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The Road to Bresson More at IMDbPro »De weg naar Bresson (original title)

11 out of 12 people found the following review useful:
Superb documentary of one of cinema's true masters, 23 January 2005
Author: madsagittarian from Toronto, Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

THE ROAD TO BRESSON is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen about film or film-making. This should be seen in film schools and on public television, because it is such an insightful and informative learning tool of one of cinema's most uncompromising, yet elusive figures. Until New Yorker had recently issued a lot of Robert Bresson films on video, they were about as hard to see as this obscure documentary on the man and his work.

This is two films at once- it is a record of the filmmakers trying to land Bresson for an interview, all while explaining to us what is so unique about his movies. If you've never seen a foot of film directed by the man, you leave this documentary knowing his work intimately... it is that good.

Bresson began making features which were indicative of the "classical" style of French films of the time (LES ANGES DU PECHE, LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE). However, he began a more personal, minimalist style with DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, and on. His use of non-actors were so that a star persona would not dominate the film. Since he spent years on one picture, he would tirelessly direct his cast to deliver the absolute monotone delivery and wooden performance that he felt would befit his dehumanized subjects. He would further drain his films of any passion with his sense of economy. One cut-in would replace all of the more expansive setups that any other directors would use for a scene (what mattered most to Bresson was what happened offscreen). Further, the people in his pictures often committed acts (murder, suicide) for which the screenplay would fail to explain. Thus, his characters were just as irrational as any human being.

The documentary opens with the striking, silver-haired septuagenarian director accepting an award for L'ARGENT (which would be his final film)- and this must be one of the few images one can ever see of this notorious recluse. We see the filmmakers finally track down the legend for an interview. Over the phone, they compromise and are allowed to ask the director only one question if they are to interview him at all. Thus, we see the fabled interview, where the director sits down, and the people behind the camera ask him their one question. True to form, the crusty man gives them a one-word answer and then gets up to leave.

Thus, THE ROAD TO BRESSON becomes a documentary about a man whose behaviour is as elusive as the people who populate his films. Along the way to this shaggy dog of a climax, we see lots of valuable sequences of what typifies the man's style: the repetition of simple shots to convey that same repetition in THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC, the use of a few cut-ins for a jousting scene in LANCELOT DU LAC, and a shooting occurring offscreen in THE DEVIL PROBABLY. It is simply one of the finest pictures ever made which offer any insight into the work of a director.

THE ROAD TO BRESSON (Jurrien Rood and Leo De Boer, 1984) ***, 21 December 2011

Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

Though he is one of my favorite film-makers, this is actually the first documentary I have watched about Bresson. Even if I was aware beforehand of his repudiation of 'constructed' cinema (which he tried in his first 3 efforts then abandoned for the remaining 11!), I was still taken aback by his evident lack of appreciation for the work of directors at least as revered as himself (as a side-note, having just acquired his undeniably interesting if underwhelming THE TRIAL OF JOAN OF ARC {1962}, I read that he was severely critical of the stylization within Carl Theodor Dreyer's otherwise no less austere rendition of the same events, THE PASSION OF JOAN OF ARC {1928}, generally acknowledged as one of the pinnacle achievements of Silent cinema!) and also analysts of his work (writer/director Paul Schrader: more on this later). Apart from which, he acts rather condescendingly towards the 2 directors of the documentary, who are repeatedly shown throughout trying to contact him for a brief interview (presented at the very end).

I cannot say how the participants in the documentary were chosen (that is, if others were approached but declined to contribute) but the 3 directors who do appear all had some connection to the subject of the documentary. Though Andrei Tarkovsky admits to being influenced by Bresson, there was a whiff of topicality to his presence, since both film-makers had just shared the Best Direction prize at the latest Cannes Film Festival, the award being presented by none other than Orson Welles (unfortunately, though both much younger than him, Welles and Tarkovsky would die within 2 years of the documentary's release, whereas Bresson passed away, a venerable 98-year old, on 18 December 1999 i.e. 12 years to the day of this viewing!). At the Press Conference for his latest and, as it turned out, last work (i.e. L'ARGENT {1983}), Bresson displays typical evasiveness – even joking about his old age by feigning to be hard of hearing! As for Louis Malle, he states that Bresson (whose rigorous working method the "Nouvelle Vague" exponent witnessed first-hand) has left an indelible mark on French cinema, but his own style in particular. Writer/director Paul Schrader (author of "Transcendental Style In Cinema", a book comparing the spare modus operandi of Bresson, the afore-mentioned Dreyer and Yasujiro Ozu) recounts how, during an interview for which he had prepared a specific (and, to him, vital) set of questions, Bresson only contrived to give vague answers (reiterating the point I made about the auteur's indifference to anybody else's opinion)! Also on hand is Dominique Sanda (unsurprisingly the only one of his actors to turn up, since she had the most fortuitous career after debuting – in A GENTLE WOMAN {1969}, watched just prior to this – under his guidance) who says that, working for Bresson, invariably renders one prone to underplay any given role!

The documentary, then, is quite insightful – even providing quotes from Bresson's slender book "Notes On Cinematography", collecting a series of casual observations he made over the years and which would inform his distinct cinematic style – culminating in the afore-mentioned interview with the documentarians (who he almost walks out on because they exceed the number of questions that was stipulated beforehand!), where he rejects their idea of his work being intrinsically pessimistic in nature (becoming increasingly so as it went along), arguing that, whatever his characters' ultimate actions, they were arrived at after having attained a complete state of lucidity! One disappointment here, though, is the fact that only 3 pictures are discussed in any detail and represented by clips – namely 1956's A MAN ESCAPED, 1974's LANCELOT DU LAC and 1977's THE DEVIL, PROBABLY – with the film-makers going so far as to visit their respective locations! While discussing LANCELOT, it is remarked how little we see of the 'medieval' scenery throughout – a jousting tournament is exclusively shot from mounting level – however, by doing this, rather than alienating potential viewers, Bresson forces them to be active participants in the narrative as each will be trying to imagine what they are missing. Interestingly, this very same method of audience identification had been adopted much earlier by none other than Dreyer – ironically, for JOAN OF ARC itself! – but, in his case, he ended up exasperating the producer instead, by ordering expensive sets to be erected (so as to supply the proper atmosphere) and then proceed to shoot virtually the entire film in close-up!

In conclusion, there is another well-regarded feature-length documentary on Bresson, called UN METTEUR EN ORDRE (1966): this is included on the Criterion DVD edition of his AU HASARD, BALTHAZAR (1966), which I own but have yet to go through…

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