Robert Bresson Film Retrospective

The Robert Bresson Retrospective continues tonight and tomorrow at the Jim Ottaway Jr., Film Center at Bard College. All screenings are free to the public, but seating is limited, so you should arrive early. You can click here for details about this weekend's films as well as the schedule for the whole retrospective. This program will highlight the breadth and depth of his global influence by looking at representative works from more than a dozen countries.

Initially a painter, Bresson (1901-1999) completed thirteen features between 1943 and 1983, in the midst of some of the most tumultuous events of the twentieth century.  Refusing to make concessions to the commercial cinema, Bresson pursued a largely independent course and quickly emerged as an exemplary figure during mid-century debates about cinematic modernism and film's status as an art, universally recognized as an important filmmaker even by those who were bewildered by his unusual style.  The frequently discussed austerity of Bresson's approach is counterbalanced in each of his films by a unique, sometimes overwhelming, sensuality and a profound engagement with the concreteness of bodies, objects, and environments.  Over the past several decades, his rich body of work has become a paradigm for international art cinema.