#110 -
Au Hazard Balthazar (1966) -
My 6 y/o would love Bresson. A while ago I tried to take a picture with her, using my camera's self timer. I misframed and ended up cutting my head off. She wouldn't stop laughing at the result. Since then, we've taken countless pictures of ourselves and other people sans heads. She thinks it's the funniest thing.
Bresson does not believe in acting. So he leaves heads out of a number of his shots, concentrating instead on hands and other moving objects. And when he can't get away without showing a face, it must be an emotionless mask. Consequently, his films consist of robots moving and talking like robots and delivering the most forced dialog in the history of film. Theoretically, it is an interesting approach to film making. In reality, it is just plain irritating. I honestly think his style would work better if he went all the way and had his actors wear masks. Then at least we would not have top endure scene after scene of actors
trying their damndest to stiffle their natural inclination to act.
The
is for the editing, it is superb.
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H