Author: Tony Pipolo
File Type: pdf
Perhaps the most highly regarded French filmmaker after Jean Renoir, Robert Bresson created a new kind of cinema through meticulous refinement of the forms grammatical and expressive possibilities. In thirteen features over a forty-year career, he held to an uncompromising moral vision and aesthetic rigor that remain unmatched. Robert Bresson A Passion for Film is the first comprehensive study to give equal attention to the films, their literary sources, and psycho-biographical aspects of the work. Concentrating on the films cinematographic, imagistic, narrative, and thematic structures, Pipolo provides a nuanced analysis of each film-including nearly 100 illustrations-elucidating Bressons unique style as it evolved from the impassioned Les Anges du peche to such disconsolate meditations on the world as The Devil Probably and LArgent. Special attention is also given to psychosexual aspects of the films that are usually neglected. Bresson has long needed a thoroughgoing treatment by a critic worthy to the task he gets it here. From it emerges a provocative portrait of an extraordinary artist whose moral engagement and devotion to the craft of filmmaking are without equal.ReviewImpressive...Robert Bresson a Passion for Film is an eloquent and often persuasive demonstration of Bressons importance as a filmmaker, and is a model of auteurist reading, both as analysis and interpretation. H-FranceWe are all still coming to terms with Robert Bresson, and the peculiar power and beauty of his films. This thoughtfully argued, wonderfully lucid book goes a long way toward giving us a clearer understanding of one of the cinemas greatest artists.--Martin Scorsese Bresson is among the most meticulous, moral, and profound of filmmakers. Tony Pipolo evokes and celebrates his genius with this readable, engrossing study.--Roger EbertIt becomes clearer all the time Robert Bressons films demand and deserve a lifetime of intense scrutiny. Tony Pipolo has given them just that, a lifetime of viewing, analysis, and exploration. Following the pathways of the films, following the footsteps of their inscrutable creator, he brings us a Bresson at once more ascetic and more majestic than we had imagined possible.--Dudley Andrew, Yale UniversityPipolo explores Bressons sources and methods across his career, tracing the course of spiritual grace in a fallen world. Trained both as a film historian and a psychoanalyst, Pipolo sees Bressons odysseys as not unlike those of the psychoanalytic journey, highlighting their common goals of liberation and transformation-and provides profound new insight into one of cinemas most elusive auteurs.--Tom Gunning, University of Chicago[T]his book is, as Pipolo writes, a highly personal response to Bressons body of work and a chronological, in-depth dissection of the films with particular attention paid to Bressons style. ... This is a scholarly yet accessible study.--Library JournalAs the book methodically progresses from film to film, Pipolos unique dissection of Bressons characters prompts readers to search beneath the visual chiaroscuro of Bressons scene painting and explore the core emotions, the underlying moral fiber, of the on-screen players. On every page of his masterful work, Pipolos observations serve as a potent reminder to the serious spectator its often whats left unspoken--the slightest trembling of a lip or a downcast gaze--that can prove most vital to a film.--Film CommentPipolos volume is a thorough chronicle, imbued with warmth and personality.--BookforumThis compelling volume is the most comprehensive effort in English yet to celebrate and analyze the thirteen features Bresson (1901-1999) made ... . Author Tony Pipolo ... brings a sophisticated respect for the life of the mind to what is obviously a labor of love.--PRIs The World[Pipolos] familiarity with [Bressons] works is breathtaking. He constructs a meticulous commentary for each film in chronological order, citing individual shots and cuts that illustrate Bressons mastery of his art. With an austerity that matches his subject matter, the critic pares away extraneous material and focuses directly on the films themselves. ... Professor Pipolo has provided the definitive academic study of the films of Robert Bresson to date ... . Future scholars will undoubtedly use this text as their point of departure for further research.--America Magazine One of the most careful and thoroughgoing studies of Bresson that we have, adding appreciably to both scholarship about his work and our critical understanding of it...When it comes to single book-length studies, Pipolos is...clearly the best weve had so far, in English or in French. --Jonathan Rosenbaum, Cineaste Offers an aesthetic biography of Bressons monumental canon. It works...Pipolo does the reader--and Bresson--a huge service by working through each of the 13 features in turn, combining brilliant close readings with a clear command of philosophic, religious, and literary contexts. Because he is solid on film, psychology, and philosophy, Pipolo provides what is probably the best companion to date on this auteur...Highly recommended. --Maurice Yacowar, ChoiceAbout the AuthorTony Pipolo is Professor Emeritus of Film and Literature at the City University of New York. He is a practicing psychoanalyst in New York City.