? What a shock.

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

What? Let's be clear you are the one suggesting interrogation and hostility, frankly I don't see any of these shitty labels/generalisations. America is just an example, and a good one in this context. Purely because they just love to live inside their perfect little world and slapping labels onto cultures that are just different. They just can't bear differences, can they? Btw, americans should stop emphsizing things - "interrogation", and "hostility". Really ?

[@WalterLiddy]

***** I guess you think I'm American or something... shrug.

[@suttree3233]

The kind of visionary you only see once in a lifetime. The greatest filmmaker who has ever lived.

[@therightone5708]

Honestly this feels more like a psychological evaluation than an interview.

[@tommyrosilio4491]

some people might they think they were a little too harsh but I'm glad they asked the hard questions. they pushed him to defend his philosophy and methods and he responded in a way that could really help somebody understand what he is trying to do. more interviewers should challenge the stance of who they're interviewing, it's way more interesting than the stupid tame questions we get today where the interviewer is trying extremely hard not to say anything that might even slightly annoy the other person

[@1980sathi]

What a beautiful interview, the lady is quite knowledgeable and very pertinent questions. The clarity of Bresson is as good as his movies.

[@MrAlanSnackbar]

“Robert Bresson is French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is the German music." - Jean-Luc Godard

[@diogofernandes9474]

It is natural to claim Robert Bresson for French cinema, but Robert Bresson is cinema anywhere (he'd rather say cinematograph).

[@kneza96BG]

Bach is german music

[@helvete_ingres4717]

Strikes me as a stupid statement Not an expert on Russian literature, but pretty sure it was much more than just Dostoevsky even in the 19th century, wasn't Tolstoy to name on also very important? And the assumption that Mozart is a synonym for German or Germanic music in the classical tradition...if someone had said that in the year 1800, so before Beethoven had really matured as a composer, before Wagner or Brahms had even been born....even THEN it would have been a fucking stupid statement to make, someone saying it in the 20th century is beyond ignorant Just as I admire Bresson far more than other filmmakers (like Godard the author if this idiotic statement), I would never say he simply IS the 'French cinema'. In fact he's way too singular in style to ever be a summation of a broader cultural or artistic movement like that

[@Alix777.]

@@kneza96BG Wagner is German music

[@kneza96BG]

@@Alix777. Nope, he may be a German composer but Bach set the foundation for the rest of musical history.

[@08Annasia]

Actually I like these kinds of interviews, they feel more real, more sincere; I saw an interview of his actors on another film of his, they were basically saying "he's talented but he is such a pain in the ass!"; nowadays the interviews are so fake, you can't learn anything from them. Also rjbeeswax is right, us french tend to be cold with people we've just met but that just because we're scared, that's a defense mecanism

[@nycic]

What a wonderful offering! Thank you so much for adding this. Bresson remains incomparable.

[@marcomeglioli2618]

Bresson is the last light of the classic french cinema, after him started the novelle vague and before him was everything, he was a genius

[@demiurge1608]

excellent interview which can and should inspire many emerging directors..Today there are some directors I admire who convey the same message as Bresson did half a century ago... A poet, a fine soul he was..

[@DonFarshido]

That woman is quite a "Bressonian" character, would have done a brillant job as an actress in one of his films.

[@krustykomedyklassic1]

i think bresson must have directed this interview

[@willieluncheonette]

thanks for posting this. In a Cahiers du Cinema poll many years ago of the best French films since WWII Pickpocket was chosen #1 on the list. It's quite an amazing film, as are many of his.

[@groupdraw]

yea. this came off the criterion extras. btw. i posted it because it's soooo good. i thought everyone should see it. #bresson so good.

[@dimabbq]

A timelessly fascinating man. How can one not respond to Bresson's style, technique and thoughts?

[@Esme_Grey]

This two on one style of interview would make me very defensive.

[@paulhardin9731]

Ty Hardel The interviewer finishing my sentences for me would piss me off too.

[@DarkAngelEU]

It felt quite respectful, nowadays interviewers already try to shove words in your mouth before even finishing their question. It's like they're constantly looking for validation in your expertise and it's just sad. Why would you say anything if all they wanna hear is themselves?

[@lovethyneighbour8287]

Il me semble un procés, mais pas pour les questions, très bonnes, mais pour l'air dure des interviewers. Je suis un peu mal à l'aise à l'écouter.

[@neonknights]

Indeed a rare Bresson interview! He was 58 at the time but made at least as "fresh" movies as did the Nouvelle Vague "young turks".

[@gbnathaners79]

La combinación de la escena final con la música de la película estará en mi memoria para siempre

[@danielbrown2756]

Thank you for uploading this terrific interview!

[@stalkek]

I think lots of people love to feel they’re somehow at one with such and such an esteemed person or artist, and so united against perceived critics or enemies of that artist. This making the feel somehow more special, and thus so many critical remarks about this interview. In such a short space of time this interview manages to pack in a lot of substance, doesn’t feel the modern need to pad it out with some endlessly repeated amusing anecdote we all get to laugh at, Bresson is given serious questions from people who clearly are quite considered intelligent viewers of this art form. It’s a bloody good piece! And Bresson’s approach to acting and displays or almost total non-displays of the characters’ inner worlds is very extreme. It’s idiotic to pretend otherwise.

[@stalkek]

Thanks for your amazing reply . . .

[@stalkek]

So was I Paul. But sadly it was over your head. Which is surprising cos your reply really was amazing.

[@stalkek]

Victory is truly mine.

[@NearEarthAsteroid]

Interviewgatory

[@marcusadburgham5848]

Bresson makes an amazing deconstruction of his vacant inquisitors - the way he turned the questions around reminded me of Dostoevsky for some reason.

[@kmanet4118]

That's his favourite writer

[@mimimimimimi2099]

Most of his works are based in Dostoyevsky's concept of guilty and punishment. For example, "Pickpocket" and "A man who scaped".

[@nudge2626]

Incredible interview

[@LydiaBendibl]

Robert Bresson, une icône du cinéma français: "On ne crée pas en ajoutant, mais en retranchant. Développer est autre chose."

[@buckrogers5703]

Je crois bien qu'il a empreinté ce concept au pointillisme et a ca theorie des couleurs.

[@양선민-o1g]

bresson is the new name on cinema in the world. bresson comes to our heart with absolute non-act

[@vestibulate]

This brief segment purports to record a spontaneous interview. But in its construction, editing, framing, shot selection and scripting, it's clearly revealed to be a formal cinematic exercise. The questioners perform assigned roles, as does Bresson. The questions themselves are vapid, designed to indicate the lack of substance characteristic of the intelligentsia. And Bresson, as Bresson, defends himself against hostile imputations of greatness. What we have is a little film about incomprehension on the one hand and erudite simplicity on the other.

[@shivkammadari]

The real question is why so pretentious?

[@austinhealey-boser5023]

The French G.O.A.T.

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

wtf is that

[@moeezS]

greatest of all time

[@kmanet4118]

Bresson, Godard and Renoir. Then Rivette, Rohmer, Resnais, Truffaut, Melville, Cocteau and Carax.

[@ThisisBrownfield]

And Epstein (along with Bresson, Godard etc.), Gance, Méliès, Vigo...

[@stijnlukas]

Anyone noticed when voice-over says "others, it seems, have difficulty understanding him." And then the two interviewers enter the frame?

[@paxy]

Simply a master!!

[@antoinesubitlescoups338]

They are critics or interrogators?

[@brunokinski3541]

It’s the remake of « The Trial of Joan of Arc »

[@jesseblaskovits64]

Ah the age old tradition of interviewers interrupting their guest lives on.

[@defuliu6855]

this is a master for me, i wanto know more about BR

[@TheWanderingPrimate]

Great video, thanks!

[@eqapo]

I don't know why but it seems so much like the French to put on a hostile interrogation like this.

[@paulfrantizek102]

I actually prefer this to the current style. The questions may have been overly direct, but at least they afforded him the opportunity to answer without interruption. I utterly despise the current style where the interviewer is interrupting even before the subject finishes their first sentence.

[@REd-cf3bu]

you must live in a true mellow world to find this "hostile"

[@marichristian1072]

This is a piece of theatre!

[@tolarg]

the way she was asking questions led to that answer.

[@tom6612]

I spent a lot of time in Catholic school but I get much more of a feeling that Catholicism is valid by watching Bressons movies.

[@luistumelero446]

The most catholic director, without doubt.

[@bluefilmsltd]

The religious aspect of his films are hyped up. Yes, he had a religious upbringing (like most people in western society) but it's clear that his main interest was in humanity with strong hints at politics. He himself didn't like the Catholic statements tagged to his films.

[@stevenperezhenriquez1332]

"Films in the future will move further and further away" 2017: "Wonder Woman is the best film of the year"

[@alexw9544]

So sad. Bresson was never popular though. And I imagine true artists will be (and are) releasing their films on Vimeo and KZbin. What's nice is the technology is cheap and worldwide distribution is available to almost everyone. Perhaps the cream will rise to the top and the big budget turds will sink.

[@marichristian1072]

"Further away from the theatre," I believe.This was Bresson's major motivation in film making.

[@DarkAngelEU]

Exactly and great talents nowadays are discovered. Honestly, there is alot of shit yes but there are is also divine cinéma that is exactly what you need to look for. Don't focus on bad things, don't even talk about them, it only feeds their popularity.

[@patbastardandthespurious5822]

Unlikely because of marketing. Everyone puts their films onto KZbin so it becomes saturated. Very few will ever find the good stuff. Film reviewers should actually be employed to sort through it and report on the good original films being uploaded, instead of shilling for corporate blockbusters we all know will be terrible.

[@marichristian1072]

I don't have that much trust in film reviewers. They probably wouldn't recognize film making genius if it hit them in the face.

[@jpastuch]

The Trial of Robert Bresson

[@diogofernandes9474]

Who would dare? Don't forget, Robert Bresson is the only director without sin (of a bad movie).

[@kinoglas]

François Chalais (1919-1996) & France Roche (1921-2013)

[@amphreded]

wow.... that's dark and hilarious at the same time

[@alvarohigino]

Interviews could be like this nowadays.

[@ThisisBrownfield]

The french critic in 1959 is Les Cahiers du Cinéma, not those 2 ignorants. And believe me, Les Cahiers understood the genius of Bresson.

[@jualiet2212]

This is not an interview. It's an interrogation.

[@einzelne]

Hi! I am going to use this interview for a paper I am writing. Do you know when it is from and where please? Cheers, Jack

[@suricatafari]

those french critics... mon dieu, quelle snobisme!

[@buckrogers5703]

It was made on purpose like a "garde à vue" to fit the movie subject.

[@coldbacon303]

@Rosinante00 i totally agree with your assessment. i think he was playing them the whole time. and loving it. the eyes. just look at his eyes. in fact. i think his "pursed lips" are a visual echo of the character Max from Rushmore. on some level. I just make that connection at least. In my mind. study his face. think of the kid in Rushmore. am i wrong?

[@coldbacon303]

i think bresson had to have been playing most people most of the time. as anyone who directs people in film would do. one cannot be as intelligent and self-aware as bresson without being "aware" of the dynamic in any such interaction with others. so was he "playing them"? it comes down to semantics. what do you mean by "playing them"? he was in control. we can safely say that. i agree with you he was not about to "crack up". that was never going to happen. btw pls only respond if you must.

[@BrendaChavezBrendacc]

At some point of the video, they mentioned ''the films of today'' like which films they are talking about it? Also this interview when it was?

[@dow5168]

merci!

[@coldbacon303]

@RonAlmeida i would say honest. i think all great artists are on some level full of their own ego. otherwise they wouldn't do what they do. i think it's simply a matter of perception. i admire the honesty of bresson as opposed to false humility of others. (not naming names)

[@RonAlmeida]

@coldbacon Right On! The commercial cinema is full of false humility. While real artists know that honesty is the basic quality of all art even if it is only their own.

[@vestibulate]

The last question should have been, "Do you feel the interview is ending?"

[@Paulinho-cv8si]

Un titano della settima arte

[@zarathustra8789]

You haven't turned your back on me, I can assure you, Monsieur Bresson.

[@WalterLiddy]

A Kafkaesque interrogation. You half expect them to sentence him to re-education at the end.

[@aristopleb]

Maybe someone else mentioned it already, the music in the beginning is a third wave jazz version by Jacques Loussier of Bach's Gigue from Partita No. 1 in B flat major (BWV 825). kzbin.info/www/bejne/e5Krl6unitBgq8k#t=48m18s

[@br5448]

when film was film, the master himself. If alive now there is no way he could make a film or go to the theater. We live in a commercial now

[@kacperborowski3158]

What kind of interview is this, jesus...

[@ricardocantoral7672]

IKR ? This was more of an interrogation.

[@buckrogers5703]

And it was made on purpose to get along with the movie subject.

[@vestibulate]

Kacper Borowski It's a staging of an interview, carefully filmed, using a script. France Roche, the female questioner, was an actress. The footage shouldn't be taken at face value.

[@pjzam4850]

Yes. Bresson would often direct his interviews. 😊

[@guyinsf]

Artistic interview

[@groupdraw]

@tool619 i know is that not awesome? check my other video distilled from this same one but shorter. that's the very essence of all of this. that one line. about being alone. you are so right on. (in my humble opinion)

[@hansjrgenrundsten5052]

This brief interview from French Television (ORTF)??? - dates from when? Obviously the black & white TV era that means before 1969?

[@mastermystery7020]

Awesome 🕷

[@veronicafortunaveronica]

they made me so uncomfortable

[@user-yk1cw8im4h]

Good, it means you're experiencing something.

[@blockthenoisenz]

the goat 🐐

[@johnjones6601]

Un génie.🧡👍

[@andaloudog]

"I derive no pleasure from that feeling". Don't we all understand that?

[@sarahamico1259]

Great genius!

[@diogofernandes9474]

I've been enjoying reading the comments below, some of them are fascinating. But I want to protest to the leveling by some of Robert Bresson and Jean Luc Godard, the latter being a gentle dwarf in the presence of the former giant!

[@kmanet4118]

Nah. They're equals in my opinion.

[@luistumelero446]

+kenneth merced calo No, they aren't. Bresson is much better.

[@zaazi123]

can totally understand that

[@guyinsf]

I don't know why everyone's saying this looks more like an interrogation, maybe it's because there are 2 people interviewing him instead of one but their tone is so chill here I don't feel it's an interrogation.

[@coldbacon303]

@tool619 i know!!! that is the essence of it don't u think? that's why i made the other one which keys on that point. look in my uploads for this same thing but a shorter version. ps...i derived no pleasure making it. (okay, that's a lie)

[@BasicYutuber]

This 'interview' feels more like interrogation

[@ygg9888]

Elle interrompt et cela me pose problème.

[@RonAlmeida]

I am sorry I don't see why anyone who believes in himself should be humble? 'Just because you like what I do, doesn't mean I owe anything to you' - Bob Dylan.

[@coldbacon303]

@sashonska exactly.

[@RiccardoRismeni]

magnific

[@brandedtotroll9153]

Bresson did minimalism right. Maybe the greatest minimalist filmmaker ever. I feel that Kim Ki Duk may rival him though.

[@finbarfitzgerald3559]

Au Hasard Balthasar one of the most beautiful films ever made. You cant watch that film get half way towards its implications and then invade Iraq.

[@mimimimimimi2099]

"The Passion of Joan of Arc" is by far his best movie. I think that one is pretty overestimated.

[@bluefilmsltd]

@@mimimimimimi2099 It's called 'The Trial of Joan of Arc'. And while I agree that it is underrated, I disagree that it's 'by far his best movie'.

[@Hari-vg3gy]

Interview or interrogation...

[@SamuelFaict.Filmmaker]

"Do you feel alone?" What the hell was this last question for?

[@bluefilmsltd]

It's a good, valid question. He answered it with grace and sincerity. What's the problem?

[@victoriahutton]

@@bluefilmsltd Do you think it was a sincere question? Or a challenge?

[@bluefilmsltd]

@@victoriahutton The intention felt sincere. I felt he could sense something in Bresson that felt a sense of loneliness and longing...and he straight up asked him.

[@rjbeeswax]

@skarphedin77 i think it's cultural. not rude in france

[@cinnamon4605]

I am sorry, is it Interrogation or interview?

[@cinnamon4605]

@Steve Blundell with bresson, I really doubt it.

[@coldbacon303]

@xalstarx i know!!? :p

[@itgetseasierlessitry]

Intrigueing interview (staged?), with a touch of narcissism on Bressons part because he seems to be quietly enjoying the interrogation from the interviewers who could be characters from his films.

[@diogofernandes9474]

Art is vanity, always. You won't find one single great artist that is not or was not at least a bit vain.

[@chenpo8686]

He has an anxiety problem. He creates works for comfort

[@xalstarx]

@coldbacon What's got me buffaloed is that this person is comparing Bresson to Godard. Some people...

[@groupdraw]

ha! i know! absurd comparison. they're so different. agree. :) - cb (as groupdraw)

[@alexblock3091]

I try watching his films but I find them boring and too relaxing, No it is not because I prefer action films or "I should watch Nascar" but his films don't add up or need more to them.....is it just me? Do they need rewatches or...are they really that dull? I don't mean to offend I love PTA, Kubrick and Kurosawa. But I just don't know the appeal with Bresson.

[@hisyam9271]

Bresson films to me transcend something that usually invisible without knowing really what it is, it's just there so suddenly and you are feeling it in you

[@audleypowell4485]

@monu2619993 "His cinema lacks spirituality as well as philosophical discourses." So what?

[@DavidVelez-x1s]

Ay te dejo amo estad bienhonbre 777

[@groupdraw]

@TheWanderingPrimate you're welcome. :)

[@coldbacon303]

@TheWanderingPrimate you. are. welcome. (i am alone)

[@P0RKE1]

le temps lui a donné tort

[@skarphedin77]

Jesus, its like they are in an interrogation room. The Woman is cold and rude, has no expression! ironically she could be in one of his films.