Grace and Perfection: The Films of Robert Bresson

March 3–April 1, 2017

A near-complete restrospective of the French director's austere yet compassionate work.

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  • Mouchette

  • Au hasard Balthazar

  • Pickpocket

  • A Man Escaped

  • The Devil, Probably

  • Upcoming
    Films
  • Upcoming
    Events
  • Selected
    Objects
  • Past
    Films
  • Past
    Events

Past Films

  • Diary of a Country Priest

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1950
    Friday, March 3 7:30 PM
    Introduction and post-screening discussion with Tony Pipolo

    A young priest tries to lead an exemplary life, but his parishioners respond with scorn and indifference. “A film of great purity, and at the end, almost Bach-like intensity” (Pauline Kael).

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  • L'argent

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1983

    Digital Restoration

    Saturday, March 4 5:30 PM
    Introduction and post-screening discussion with Tony Pipolo

    A young man unknowingly passes counterfeit cash and sets off an escalating spiral of crimes in Bresson’s last film, a tough, terse investigation of the power of money adapted from a Tolstoy novella.

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  • Les anges du péché

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1943

    Imported 35mm Print

    Sunday, March 5 7 PM

    Bresson’s visual elegance and uncompromising narrative style are already in evidence in his first feature film, which follows a sophisticated young woman into the closed world of a convent.

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  • The Trial of Joan of Arc

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1962

    Imported 35mm Print

    Saturday, March 11 6:30 PM

    In his austere, transcendent dramatization of transcripts from Joan of Arc’s trial, Bresson conveys the mystery of the woman and the reality of the saint.

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  • Pickpocket

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1959
    Saturday, March 11 8:15 PM

    A Parisian thief’s anguish and redemption are played out in Bresson’s famous reworking of Crime and Punishment. “An unmitigated masterpiece” (Paul Schrader).

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  • Les dames du Bois de Boulogne

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1945

    Imported 35mm Print

    Sunday, March 12 5 PM

    Bresson updates an eighteenth-century Diderot novel to contemporary Paris with this story of a beautiful woman who takes revenge on her ex-lover. “A landmark in cinema history” (David Thomson).

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  • A Man Escaped

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1956
    Saturday, March 18 6 PM

    From the true account of a Resistance leader who escaped from a Nazi prison just before he was to be executed, Bresson created a film where the drama is all internal. “Essential viewing” (Jonathan Rosenbaum).

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  • Au hasard Balthazar

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1966
    Sunday, March 19 4:30 PM

    Bresson found the perfect protagonist for this film in a donkey, “born, like all beings, to suffer and die needlessly and mysteriously. . . . A morbidly beautiful flower of cinematic art” (Andrew Sarris).

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  • Au hasard Balthazar

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1966
    Friday, March 24 7:30 PM

    Bresson found the perfect protagonist for this film in a donkey, “born, like all beings, to suffer and die needlessly and mysteriously. . . . A morbidly beautiful flower of cinematic art” (Andrew Sarris).

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  • Mouchette

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1967
    Saturday, March 25 6:30 PM

    Bresson’s portrayal of the life and death of a despised country girl is gritty yet lyrical and ultimately sublime. “In Mouchette, the world itself is a mystical stage” (J. Hoberman).

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  • Une femme douce

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1969

    Digital Restoration

    Saturday, March 25 8:15 PM

    Dominique Sanda stars in Bresson’s first color film, the simple, mysteriously resonant story of a young woman’s marriage and her suicide. Adapted from a Dostoyevsky short story.

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  • Lancelot of the Lake

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1974

    Imported 35mm Print

    Sunday, March 26 4:30 PM

    Bresson gives us Lancelot and Guinevere and the end of the Arthurian era, a brave experiment in sound, image, and souls. “Stunningly beautiful, mesmerizing, exhausting, uplifting, amazing.” (Time Out)

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  • Pickpocket

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1959
    Wednesday, March 29 7 PM

    A Parisian thief’s anguish and redemption are played out in Bresson’s famous reworking of Crime and Punishment. “An unmitigated masterpiece” (Paul Schrader).

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  • The Devil, Probably

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1977
    Friday, March 31 7:30 PM

    In this portrait of a young Parisian whose personal crisis mirrors the ecological, political, and social disasters of his time, Bresson’s morally probing compassion meets the cynicism of the 1970s.

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  • L'argent

    Robert Bresson
    France, 1983

    Digital Restoration

    Saturday, April 1 6 PM
    Introduction and post-screening discussion with Tony Pipolo

    A young man unknowingly passes counterfeit cash and sets off an escalating spiral of crimes in Bresson’s last film, a tough, terse investigation of the power of money adapted from a Tolstoy novella.

    View Details