Notes on the Cinematographer (Green Integer) [Paperback]

Robert Bresson (Author), Jonathan Griffin (Translator), J.M.G. Le Clezio (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1997 | ISBN-10: 1557133654 | ISBN-13: 978-1557133656

Robert Bresson makes some quite radical distinctions between what he terms "cinematography" and something quite different: "cinema"—which is for him nothing but an attempt to photograph theater and use it for the screen.

Director of The Trial of Joan of Arc, Pickpocket, A Prisoner Escapes, Diary of a Country Priest, Money, and many other classic films, Robert Bresson is, quite simply, one of the most brilliant cinematographers in the history of film.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

From 1950 to 1974, French film director Bresson ( Pickpocket, Mouchette wrote notes for his own use, and over 450 of those brief reflections were collected for this slim volume. The casual but succinct observations, presented here three or four to a page, consist of short paragraphs or single sentences. Some are fragmentary phrases: "Passionate for the appropriate." Some are self-directed: "Apply myself to insignificant (non-significant) image." Some are maxims: "Empty the pond to get the fish." Some are quotations: "Cezanne: 'At each touch I risk my life.' " Some are questions: "Is it for singing always the same song that the nightingale is so admired?" All demonstrate a scintillating curiosity and quest for perfection.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 136 pages
• Publisher: Green Integer (May 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557133654
• ISBN-13: 978-1557133656
• Product Dimensions: 4.1 x 0.5 x 6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #114,185 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must have for any non-Hollywood Style Filmmakers May 13, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

If you want a step by step, how to make film book, you're better off browsing the bookstore at your local film school.

If you are a novice filmmaker, and you want to make art with film or video, and you want a guidebook on how to THINK and FEEL about your chosen art form, this is a must.

Bresson inspired the French New Wave filmmakers, and in my opinion was one of the few directors this world has seen who actually considered the particular reality of the moving image and created a set of principles to guide his choices as a director based on the medium itself, and not on any inherited traditional technique. One of the primary divisions in film theory is whether you believe film to be an extension of theatre or something entirely different.

For Bresson theatre is a more intellectual, mind based experience, whereas film is an EXPERIENTIAL art form. Bresson was highly interest in TRUTH over the APPEARANCE of truth. For Bresson the camera and audio recorder capture the essence of a thing, and therefore he cautions against using actors, and sets, and instead suggests people being themselves and shooting on actual locations.

This book is actually a collection of notes that Bresson wrote to himself over the course of his career. It is a wonderful look into the mind of an artist. In this book I have found a kindred spirit, whose insights into the nature of film and film production are distilled down to their essential forms. What kind of Truth does the camera capture, what elements go in the mise-en-scene which add or distort that truth, how do you illicit the inner truth of the actor (model) while still maintaining the requirements of the plot and script?

There are two books which have, for me, opened up the truest possibilities of film as an artform. These books are: "Notes on the Cinematographer" by Bresson, and "Sculpting in Time" by Tarkovsky. These books are a must read for anyone interested in exploring the true potential of film as an art form.

Also, this book goes in and out of print fairly regularly, so you should buy it whenever you see it being sold. Its relatively inexpensive, but contains a wealth of knowledge. It makes a great gift for someone interested in film or video as an art form.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Towards a Poetics of Film August 9, 2000

By Joe Beirne

Format:Paperback

There is no better guide to the process and experience of making a film. Though its epigrammatic style makes it at first seem abstract, Notes on the Cinematographer is essentially a step-by-step handbook on what to do (and more so, what not to do) with actors and a movie camera. The title is so unintentionally misleading as to the subject of the work, which contains not a single line on lighting or photography ('cinematographer' is Bresson's rhetorical name for 'film-maker') that I believe it has obscured what would otherwise be a justly renown (and more readily-available) classic text on filmmaking.

This book stands also as an intriguing commentary on Bresson's films, on which is it is difficult to say anything adequate.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for all involved in creation June 27, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

While Bresson's short, minimalist notes were written about and for film, they apply to all creative endeavors. So much of the artistic process is about knowing what to leave out, when to stop, what notes not to play, what colors not to use, what words to take out. Bresson, with an amazing economy of words, dazzles repeatedly. Poetic, profound, wise (and often arrogant), Bresson's collection is more than a treatise on the "cinematograph" as he calls film. It is a lesson in making, and even a lesson in living. To be read slowly said an earlier reviewer...How about to be read repeatedly and daily, genuine words of wisdom. yb