A young woman marries a pawnbroker but finds she cannot adapt her life to his. She toys with murdering him, but kills herself instead. With the introduction of colour in his films, beginning with ‘Une femme douce’, Bresson’s vision darkened, his growing pessimism disclosed in an increasingly voluptuous rendering of the world. (One might say sobriety invites intoxication.) The flatness of Bresson’s compositions and his emphasis on dedramatization places Bresson in the tradition of modernism, yet his universe often seems archaic.” Reference: James Quandt. The poetry of precision: the films of Robert Bresson. Cinematheque Ontario. Online. http://www.bell.ca/filmfest/cinematheque/bresson.htm. Further reading: Film Comment. ‘Special Bresson’. May-June and July 1999
Credits: Producer, Philippe Dussart ; director, Robert Bresson ; writer, Robert Bresson ; photography, Ghislain Cloquet ; music, W. A. Mozart, Henry Purcell, Jean Wiener ; art direction, Pierre Charbonnier.
Cast: Dominique Sanda, Guy Frangin, Jane Lobre, Claude Ollier, Dorothee Blank.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
X000055
Languages
English
French
Subject category
Foreign language films
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Colour
Holdings
16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)