LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Robert Bresson: Au Hasard
built 278 days ago
In his discussion of _Diary_ Cunneen quotes Prdal on Bresson's well-known preference for a 'normal' (50mm) lens. According to Prdal, Bresson respects 'as much as possible the vision of the eye. For this reason he did not like labored dolly or panoramic shots, which do not correspond to our way of seeing because they separate the eye from the body.' (17) Oddly, Cunneen seems to consider _Diary_ an outstanding example of this approach. The film ... is filled with dramatically emotive, unmotivated dollies, often into the face of the cur. And a careful consideration of image size would show that _Dairy_ evidences much greater variation -- from wide shots to close-ups -- than each of Bresson's later films, which are striking in their austerity. Again, the physiological (if not spiritual) effect of each film's variation in or affinity of image sizes -- and angles, and camera heights, etc., etc.
Source:
Thankfully, James Quandt’s North American retrospective of Bresson’s 13-film oeuvre in 1998 jumpstarted a Bresson revival. Last year, Rialto Pictures released the U.S. theatrical debut of Au Hasard Balthazar (1965), and since then, several Bresson films have appeared on DVD; in May, New Yorker Video will unveil L’Argent (1983) and in June, the Criterion Collection will offer Balthazar for the first time on U.S. video.
Source:
In order to concentrate the effectiveness and power of a sound, Bresson isolates it from its context and distills it, pulling it from the chaos of background noise... stylizing its description. The film-maker is more interested in conveying the subjective impression of sound than capturing its real impact. Humans, he explains, know how to focus their ears selectively -- they will hear the passage of cars as individual sounds, not as the auditory "hubbub" that would be recorded by a machine. Therefore, Bresson records all sounds separately, and it is from their placement alongside the composition of images that they acquire meaning.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Au Hasard