Bresson’s Last Masterpieces
L'ARGENT
Identified by filmmaker and critic Paul Schrader as one of the principal proponents of a “transcendental style” in film, Robert Bresson (1901-1999) expressed a spiritualism by means of austere camerawork, acting devoid of self-consciousness, and editing that avoids editorial comment. Screening at the Cinematheque in recently restored DCP versions and one 35mm print, Bresson’s final three features - Lancelot du lac, Le diable probablement, and L’argent - offer evidence that the filmmaker in his 70s and early 80s was working at the height of his powers. The transcendent experience these motion pictures offer is particularly heightened when the films are seen in a cinema.
- Fri., Oct. 18 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Bresson’s spare, visionary take on the Arthurian legend centers on Lancelot's adulterous affair with Guinevere during the decline of Camelot. Unmistakably Bressonian, especially in its depiction of violent battles and a dramatic jousting tournament, Bresson's minimalist style and elliptical imagery create a haunting tapestry of love, betrayal, and spiritual conflict. A new 4K DCP will be screened.
- Fri., Nov. 1 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
Told as a flashback from a news account of a young man’s suicide, the great Bresson’s penultimate feature is a rigorous depiction of a modern world that’s not fit to live in. Centered around a group of youths (all played, in Bresson’s inimitable style, by nonactors), the story eventually focuses on Charles (Monnier), who finds little happiness in chasing women, pursuing religion, furthering his education, and taking drugs. When psychoanalysis fails and some environmental documentary footage deepens his despair, everything seems pointless to Charles. “Even though Bresson has painted a dark picture of wasted youth and beauty, one comes out of the film with a sense of exultation. When a civilization can produce a work of art as perfectly achieved as this, it is hard to believe that there is no hope for it” (Richard Roud).
- Fri., Dec. 6 | 7:00 PM4070 Vilas Hall
In his stark final film, master filmmaker Bresson intensifies his austere blend of spiritual contemplation and formal precision. Inspired by a Tolstoy novella and re-set in contemporary Paris, L’argent tracks a counterfeit bill used in a schoolboy prank that ultimately is given to a young truck driver, leading to imprisonment and violence. Working in his 80s, Bresson crafts a compelling, yet unforgiving vision of a cold, dehumanizing world.