robert bresson, olivier messiaen, i listen to my films as i make them

the composer olivier messiaen comes to mind as the closest parallel to bresson in the other arts. a devout catholic, the organist of the trinité in paris, messiaen has always been a radical modernist and a seminal figure in the evolution of modern music (in addition to his compositions, he deserves the credit of teaching stockhausen and boulez). nevertheless, the material of messiaen's art,

robert bresson, given by the eyes of john cage

radically suppress intentions in your models.*not to use two violins when one is enough.*no intellectual or cerebral mechanism. simply a mechanism.*hide the ideas, but so that people find them. the most importantwill be the most hidden.*all those effects you can get from repitition (of an image, of a sound).*practice the precept: find without seeking.*to translate the invisible wind by the

robert bresson, ingmar bergman, free from all impurities

coffee in mouchettei felt a strong affinity with bernanos' and bresson's mouchette. it's a film i would have liked to have made myself, but which i didn't understand. in mouchette the motif is expressed clearly and explicitly, free from all impurities. the girl in mouchette and the girl in the devil's wanton are sisters, sisters in two similar worlds.but while the devil's wanton is full of

robert bresson, the unsayable

journal d'un curé de campagne 1951, photographed by léonce-henri burelthe domain of cinematography is the domain of the unsayable**(robert bresson from le monde, march 14, 1967 found in robert bresson: a spiritual style in film by joseph cunneen, 2003)

robert bresson, francis ponge, a correspondingly particular sound

ciment: do you like poets like francis ponge? your films remind one of him, and his le parti pris des choses.bresson: yes. i no longer see ponge, unfortunately, as he has moved to the south. he wrote me some remarkable letters about my films and about cinema. i like his fondness for objects, for inanimate things.*rainin the courtyard where i watch it fallthe rain is coming down in widely varied

robert bresson, and sound

about his use of sound in l'argent, the director thinks that "while music flattens a surface, makes it into an image," sound, on the contrary, "lends space, relief. it arrives and the screen deepens, thus bringing on the third dimension".* the idea is that one must never duplicate an image with a sound ("a sound must never come to the aid of an image, nor an image to the aid of a sound....the

robert bresson, andrei tarkovsky, very few means of expression

while doing roublev i forced myself to be very hard and very dry, tending towards a sort of olympic calm that, for me, is the major quality of the art of directing a film. so i might as well as tell you that i'm very fond of bresson. page 30in paris, i have asked to meet bresson. we have nothing in common, but he's one of the best directors i know. i want to see him, to see his face, to see how

bergman on bergman

ingmar bergman: the silence, 1963from bergman on bergman: interviews with ingmar bergman:it's of no interest, perhaps, but yesterday evening i was reflecting on the origins of the silence. i can no longer lay my hands on the work-books for it, i don't know what i've done with them- but i remember that it was about christmas time, and that the silence, just like winter light, began with a piece of

la région centrale, the great religious work

michael snow, la région centrale 1971 some ideas found in the michael snow project: the collected writings of michael snow, wilfred laurier university press, 1994:the camera is an instrument which has expressive possibilities in itself. i want to make a gigantic landscape film equal in terms to the great landscape paintings of cezanne, poussin, corot, monet, matisse and in canada the group of

killing in tarkovsky & kurosawa

similarities between andrei tarkovsky'sandrei rublev, 1966& akira kurosawa's seven samurai 1954andrei tarkovsky andrei rublev, 1966rublev's assistant is shot in the back by an arrow and struggles toward the camera, then dies in the water. all in slow motion. notice water hitting the lense.akira kurosawa seven samurai 1954two classic death scenes in seven samurai. first, a thief is killed by

nothingness

i know nothing about nothingness 4/17/2007the deeper you go, the more you get lost (both quotes from mekas)