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Robert Bresson

Notes on the Cinematograph (New York Review Books Classics) Paperback – November 15, 2016

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

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The French film director Robert Bresson was one of the great artists of the twentieth century and among the most radical, original, and radiant stylists of any time. He worked with nonprofessional actors—models, as he called them—and deployed a starkly limited but hypnotic array of sounds and images to produce such classic works as A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, and Lancelot of the Lake. From the beginning to the end of his career, Bresson dedicated himself to making movies in which nothing is superfluous and everything is always at stake.

Notes on the Cinematograph distills the essence of Bresson’s theory and practice as a filmmaker and artist. He discusses the fundamental differences between theater and film; parses the deep grammar of silence, music, and noise; and affirms the mysterious power of the image to unlock the human soul. This book, indispensable for admirers of this great director and for students of the cinema, will also prove an inspiration, much like Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, for anyone who responds to the claims of the imagination at its most searching and rigorous.

Print length

112 pages
Language

English
Publisher

NYRB Classics
Publication date

November 15, 2016
Dimensions

5.03 x 0.34 x 7.98 inches
ISBN-10

1681370247
ISBN-13

978-1681370248
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"The collection Bresson on Bresson: Interviews 1943-1983 and Bresson's own Notes on the Cinematograph are primers for the gradual understanding of Robert Bresson, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein...Notes on the Cinematograph is the ultimate refinement of Bresson's thought, a loosely grouped succession of aphorisms and Zen koans." —J. Hoberman, The New York Times

“If there were any director you might expect to write what is, in effect, a philosophical notebook on the art and science of film-making, it would be Bresson...This is…a collection that reaches beyond its subject matter. It actually is philosophy.” —Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian

“Half-philosophy, half-poetry, Notes on the Cinematograph reads in places like The Art of War for filmmakers.” —John Semley, The A.V. Club

“The power of Bresson’s films lies in the fact that his purity and fastidiousness are at the same time an idea about life, about what Cocteau called ‘inner style,’ about the most serious way of being human.” —Susan Sontag

"Short, aphoristic fragments that guide Bresson's film making. Scribbed down as 'notes to self,' reading them in whole is astonishing & inspiring, a totality of a brilliant filmmaker." --Mike Kitchell, HTMLGiant

Notes on the Cinematograph...feels like the rare beast: a manifesto of filmmaking one doesn’t see much of nowadays. In it, Bresson’s artistic philosophy is laid bare.
—Zak Salih, The Los Angeles Review of Books

An original and singular figure, Breton sought a truer form of narrative film...a welcome creative tool, both for people interested in making art and for those who just enjoy talking or thinking about it.
—Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, A.V. Club

Bresson’s films are many things. They are among the most maddeningly beautiful in all of cinema; each is like a wedge violently driven into the world. Bresson’s cinema is a monument to an idea of art that knows no compromise.
—Michael Blum, The Brooklyn Rail

About the Author

Robert Bresson (1901–1999) was born in Bromont-Lamothe, France. He attended the Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, and moved to Paris after graduation, hoping to become a painter. He directed a short comedy, Affaires publiques, in 1934, but his work was curtailed by the outbreak of World War II. He enlisted in the French army in 1939 and was captured in 1940, spending a year in a labor camp as a prisoner of war. After his release he returned to Paris and directed Angels of Sin (1943), his first full-length film, under the German occupation. Les dames du Bois de Boulogne followed in 1945, and in 1951 Diary of a Country Priest was met with widespread acclaim. His next film, A Man Escaped (1956), which follows the memoirs of André Devigny, a French Resistance leader incarcerated during World War II, became a hit. He made eleven more films over the next three decades, including Mouchette (adapted from the Georges Bernanos novel of the same name, published as an NYRB Classic); Au Hasard Balthazar; Pickpocket; Lancelot of the Lake; and L’Argent. Throughout his career Bresson eschewed the use of theatrical techniques and employed nonprofessional actors whom he referred to as models. Raised in the Catholic faith, he worked on and off throughout his career on an adaptation of the book of Genesis, which never saw fruition. He died in Droue-sur-Drouette at the age of ninety-eight.

Robert Bresson’s interviews, edited by Mylène Bresson, are collected in Bresson on Bresson, published by New York Review Books.

Jonathan Griffin (1906–1990) served as the director of BBC European Intelligence during World War II. Among the authors he has translated are Jean Giono, Fernando Pessoa, and Nikos Kazantzakis. A collection of Griffin’s poetry, In Earthlight, was published in 1995.

J.M.G. Le Clézio was born in Nice in 1940. He has written more than forty books, including works of fiction and memoir as well as collections of essays and books for children. In 2008 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ NYRB Classics; Main edition (November 15, 2016)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 112 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1681370247
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1681370248
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 4.6 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.03 x 0.34 x 7.98 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #70,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #49 in Video Direction & Production (Books)
- #80 in Movie Direction & Production
- #116 in Movie History & Criticism

Customer Reviews:
190 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Brendan

A Helpful Contradiction

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2022

Verified Purchase

A philosophy of art through the lens of one of cinema’s greatest filmmakers and artists in general to have ever lived.

Helpful

intro

Buy it when available!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 18, 2012

Verified Purchase

I finally had the chance to buy this book. It has always been out of stock and the only option for buying it was on amazon seller lists or on ebay where it sold for ridiculously high prices ($50+). It's almost impossible to find at a brick and mortar bookstore (and i live in nyc!).

So if you're interested in it, you should buy it while it's available. It seems to go on sale sporadically in limited stock. And for $6 it's a great deal.

It's a small little book with a lot of different notes in it. Each page has about 4 or 5 notes. It sort of resembles a book of quotes. It's definitely not a collection of essays on filmmaking. Some of the notes can be a bit redundant with the same idea said over again in a slightly different way. But there are a lot of inspirational little tidbits and guide posts in there that make it a good read. You can read it straight-through but i feel like it's best to have it somewhere handy and occasionally open it up to a random page and read a few of the notes when you need a little bit of inspiration.

If you like Bresson's work or you're a filmmaker interested in his style, i think you'll enjoy it.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

AFOLKcionado

Every Feature Film I shoot, I bring a copy of this with me on set for INSPIRATION

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 10, 2017

Verified Purchase

Changed my life as a filmmaker. The information is easily worth $500. I keep looking for cheaper copies. If you make anything with actors, images, sounds, and editing. Please read this book. This is the "Tao Te Ching" of filmmaking.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

B. G. Rood

The text: Inspirational. This edition: junk.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 27, 2017

Verified Purchase

The text is absolute, and unique — an inspiration. I remember reading my father's copy as a boy, and later when I was at art school, the printing and binding were lovely and larger, too—an English edition published in approximately B5 size—as alluring and straightforward as the ideas inside.

This crummy little edition, which I've owned for about a decade, is a letdown. It's just wrong.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

N. Anno

A bible for aspiring filmmakers and cinema enthusiasts

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 23, 2013

Verified Purchase

Bresson was and remains the master of cinema, and this small bible allows the master to be the teacher to aspiring filmmakers and film enthusiasts alike. Complimentary and thoughtful introduction is nice, but its the quotes written by Bresson himself that are truly enlightening, and such quotes build for their readers Bresson's lauded film philosophy in a comprehensible way that's easy to interpret and digest and implement.

Helpful

Marc Swift

Personal philosophy in short expressions.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 8, 2017

Verified Purchase

Brief, essential points of wisdom that define the film maker's words to live by. Some are good but seem like orphans and widows without connection or context. Too bad, or too self effacing, considering that Robert Bresson made great films whose quality still stands out today.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Return of a Classic

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 12, 2016

Verified Purchase

This book is one of the classics that's been out of print for almost 30 years. As a young filmmaker I found it absolutely essential in my intellectual formation. I am so happy that it is back in print.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

catsandcows

Good Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 25, 2018

Verified Purchase

Actually useful. Benefits further from being able to advise you regardless of what page you open it to.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Robert ‘Bob’ Macespera

Magnificent

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 17, 2021

Verified Purchase

This book is regularly chosen among the best on cinema review, or film in general. And deservedly so. The tone is sober to the point of dryness, there's not one word wasted, nothing is written for mere decoration, let alone as a filler. The text is sparce, down to the point. And yet it's a delight.
Surely one of the shortest book on cinema ever written, arguably one of the best. (As a bonus, it can be read as a treaty on any other art or even craft. It is that good).

One person found this helpful

Debby

A great book he will be thrilled

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

Exactly as ordered Perfect quality many thanks

WeiZhou

Worth it

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 5, 2020

Verified Purchase