Directed by Robert Bresson

Directed by Robert Bresson

11 Episodes

A singular, iconoclastic artist, Robert Bresson left behind an astonishing body of work, defined by the search for what he called “not beautiful images, but necessary images.” In a long, visionary career that began in the 1940s and ended in the 1980s, he continually refined the strict precision of his famously ascetic style—abolishing psychology, professional actors, and ornate camera work, and instead concentrating on the exactingly choreographed movements of his “models” (as he called his performers) and the anguished solitude of his martyred characters. In indelible visions of suffering and salvation like PICKPOCKET, AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, and MOUCHETTE, he stripped cinema to its essence to reveal nothing less than the very soul of his subjects.

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Directed by Robert Bresson

11 Episodes

  • Directed by Robert Bresson Teaser
    00:57
    Directed by Robert Bresson Teaser
    Episode 1

    Directed by Robert Bresson Teaser

    Episode 1

  • Lancelot du lac
    1:24:12
    Lancelot du lac
    Episode 2

    Lancelot du lac

    Episode 2

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1974 • France
    Starring Luc Simon, Laura Duke Condominas, Humbert Balsan

    Robert Bresson’s almost abstract rendering of the Arthurian legend—the tale of the titular knight’s quest for the Holy Grail and his love affair with Guinevere—approaches the realm of pure cinema...

  • Four Nights of a Dreamer
    1:22:58
    Four Nights of a Dreamer
    Episode 3

    Four Nights of a Dreamer

    Episode 3

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1971 • France, Italy
    Starring Isabelle Weingarten, Guillaume des Forêts, Jean-Maurice Monnoyer

    FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER is Robert Bresson’s great forgotten masterpiece, a stark yet haunting ode to romantic idealism and the capriciousness of love. Adapted from Fyodor ...

  • Les dames du Bois de Boulogne
    1:25:47
    Les dames du Bois de Boulogne
    Episode 4

    Les dames du Bois de Boulogne

    Episode 4

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1945 • France
    Starring Paul Bernard, María Casares, Elina Labourdette

    This unique love story, based on a novelette by Denis Diderot and with dialogue written by Jean Cocteau, follows the maneuverings of a society lady as she connives to initiate a scandalous affair b...

  • A Man Escaped
    1:40:55
    A Man Escaped
    Episode 5

    A Man Escaped

    Episode 5

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1956 • France
    Starring François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock

    With the simplest of concepts and sparest of techniques, Robert Bresson made one of the most suspenseful jailbreak films of all time in A MAN ESCAPED. Based on the account of an impriso...

  • Pickpocket
    1:16:14
    Pickpocket
    Episode 6

    Pickpocket

    Episode 6

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1959 • France
    Starring Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie

    This incomparable story of crime and redemption from the French master Robert Bresson follows Michel, a young pickpocket who spends his days working the streets, subway cars, and train stations of P...

  • The Trial of Joan of Arc
    1:04:37
    The Trial of Joan of Arc
    Episode 7

    The Trial of Joan of Arc

    Episode 7

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1962 • France

    Fourteen years after Hollywood ran aground with its film of Joan of Arc (starring Ingrid Bergman), French filmmaker Robert Bresson turned his attention to the last part of Joan's life, and the result was a stark and beautifully compact retelling of the ...

  • Au hasard Balthazar
    1:35:50
    Au hasard Balthazar
    Episode 8

    Au hasard Balthazar

    Episode 8

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1966 • France
    Starring Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge

    A profound masterpiece from one of the most revered filmmakers in the history of cinema, Robert Bresson’s AU HASARD BALTHAZAR follows the donkey Balthazar as he is passed from owner to owner, some ...

  • Mouchette
    1:21:52
    Mouchette
    Episode 9

    Mouchette

    Episode 9

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1967 • France
    Starring Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal

    Robert Bresson plumbs great reservoirs of feeling with MOUCHETTE, one of the most searing portraits of human desperation ever put on film. Faced with a dying mother, an absent, alcoholic fath...

  • The Devil, Probably
    1:36:52
    The Devil, Probably
    Episode 10

    The Devil, Probably

    Episode 10

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1977 • France
    Starring Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc

    “My sickness is that I see clearly.” Robert Bresson’s most controversial film (the French government banned viewers under the age of eighteen from seeing it, believing it would incite a rash of ...

  • L'argent
    1:24:48
    L'argent
    Episode 11

    L'argent

    Episode 11

    Directed by Robert Bresson • 1983 • France, Switzerland
    Starring Christian Patey, Vincent Risterucci, Caroline Lang

    In his ruthlessly clear-eyed final film, French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigor to a new level of astringency. Transposing a ...

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