Bresson, Robert

Bresson, Robert (rôber' bresôN') [key], 1901–99, French film director and scriptwriter, b. Bromont-Lamottie, France. Bresson's films tend to be austere, unadorned, and concerned more with intellectual and spriritual values than plot or character. He evinced a unique aesthetic and spiritual approach to cinema in the 13 films he made during the course of 40 years. Bresson attempted to avoid the theatrical, preferring to use nonprofessional actors in scripts with a minimum of dialogue and creating images of nearly abstract simplicity. His films include Les Dames du Bois de Bologne (1944), The Diary of a Country Priest (1950), A Man Escaped (1956), Pickpocket (1959), The Trial of Joan of Arc (1965), Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966), Mouchette (1966), Lancelot of the Lake (1974), and Money (1983).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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