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Robert Bresson: Styles
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Smoul, whom Cunneen quotes approvingly, alleges the caf-goers 'represent the audience in the theater which is watching the screen' (173), but this kind of clever interpretation, one focused on secret meanings, undermines the affective force of Bresson's film. That that force is formal -- and not a philosophical puzzle or an intellectual in-joke or, somehow, spiritual, whatever that is taken to mean -- was suggested by the director, for example, when he said he decided not to film the overtly religious end of the Tolstoy fiction on which _L'argent_ is based in order to preserve the 'rhythm' of his film (173). For Bresson, this rhythm -- his form, his style -- is paramount.
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As his fragmented use of sounds, images and music suggests, Bresson is not reproducing reality, but communicating his impressions of reality in a way that is meaningful. "In order to gain a true impression of something", he states, "one must strip away all that prevents one from grasping it" (Ciment, 308). However, simply calling Bresson's cinematographic style 'minimalist' does not allow for a true understanding of Bresson's complex stylistic system. As Ontario Cinematheque's James Quandt points out, Bresson's unique vision creates:
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[T]here's ... Jef's blank face in Melville's Le Samouraï which also hearkens back to the inexpressivity of Bresson's models that is particularly suited to Pickpocket, where any trace of emotion could blow the theft. It's not just an affectation or a style in the film, it's an occupational necessity.
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