Robert Bresson

"This book, which introduces Bresson's work to a broader audience, assesses the films in the context of detailed plot summaries, vivid descriptions of characters and settings, and perceptive, jargon-free insights into the director's execution, intention, and technique. Among these films, made in a forty-year span between 1943 and 1984, are Diary of a Country Priest, A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, The Trial of Joan of Arc, Au hasard Balthasar, Mouchette, A Gentle Woman, Lancelot of the Lake, and L'Argent.". "Each of these films in its own way illustrates what Joseph Cunneen calls Bresson's spiritual style. Though not necessarily focused on the explicitly religious, they illustrate two complementary principles: on the negative side, the rejection of what the director called "photographed theater" with its artificiality and dependence on celebrity performers. On the more positive side, as Bresson himself also expressed it, the conviction that, "The supernatural is only the real rendered more precise; real things seen close up.""--BOOK JACKET.