Robert Bresson

In this book, there are literally thousands of them, not just of the jokey marshmallow sort above, but of every sort, in tirades and fusillades, in and outside parentheses, an apparently limitless capacity to inquire.

Could it be that he's interiorizing his emotions in response to Schrader's conception of the emptiness of Jerry's life and doesn't realize how little he's putting out? Has he been schooling himself in late Dreyer and Bresson and Rossellini? And is he trying to turn Thackeray's picaresque entertainment into a religious exercise? Yet, can we be meant to laugh at his satisfaction with his own virulence after we've seen Florence Melrose's name on the credits as assistant to the director? and remembered that René is the son-in-law of André Malraux, who died a few months ago after a long illness.

Is Cimino invoking the mythology of Hawkeye and the great chief Chingachuk? Is it just the pombidor, or is he wearing a false nose? How can the novelist have pain in his bowels when Providence has no bowels? Have you ever bought a statue of a pissing Cupid? Were these 435 prints processed in a sewer? Didn't Alda realize that his material is like Kapok? Why doesn't he hear her voice first and be turned on by it? And wouldn't he then look to see whom it belonged to? And does she know who he is when she balls him out? And if she does, wouldn't this affect how she speaks to him? And if she doesn't, when is the moment she finds out? Why are we getting these union speeches now? Were the outsiders directing the strife? Were the pros working out strategy? Have we been conned? Have people become so accustomed? Why didn't anyone explain to him that he needn't wear himself out with acting? Why is Doc in an unholy alliance with the Nazi villain Schell? Shouldn't the movie be about why he imagines what he does? Who is this hitchhiker on the road of life? Allied artists and Bantam Books, why are you doing this? Is it relevant that Bertolucci's father's name was Attilio? How can you have any feeling for a man who doesn't enjoy being in bed with Sophia Loren? How can the Count's arrival and his plea for a hasty marriage have any vibrations? Why then does it offend me when I think about it? And what is Sally doing when she holds out her arms to her husband? Where was the director? Does the cavalry return? Who? Him? You shouldn't risk losing thoughts like that.

Has the tape recorder been stored in a safe place? But oh God, why isn't it better? Why isn't there the daring and the exultation that our senses fairly cry out for? And so on.

Clearly, the pathology of Ackerman's characters is a mimicked one.

As in Bresson, a lack of psychological motivation translates into a non-naturalist performance.

The character's performance is given an external motor, which resonates, however, with the energy and randomness of obsessive compulsion proper.

See Jean Dillman, Je tue et elle, et saute ma ville, toute une nuit, j'ai faim, j'ai froid.

I think your first movie is Tampopo, and I've what-- been sort of, like, hitting a few of your movies that you're gonna be watching over the next week just so that we can talk about them.

One of them is the 1959 film, Pickpocket, directed by Robert Bresson.

Um, Bresson and Pickpocket are both things that I've heard about for years.

Obviously, I'm a big film fan, as are you, and you kind of...

[slurps] Um, yeah, good to hear your thoughts on Pickpocket there.

Um, I actually hadn't heard this film.

It wasn't so much on my list, but for a while I've been interested in Robert Bresson's movie, A Man Escaped, I think it's called.

So yeah, good to get a, a warm-up with this one.

Really good.

With a great talk afterwards with Temple Garner from Bresson, who did a fantastic job moderating conversation with guests.

And I'm going to name them all off.

I'm going to name everyone off.

And then he says, quote, "Shinpa often used romantic themes based on strong passions that set hearts on fire, but the outward displays of these passions were portrayed in extremely slow movements, presenting a uq-self, unique self-restraint style." And honestly, like, even m- more than thematically, that's where Mizoguchi's whole form comes, too, right? This whole idea at the beginning of what you said, like, yes, they sound depressing.

Like, it's the same way we would talk about Bresson, honestly.

Yeah.

Where you'd be like...

You describe L'Argent or something, and you're like, "That's like, sounds like the most depressing movie ever," you know? And it's like the whole-

But Bresson likes Mizoguchi.

Really? I, I didn't-

Yeah

His kind of conversation with...

Not Bresson.

It's his name.

Truffaut.

Good job, fans.

You know, the French film director, Robert Bresson, said, my job is not to find out what the public want and give it to them.

My job is to make the public want what I want.

And so if we, you know, listened to the hoi polloi, he never would have died.

Yeah.

Um, Robert Bresson's movie, L'Argent, is-

Mm-hmm

... is, uh, on the list.

yeah, yeah.

And then also like the Robert Bresson movie, you know, she's talking about Mouchette being a big, that's Evan's number one homie.

Yep, yep,

yep.