Critics have largely neglected the colour films of French film director Robert Bresson (1901—99). To correct that oversight, this studypresents a revised and revitalised Bresson, comparing his style to innovations in abstract painting after World War II, exploring hisaffinities with such avant-garde traditions as surrealism, constructivism, and minimalism, and illustrating how his embodied style leadsto a complex form of intermediality. Through that analysis, Raymond Watkins shows clearly that Bresson still has a good deal to teach us about cinema’s distinctive ability to draw on painting, photography, sculpture, and the plastic arts in general.
- Cover
- Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Bresson in Color: Reinventing History through Avant-Garde Experiment
- Part 1. Classical and Postwar Painting
- 1. Bresson’s Debt to Painting
- Iconography, Lighting, Color, and Framing Practices
- 2. The Turn to Postwar Abstraction
- Action Painting, L’Art Informel, and Le Nouveau Réalisme
- Part 2. Avant-Garde Experiment
- 3. Bresson’s Flirtation with Surrealism
- Sexual Desire, Masochism, and Abjection
- 4. The Design and Pattern of the Whole
- Constructivist Painting and Theater
- 5. Between Constructivism and Minimalism
- Bresson’s Ambivalence Toward the Modern
- Illustration Credits
- Bibliography
- About the author
- Index
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