TIFF Cinematheque Presents - The Films of Robert Bresson

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Friday, 28 February 2020 04:07

Written by Gilbert Seah

The Films of Robert Bresson 

Robert Bresson, one of the most highly regarded filmmakers of all times has gained the respect of many directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

Godard once wrote, "He is the French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music.” 

In the Sight and Sound International Film magazine’s critics poll, three of Bresson’s films, A Man Escaped (1956), Pickpocket (1959 and) Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) were ranked among the Best 100 greatest films ever made.  These three films are capsule reviewed below and they are really excellent films.

Bresson’s films are minimalist, but full of emotions regarding human hardships. Depressing undoubtedly, but these are films that will leave one moved.

CAPSULE REVIEWS of Selected Films:

AU HASARD BALTHAZAR (France 1966) ****
Directed by Robert Bresson

This dramatic portrayal of innocence lost in AU HASARD BALTHAZAR makes one of the most riveting of all the Bresson films that I have seen and which remains one of my dearest favourites.  There are two innocents in the film - one a young farmer's daughter (Anne Wiazemsky) who loses her virginity and innocence to a black jacket delinquent who is as evil as evil can be.  On the other hand, this her coming-of-age story and she matures to a woman of knowledge who eventually learns how to use people like the old ugly man she gets food and shelter from.  The other innocent is an animal - a donkey who is abused under different owners.  The donkey is christened a saint.  The segments showing the animal abuse is a real difficult watch.  Bresson shows evil in man as what it is, often with no hope or redemption for the ma.  Life is also shown to be cruel and heartless, with the dignified man (the farmer) coming out at a loss at the very end.  Whether one agrees with Bresson’s look at life in his film, one cannot but emerge emotionally moved by the experience.

A MAN ESCAPED (UN CONDAMNE A MORT S’EST ECHAPPE) (France 1956) ****
(altenatuvetitle: LE VENT SOUFFLE OU IL VENT)

Directed by Robert Bresson

When the film opens, the audience is informed of the late number of French prisoners-of-war who have lost their lives during the German Occupation.  Director Bresson himself spent over a year in a prisoner-of-war camp−an experience which he utilizes in the movie.  Lieutenant Fontaine is imprisoned and awaiting news of his trial.  Fontaine is locked solitary in his cell where he plans his escape using a spoon stolen from his meal.  Just on the day when all appears clear fort he escape, his cell is doubled up with another prisoner.  Fate has put Fontaine in a prison cell and Fontaine decides to change his fate with his ease but fate again turns the tide on him.  Quite the depressing film, but nevertheless compulsive watching for the care and detail director Bresson provides.  A MAN ESCAPD is one of Bresson’s best films and anyone who sees it will concur.

PICKPOCKET (France 1959) ****

Directed by Robert Bresson

PICKPOCKET feels a little like Vittorio De Sica’s THE BICYCLE THIEVES as both films deal with making a decent honest (or dishonest) living.  In PICKPOCKET, the audience wishes the subject never to be caught as director Bresson invests so much of the film into the subject’s character ((Martin LaSalle) that it is almost impossible not to dislike him.  The character also believes himself so good that he is above moral reproach.  Bresson also shows the mechanics of the pickpocketing art (director Cockteau calls it ‘the ballet of thievery’), though not entirely credible, still looks incredibly smooth, camera-wise.  Bresson gets away with it.  One of Bresson’s finest, admired by many French directors of the say and one that should be seen.

QUARTRE NUITS D’UN REVEUR (FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER) (France/Italy 1971) ***1/2  Directed by Robert Bresson

Based loosely on Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s ‘White Nights’, Bresson’s rare colour film follows 4 nights in the adventures of one dreamer called Jacques.  At the Point Neuf in Paris one night, he saves a girl called Marthe from suicide.  He falls in love with her while learning the reason for her attempt was the no-return of her lover.  She eventually falls in love with Jacques but her lover returns.  Dostoyevsky’s  is reset in Paris and it works.  The film is stunning to look at with Paris par nuit beautifully captured by cinematographer Pierre Lhome.  Bresson gets into his characters, both the boy and the girl while keeping the film artistic at the same time.  The innocence and nativity of youth are celebrated at the same time.

Film Review: Corpus Christi

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Wednesday, 19 February 2020 02:57

Written by Gilbert Seah

CORPUS CHRISTI (Boze Cialo) (Poland/France 2019) ****
Directed by Jan Komasa

In a tough year for foreign films, CORPUS CHRISTI, the Polish entry for the Best International feature at this year’s Oscars made the short list and now stands as a nominee.  It will be hard fight against the favourite PARASITE and underdog LES MISERABLES, but CORPUS CHRISTI has impressed critics everywhere it has been shown and is a very good film.

The film begins with a violent incident in which an inmate, assumed who have betrayed the others gets his due.  His trousers are pulled down in the workshop and balls crushed in a drawer.  The next scene shows the inmate who likely had orchestrated the previous incident preparing for a religious service.  The camera pauses showing the gleam in his eyes as if emphasizing the irony and hypocrisy of the religious service.  It is just then that the director surprises the audience with the priest’s speech.  “If you don’t want to be here, you can go outside to play football.  But remember this…Each of us is a priest for Christ.”  These words are soon to echo true for the young protagonist, Daniel.

The question that arises in the film is why Daniel survives?  The answer is shown that Daniel is born a survivor.  Daniel uses his common sense and adapts to the situation at hand.  He can can fool anyone as a priest offering solid advice, often fooling even himself in the process.  In contrast, he can live the other worldly life, fornicating, snorting coke and indulging in drunkenness. 

The film shows that there is some good in man despite outward appearances.  Daniel, the juvie has been bad most of his life but after pretending the be a priest learns that life offers him a chance to do good.  “When asked what penance should be given to her when a mother confuses to hitting her son for smoking cigarettes, “Father’ Daniel tells her her penance is to take the son for a bike tour.  Daniel also conducts mass in a comical manner, director Tan not offending the Catholic religion but executing the scene in good taste.  Daniel's sermon are also something else - even receiving an unanimous applause from the congregation.

Better still is the scene when Daniel who the youth still believes is a priest hangs out with them in civii’s.  So what is life all about?  It is the topic that they eventually discuss, which of course no one has an answer to.  But it is a lively session, which opens ones eyes to life.

The message that there is good in man and that one good deed follows another is a good one.  But CORPUS CHRISTI is not an entirely feel good film, and this is what marks the film’s difference.  It is grounded in reality.  It is likely the reason the Polish film got nominated and made the short list for Best International Film at this Year’s Oscars. 

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi4006199065?playlistId=tt8649186&ref_=tt_ov_vi

Film Review: Terra Willy: Planete Inconnue

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Wednesday, 19 February 2020 03:13

Written by Gilbert Seah

TERRA WILLY: PLANETE INCONNUE (France 2019) ***1/2

Directed by Eric Tosti

Note that the film also known as ASTRO KID is also known by its French title ‘Terra Willy: planète inconnue’.

French animator Eric Tosti who has helmed other children’s classics like SPIKE (2008) and THE JUNGLE BUNCH (2017) returns with an imaginative boy’s space adventure, that takes nods from the famous TV series LOST IN SPACE.

The film begins on the spaceship of an explorer space family.  The boy age-10, Will loves video games and has the nickname of Captain Arrowboard.  When the spaceship is hit by an asteroid storm, the boy and his trusty robot is hurled in a pod into outer space, landing on an unknown planet.  But there is more the meets the eye.  Upon closer examination, TERRA WILLY is actually the coming-of-age story of 10-year old Will as he matures from a kid playing video games to one understanding survival, friendship, loneliness and other human values.  “You are right, Buck.  I cannot keep doing what I want,” says Will at a key point during the film.

At this point, the film could be an episode (out of the total 84) taken from the LOST IS SPACE series that aired on TV from 1965 - 1968.  In LOST IN SPACE, the Robinson family (headed by actors Guy Williams and June Lockhart) travel through space with their son, also named Will played by child star Billy Mumy.  The family often land on unknown planets where adventures begin.  Will is also accompanied by a faithful robot.   One of the key lines in the movie is the robot warning the boy: “Danger, Will Robinson…… Danger, Will Robinson!!”   One would expect similar words coming out of Will’s robot as well.

Director/animator Tosti’s imagination is at its peak in TERRA WILLY.  The unknown planet with unknown creatures and vegetation allow Tosti to use his entire palette of colours to feed his imagination.  There are orange, blue heart-spotted like human companions like Flash similar to a dog (or even Toothless in the HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON films) but with two tails and 8 legs, pink butterflies, glow-flies and a myriad of colourful fruits that often have side effects when eaten, even after analyzed to be non-toxic by Buck, the robot.

The film might appear a bit too childish for the average adult but Tosti’s imagination more than makes up for it.  There is new wonder around very corner and in an unknown planet, any kind of animation can pop up.

The film is made in two versions in the French and English versions, with different actors (French and English) doing the characterizations.   Timothy Von Dorp and Edouard Baer voice Will and Buck in the French version while Landen Beattie and Jason Anthony do the English honours.  The film also contains a couple of songs (‘Everlasting Holiday’ and ‘Flash and I’).

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi845265433?playlistId=tt8329148&ref_=tt_ov_vi

Film Review: Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu

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Category: Cinéma - Movies

Published: Thursday, 13 February 2020 07:43

Written by Gilbert Seah

PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu) (France 2019) ****

Directed by Céline Sciamma

PORTRAIT OF A LADY begins with a segment that sets the tone and pace for the entire movie.  Amidst the opening credits are the chalk sketching of a painter.  When the camera pulls back, a class of painters is in progress.  One student asks the instructor, Marianne (Noémie Merlant) about a painting.  The painting, the class is told is called “Le Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu” and the film then goes into the past as the story is told of how this painting came about.

The film is set in France in the late 18th century, the film telling the story of a forbidden affair between an aristocrat and the painter commissioned to paint her portrait.

The story begins with Marianne arriving by boat on an isolated island in Bretagne (Brittany).  She had been commissioned to paint a portrait of a young woman named Héloïse (Adele Haenel), who is to be married off to a Milanese nobleman.  Marianne is informed that Héloïse has previously refused to pose for portraits as she does not want to be married. Marianne acts as Héloïse's hired companion to be able to paint her in secret, and accompanies her on daily walks by Bretagne’s gorgeous cliffs to memorize Héloïse's features.  Marianne finishes the portrait, but finds herself unable to betray Héloïse's trust and reveals her true reason for arriving.  The two begin a relationship.

The film contains a lot of silent drama, which would be more appreciated when discovering it on ones own.  One is the scene where Héloïse runs towards a cliff, when Marianne thinks what could have been a suicide.  Another has Marianne dive into the sea to retrieve her boxed canvas.

There is some but little humour.  Every character is quite serious.  At one point, Marianne is asked by the maid “Have you started painting her yet?”, to which she answers, “No.  I have not even seen her smile?’  “Have you tried to be funny?” the maid answers, in the film’s first and funniest moment.

The film is a slow watch.  But this does not mean it is any less riveting.  There is a beautifully crafted segment of a story involving Euridice where it is revealed that a choice made regarding death is the choice of the poet and not of the lover.  And an even more beautiful segment by a fire where women sing in a cappella. 

The same sex scenes are sufficient erotic without going into the extreme as in BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR.  The lovers’ first kiss occurs 90 minutes into the film.

The film has so far, garnished praise from critics wherever it was shown.  The film won the Queer Palm at Cannes, becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the award.. The director Sciamma also won the award for Best Screenplay at Cannes.  The film is to be appreciated akin to a painting - slow, pensive with it growing on multiple viewings.

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/video/vi94879513?playlistId=tt8613070&ref_=tt_ov_vi