Robert Bresson A Passion for Film [Paperback]

Perhaps the most highly regarded French filmmaker after Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson created a new kind of cinema through meticulous refinement of the form's grammatical and expressive possibilities. In thirteen features over a forty-year career, he held to an uncompromising moral vision and aesthetic rigor that remain unmatched.Robert Bresson: A Passion for Filmis the first comprehensive study to give equal attention to the films, their literary sources, and psycho-biographical aspects of the work. Concentrating on the films' cinematographic, imagistic, narrative, and thematic structures, Pipolo provides a nuanced analysis of each film-including nearly 100 illustrations-elucidating Bresson's unique style as it evolved from the impassionedLes Anges du p?cheto such disconsolate meditations on the world asThe Devil ProbablyandL'Argent.Special attention is also given to psychosexual aspects of the films that are usually neglected. Bresson has long needed a thoroughgoing treatment by a critic worthy to the task: he gets it here. From it emerges a provocative portrait of an extraordinary artist whose moral engagement and devotion to the craft of filmmaking are without equal.

Impressive...Robert Bresson: a Passion for Filmis an eloquent and often persuasive demonstration of Bresson's importance as a filmmaker, and is a model ofauteuristreading, both as analysis and interpretation. H-France

We are all still coming to terms with Robert Bresson, and the peculiar power and beauty of his films. This thoughtfully argued, wonderfully lucid book goes a long way toward giving us a clearer understanding of one of the cinema's greatest artists. --Martin Scorsese

Bresson is among the most meticulous, moral, and profound of filmmakers. Tony Pipolo evokes and celebrates his genius with this readable, engrossing study. --Roger Ebert

It becomes clearer all the time: Robert Bresson'slC"