Robert Bresson Filmography

Born:: September 25, 1901 in Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, France
Occupation:: Actor, Director, Screenwriter
Biography:: Often described as a "painter" of films, French director Robert Bresson was one of cinema's greatest anomalies. He directed only 13 films over the course of 40 years, but these films were in a category all their own, minimalist works that tended towards radical (and sometimes controversial)...Read More

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Epreuves d'Artistes

Actors: Pedro Almodóvar, Robert Altman, Michelangelo Antonioni, Roberto Benigni, Bernardo Bertolucci

2004
Cinema, of Our Time: Robert Bresson - Without a Trace

Actors: Robert Bresson

1994
De Weg Naar Bresson

Actors: Robert Bresson, Louis Malle, Dominique Sanda, Paul Schrader, Andrei Tarkovsky

Synopsis: The film style of Robert Bresson is the subject of this documentary tribute to the French director and screenwriter, and to his minimalist auteur films about sensitive individuals (or even animals) trying unsuccessfully to survive in a cruel world. Weg Naar Bresson is divided into several segments Read More

1984
L'Argent

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Christian Patey, Sylvie van den Elsen, Michel Briguet, Caroline Lang, Vincent Risterucci

Synopsis: The last film by veteran writer/director Robert Bresson, the French crime drama L'Argent (Money) was based on a short story by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy. Looking for some quick cash, young man Norbert (Marc Ernest Fourneau) gets a phony 500 franc note from his friend Matrial (Bruno Lapeyre). Read More

1983
Quatre Nuits d'un Rêveur

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Guillaume des Forets, Isabelle Weingarten, Maurice Monnoyer

Synopsis: Four Nights of a Dreamer is a loose adaptation of Dostoyevsky's novella White Nights, with the action transposed from 19th century Russia to modern-day France. One night, Jacques (Guillaume Des Forets), a young man with artistic aspirations, sees a girl (Isabelle Weingarten) trying to commit Read More

11/6/79
Le Diable Probablement

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Laetita Carcano, Regis Hanrion

Synopsis: In order to be technically free of the mortal sin of suicide, a young man who has given up on the world pays a drug-addict to shoot him. Charles (Antoine Monnier), who is a student, has tried political action and investigated the claims of religion but ultimately finds nothing which will change Read More

1977
Lancelot of the Lake

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Luc Simon, Humbert Balsan, Vladmir Antolek-Oresk

Synopsis: As with his earlier Trial of Joan of Arc, French-filmmaker Robert Bresson effectively casts unknowns in his interpretation of the Knights of the Round Table saga. Breaking with the standard romantic spin on this legend, Bresson offers us a selfish, ruthless Lancelot, no better than the other Read More

5/30/74
A Gentle Woman

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Dominique Sanda, Guy Frangin, Jane Lobre

Synopsis: The original French title for Gentle Creature is Une Femme Douce. Both affectionate appellations refer to leading lady Dominique Sanda, a popular model of the 1960s, here making her film debut (Incredibly, she was chosen for the role by director Robert Bresson on the basis of her voice!) Sanda's Read More

1969
Mouchette

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Maria Cardinal, Paul Hebert

Synopsis: Robert Bresson directed this grim but moving story of a girl forced to grow up quickly due to the unfortunate circumstances which surround her. Mouchette (Nadine Nortier) is a fourteen year old girl living in a rural village in France; while it's the mid-1960's, in many respects her community Read More

1967
Au Hasard Balthazar

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green

Synopsis: Robert Bresson's acclaimed Au Hasard, Balthazar presents an unfettered view of human cruelty, suffering and injustice, filtered through the eyes of a donkey over the course of his long life. The burro at the film's center begins life peacefully and happily, as the unnamed play-object of some Read More

1966
Le Procès de Jeanne d'Arc

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean Darbaud, Philippe Dreux, Jean-Claude Fourneau, Jean Gillibert, Michel Herubel, Roger Honorat, Marc Jacquier, Florence Carrez, Andre Maurice, Donald O'Brien, E.R. Pratt, Andre Regnier, Harry Sommers, Michael Williams, Gerard Zingg

Synopsis: Characteristically breaking with tradition, director Robert Bresson presents a realistic, unique view of the life and death of Joan of Arc. Using a script based on the actual transcript notes taken during her trial, Bresson focuses on the psychological and physical torture that Joan had to endure Read More

1962
Pickpocket

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Martin Lasalle, Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie, Pierre Etaix, Jean Pelegri

Synopsis: Director Robert Bresson chose Uruguayan nonactor Martin LaSalle for his leading man in Pickpocket. LaSalle's inexperience works against the film for some viewers, though Bresson himself was satisfied because his star proved himself a quick study in the art of lifting wallets (a genuine pickpocket Read More

1959
A Man Escaped

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Francois Leterrier, Roland Monod, Jacques Ertaud, Roger Planchon

Synopsis: In a genre crowded with quality films, director Robert Bresson's POW drama has become legendary, in part because it strips down the experience of a man desperate to escape to the essentials. That's in keeping with the approach Bresson took with all of his films. The filmmaker, who spent a year in Read More

1956
The Diary of a Country Priest

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Claude Laydu, André Guibert, Marie-Monique Arkell, Jean Riveyre

Synopsis: An austere look at the experiences of a young priest in a small French parish, Robert Bresson's masterly Le Journal d'un curé de campagne (Diary of a Country Priest) presents a powerful, complex exploration of faith underneath a deceptively simple exterior. Drawn from a novel by Georges Bernanos Read More

1950
Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Maria Casarés, Paul Bernard, Elina Labourdette, Lucienne Bogaert, Jean Marchat

Synopsis: Though this interesting film was among many responsible for the critical success of French autuer Robert Bresson, it was by no means a commercial success. Slightly different than his other films, director Bresson utilized the contrasty photography of Philippe Agostini (Sylvie et le Fantome, Monde du Silence Read More

1945
Les Anges du Péché

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Renée Faure, Jany Holt, Mila Parély, Sylvie, Marie-Helene Daste

Synopsis: Robert Bresson's first feature film is the story of two novice nuns in a monastery that recruits sisters from a woman's prison. Anne-Marie (Renée Faure) comes to the convent from a middle-class family eager to take up her vocation, but other nuns begin to resent her earnestness, and they accuse Read More

1943
Courrier Sud

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Charles Vanel, Jany Holt, Gabrielle Dorziat, Henri Cremieux

Synopsis: Courier Sud (Southern Carrier) dramatizes the exploits of a French commercial airline, making the treacherous run from Paris to Africa and back. Much of the drama takes place on solid ground, as pilot Jacques (Pierre Richard-Willm) tries to rekindle a romance with old flame Genevieve (Jany Holt) Read More

1937
Les Jumeaux de Brighton

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Suzy Prim, Raimu, Michel Simon

1936
Les Affaires Publiques

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Jean Wiener, Marcel Dalio

1934
C'etait un Musicien

Crew: Screenwriter

Actors: Josette Day, Lyne Clévers, Fernand Gravey, Roland Toutain

1933