notes on the cinematographer by robert bresson

Each of the lead actors plays an Orestes and an Electra of a bleak and often brutal world which the director envisioned, and in the end created.Īnother great director who can be placed in this first category, although this case is open to debate, is Stanley Kubrick. Although Bergman’s collaboration with the cinematographer Sven Nykvist was of great importance, and Nykvist’s camera transfigures the world and creates a new language of film, the essential role in Bergman’s films belongs to the actors and the director himself. One must note the immaculate Bergman’s direction as well, which created such stunning works of art like Fanny and Alexander.

Robert BressonĪ former theater director, who continued to direct plays while he was a film director, used the potential of his actors to the fullest extent and created an universe in which the profound life’s questions are explored through characters’ monologues, their interactions etc. When one speaks of the films in which the resources of the theater are employed, the typical director who utilizes those means is Ingmar Bergman.

His distinction between two types of films, as quoted above, can help us distinguish important aspects in the art of filmmaking we can understand better Bresson’s own work and films created by other great directors across the globe. Bresson being one of the most important French directors who ever lived, there is no doubt that his understanding of cinema has great value. Robert Bresson, a French director who gave us many masterpieces, Au Hasard Balthazar, Pickpocket and Diary of A Country Priest, to name a few, and influenced many great filmmakers and screenwriters like Andrei Tarkovsky, Michael Haneke and Paul Schrader. Robert Bresson, Notes on the Cinematographer Two types of films : those that employ the resources of the theater (actors, direction etc…) and use the camera in order to reproduce those that employ the resources of cinematography and use the camera to create.

Notes on the cinematographer by robert bresson