Author: Robert Bresson
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681370247
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 113
Book Description
The French film director Robert Bresson was one of the great artists of the twentieth century and among the most radical, original, and radiant stylists of any time. He worked with nonprofessional actors—models, as he called them—and deployed a starkly limited but hypnotic array of sounds and images to produce such classic works as A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, and Lancelot of the Lake. From the beginning to the end of his career, Bresson dedicated himself to making movies in which nothing is superfluous and everything is always at stake. Notes on the Cinematograph distills the essence of Bresson’s theory and practice as a filmmaker and artist. He discusses the fundamental differences between theater and film; parses the deep grammar of silence, music, and noise; and affirms the mysterious power of the image to unlock the human soul. This book, indispensable for admirers of this great director and for students of the cinema, will also prove an inspiration, much like Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, for anyone who responds to the claims of the imagination at its most searching and rigorous.
Notes on the Cinematograph
Author: Robert Bresson
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681370247
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 113
Book Description
The French film director Robert Bresson was one of the great artists of the twentieth century and among the most radical, original, and radiant stylists of any time. He worked with nonprofessional actors—models, as he called them—and deployed a starkly limited but hypnotic array of sounds and images to produce such classic works as A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, and Lancelot of the Lake. From the beginning to the end of his career, Bresson dedicated himself to making movies in which nothing is superfluous and everything is always at stake. Notes on the Cinematograph distills the essence of Bresson’s theory and practice as a filmmaker and artist. He discusses the fundamental differences between theater and film; parses the deep grammar of silence, music, and noise; and affirms the mysterious power of the image to unlock the human soul. This book, indispensable for admirers of this great director and for students of the cinema, will also prove an inspiration, much like Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, for anyone who responds to the claims of the imagination at its most searching and rigorous.
Publisher: New York Review of Books
ISBN: 1681370247
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 113
Book Description
The French film director Robert Bresson was one of the great artists of the twentieth century and among the most radical, original, and radiant stylists of any time. He worked with nonprofessional actors—models, as he called them—and deployed a starkly limited but hypnotic array of sounds and images to produce such classic works as A Man Escaped, Pickpocket, Diary of a Country Priest, and Lancelot of the Lake. From the beginning to the end of his career, Bresson dedicated himself to making movies in which nothing is superfluous and everything is always at stake. Notes on the Cinematograph distills the essence of Bresson’s theory and practice as a filmmaker and artist. He discusses the fundamental differences between theater and film; parses the deep grammar of silence, music, and noise; and affirms the mysterious power of the image to unlock the human soul. This book, indispensable for admirers of this great director and for students of the cinema, will also prove an inspiration, much like Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet, for anyone who responds to the claims of the imagination at its most searching and rigorous.
Notes on the Cinematographer
Author: Robert Bresson
Publisher: Quartet Books (UK)
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
Robert Bresson makes some quite radical distinctions between what he terms "cinematography" and something quite different: "cinema"-which is for him nothing but an attempt to photograph theater and use it for the screen. Director of "The Trial of Joan of Arc, Pickpocket, A Prisoner Escapes, Diary of a Country Priest, Money," and many other classic films, Robert Bresson is, quite simply, one of the most brilliant cinematographers in the history of film.
Publisher: Quartet Books (UK)
ISBN:
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 152
Book Description
Robert Bresson makes some quite radical distinctions between what he terms "cinematography" and something quite different: "cinema"-which is for him nothing but an attempt to photograph theater and use it for the screen. Director of "The Trial of Joan of Arc, Pickpocket, A Prisoner Escapes, Diary of a Country Priest, Money," and many other classic films, Robert Bresson is, quite simply, one of the most brilliant cinematographers in the history of film.
Star Texts
Author: Jeremy G. Butler
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814323120
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
A collection of previously published works on performance and stardom, examining the relationship between genre and performance, the position of the star within ideology, the construction of a semiotics of performance and stardom, the function of the actor within experimental or independent cinema, and the distinction between performance and everyday behavior. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
ISBN: 9780814323120
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 388
Book Description
A collection of previously published works on performance and stardom, examining the relationship between genre and performance, the position of the star within ideology, the construction of a semiotics of performance and stardom, the function of the actor within experimental or independent cinema, and the distinction between performance and everyday behavior. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Robert Bresson
Author: Joseph Cunneen
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826416056
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
Although Robert Bresson is widely regarded by movie critics and students of the cinema as one of the greatest directors of the twentieth century, his films are largely unknown and are rarely shown in the English-speaking world. Nonetheless, Susan Sontag has called Bresson "the master of the reflective mode in film."Martin Scorsese suggested that a young filmmaker should ask: "Is it as tough as Bresson?... Is Ýmeaning ̈ as ruthlessly pared down, as direct, as unflinching in its gaze at aspects of life I might feel more comfortable ignoring?" Questions that every reader of this book and every viewer of Bresson's films will also ask.Joseph Cunneen's book, now in paperback, introduces Bresson's movies to a broader audience, assesses thirteen of his most significant films in the context of detailed plot summaries, vivid descriptions of characters and settings, and perceptive, jargon-free insights into the director's execution, intention, and technique. Each of these films in its own way illustrates what Joseph Cunneen calls Bresson's "spiritual style." Though not necessarily focused on the explicitly religious, they illustrate two complementary principles: on the negative side, the rejection of what the director called "photographed theater" with its artificiality and dependence on celebrity performers. On the more positive side, as Bresson himself expressed it, the conviction that, "The supernatural is only the real rendered more precise; real things seen close up."
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 9780826416056
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 222
Book Description
Although Robert Bresson is widely regarded by movie critics and students of the cinema as one of the greatest directors of the twentieth century, his films are largely unknown and are rarely shown in the English-speaking world. Nonetheless, Susan Sontag has called Bresson "the master of the reflective mode in film."Martin Scorsese suggested that a young filmmaker should ask: "Is it as tough as Bresson?... Is Ýmeaning ̈ as ruthlessly pared down, as direct, as unflinching in its gaze at aspects of life I might feel more comfortable ignoring?" Questions that every reader of this book and every viewer of Bresson's films will also ask.Joseph Cunneen's book, now in paperback, introduces Bresson's movies to a broader audience, assesses thirteen of his most significant films in the context of detailed plot summaries, vivid descriptions of characters and settings, and perceptive, jargon-free insights into the director's execution, intention, and technique. Each of these films in its own way illustrates what Joseph Cunneen calls Bresson's "spiritual style." Though not necessarily focused on the explicitly religious, they illustrate two complementary principles: on the negative side, the rejection of what the director called "photographed theater" with its artificiality and dependence on celebrity performers. On the more positive side, as Bresson himself expressed it, the conviction that, "The supernatural is only the real rendered more precise; real things seen close up."
So What, or How to Make Films with Words
Author: Alexander García Düttmann
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810145375
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
A series of philosophical meditations on the nature of aesthetics across a wide array of filmmaking styles Images, whether filmic or not, cannot be replaced by words. Yet words can make images. This is the general thesis underlying So What, a collection of essays on canonical filmmakers like Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles; more experimental directors, such as Marguerite Duras and Albert Serra; and visual artists, including Hollis Frampton and Agnes Martin. Alexander García Düttmann aims to make their films as if they did not precede his text, capturing their idea and experience. If the relationship between filmic image and text is a heterogeneous one, then this heterogeneity must leave a trace. This is why the book’s chapters are organized not according to historical periods or on the basis of film theories but rather by single concepts that function like dictionary entries. The chapters adopt different forms, blurring the lines between art and philosophy. So What is a practical exercise in “making films with words,” inviting readers to draw out insights from its conceptual play. So What compiles previously untranslated and hard-to-find essays into a single volume, one that represents the absorbing and singular thought process of a major contemporary philosopher.
Publisher: Northwestern University Press
ISBN: 0810145375
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 276
Book Description
A series of philosophical meditations on the nature of aesthetics across a wide array of filmmaking styles Images, whether filmic or not, cannot be replaced by words. Yet words can make images. This is the general thesis underlying So What, a collection of essays on canonical filmmakers like Luchino Visconti and Orson Welles; more experimental directors, such as Marguerite Duras and Albert Serra; and visual artists, including Hollis Frampton and Agnes Martin. Alexander García Düttmann aims to make their films as if they did not precede his text, capturing their idea and experience. If the relationship between filmic image and text is a heterogeneous one, then this heterogeneity must leave a trace. This is why the book’s chapters are organized not according to historical periods or on the basis of film theories but rather by single concepts that function like dictionary entries. The chapters adopt different forms, blurring the lines between art and philosophy. So What is a practical exercise in “making films with words,” inviting readers to draw out insights from its conceptual play. So What compiles previously untranslated and hard-to-find essays into a single volume, one that represents the absorbing and singular thought process of a major contemporary philosopher.
Basic Cinematography
Author: Kurt Lancaster
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351182110
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
The cinematographer must translate the ideas and emotions contained in a script into something that can be physically seen and felt onscreen, helping the director to fulfil the vision of the film. The shots may look good, but they will not serve the story until the composition, lenses, and lighting express, enhance, and reveal the underlying emotions and subtext of the story. By making physical the ideas and emotions of the story, the cinematographer supports blocking as a visual form of the story through these tools. Rather than delve into technical training, Basic Cinematography helps to train the eye and heart of cinematographers as visual storytellers, providing them with a strong foundation for their work, so that they’re ready with creative ideas and choices on set in order to make compelling images that support the story. The book includes tools, tables, and worksheets on how to enhance students and experienced filmmakers with strong visual storytelling possibilities, including such features as: Dramatic script analysis that will help unlock blocking, composition, and lighting ideas that reveal the visual story Ten tools of composition Psychological impact of lenses, shot sizes, and camera movement Six elements of lighting for visual storytelling What to look for beneath the "hood" of cameras, including using camera log, RAW, and LUTs Dramatic analysis chart and scene composition chart to help plan your shoots Case studies from such visually cinematic shows and documentaries as Netflix’s Godless, Jessica Jones, The Crown, and Chef’s Table, as well as examples from classroom exercises Features insights from the DP of Jessica Jones, Manuel Billeter, and the DP of Chef’s Table, Adam Bricker.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351182110
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 307
Book Description
The cinematographer must translate the ideas and emotions contained in a script into something that can be physically seen and felt onscreen, helping the director to fulfil the vision of the film. The shots may look good, but they will not serve the story until the composition, lenses, and lighting express, enhance, and reveal the underlying emotions and subtext of the story. By making physical the ideas and emotions of the story, the cinematographer supports blocking as a visual form of the story through these tools. Rather than delve into technical training, Basic Cinematography helps to train the eye and heart of cinematographers as visual storytellers, providing them with a strong foundation for their work, so that they’re ready with creative ideas and choices on set in order to make compelling images that support the story. The book includes tools, tables, and worksheets on how to enhance students and experienced filmmakers with strong visual storytelling possibilities, including such features as: Dramatic script analysis that will help unlock blocking, composition, and lighting ideas that reveal the visual story Ten tools of composition Psychological impact of lenses, shot sizes, and camera movement Six elements of lighting for visual storytelling What to look for beneath the "hood" of cameras, including using camera log, RAW, and LUTs Dramatic analysis chart and scene composition chart to help plan your shoots Case studies from such visually cinematic shows and documentaries as Netflix’s Godless, Jessica Jones, The Crown, and Chef’s Table, as well as examples from classroom exercises Features insights from the DP of Jessica Jones, Manuel Billeter, and the DP of Chef’s Table, Adam Bricker.
The Camera-Eye Metaphor in Cinema
Author: Christian Quendler
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317434188
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
This book explores the cultural, intellectual, and artistic fascination with camera-eye metaphors in film culture of the twentieth century. By studying the very metaphor that cinema lives by, it provides a rich and insightful map of our understanding of cinema and film styles and shows how cinema shapes our understanding of the arts and media. As current new media technologies are attempting to shift the identity of cinema and moving imagery, it is hard to overstate the importance of this metaphor for our understanding of the modalities of vision. In what guises does the "camera eye" continue to survive in media that is called new?
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317434188
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 448
Book Description
This book explores the cultural, intellectual, and artistic fascination with camera-eye metaphors in film culture of the twentieth century. By studying the very metaphor that cinema lives by, it provides a rich and insightful map of our understanding of cinema and film styles and shows how cinema shapes our understanding of the arts and media. As current new media technologies are attempting to shift the identity of cinema and moving imagery, it is hard to overstate the importance of this metaphor for our understanding of the modalities of vision. In what guises does the "camera eye" continue to survive in media that is called new?
Towards a Philosophy of Cinematography
Author: Alexander Nevill
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030659356
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 90
Book Description
This book presents three interrelated essays about cinematography which offer a theoretical understanding of the ways that film practitioners orchestrate light in today’s post-digital context. Cinematography is a practice at the heart of film production which traditionally involves the control of light and camera technologies to creatively capture moving imagery. During recent years, the widespread adoption of digital processes in cinematography has received a good deal of critical attention from practitioners and scholars alike, however little specific consideration about evolving lighting practices can be found amongst this discourse. Drawing on new-materialist ideas, actor-network theory and the concept of co-creativity, these essays examine the impact of changing production processes for the role and responsibilities of a cinematographer with a specific focus on lighting. Each essay advances a new perspective on the discipline, moving from the notion of light as vision to light as material, from technology as a tool to technology as a network, and from cinematography as an industry to cinematography as a collaborative art.
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030659356
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 90
Book Description
This book presents three interrelated essays about cinematography which offer a theoretical understanding of the ways that film practitioners orchestrate light in today’s post-digital context. Cinematography is a practice at the heart of film production which traditionally involves the control of light and camera technologies to creatively capture moving imagery. During recent years, the widespread adoption of digital processes in cinematography has received a good deal of critical attention from practitioners and scholars alike, however little specific consideration about evolving lighting practices can be found amongst this discourse. Drawing on new-materialist ideas, actor-network theory and the concept of co-creativity, these essays examine the impact of changing production processes for the role and responsibilities of a cinematographer with a specific focus on lighting. Each essay advances a new perspective on the discipline, moving from the notion of light as vision to light as material, from technology as a tool to technology as a network, and from cinematography as an industry to cinematography as a collaborative art.
The Invention of Robert Bresson
Author: Colin Burnett
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025302501X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
Challenging the prevailing notion among cinephiles that the auteur is an isolated genius interested primarily in individualism, Colin Burnett positions Robert Bresson as one whose life's work confronts the cultural forces that helped shape it. Regarded as one of film history's most elusive figures, Bresson (1901–1999) carried himself as an auteur long before cultural magazines, like the famed Cahiers du cinéma, advanced the term to describe such directors as Jacques Tati, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jean-Luc Godard. In this groundbreaking study, Burnett combines biography with cultural history to uncover the roots of the auteur in the alternative cultural marketplace of midcentury France.
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 025302501X
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 289
Book Description
Challenging the prevailing notion among cinephiles that the auteur is an isolated genius interested primarily in individualism, Colin Burnett positions Robert Bresson as one whose life's work confronts the cultural forces that helped shape it. Regarded as one of film history's most elusive figures, Bresson (1901–1999) carried himself as an auteur long before cultural magazines, like the famed Cahiers du cinéma, advanced the term to describe such directors as Jacques Tati, Alfred Hitchcock, and Jean-Luc Godard. In this groundbreaking study, Burnett combines biography with cultural history to uncover the roots of the auteur in the alternative cultural marketplace of midcentury France.
Hermeneutic Humility and the Political Theology of Cinema
Author: Sean Desilets
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317354710
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
This book revisits the tradition of Western religious cinema in light of scholarship on St. Paul’s political theology. The book’s subtitle derives from the account in the Book of Acts that St. Paul was temporarily blinded in the wake of his conversion on the road to Damascus. In imitation of Paul, the films on which Sean Desilets’s analysis hinges (including those of Carl-Th. Dreyer, Robert Bresson, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Carlos Reygadas) place a god-blind mechanism, the camera, between themselves and the divine. Desilets calls the posture they adopt "hermeneutic humility": hermeneutic in that it interprets the world, but humble in that it pays particular—even obsessive—attention to its own limits. Though these films may not consciously reflect Pauline theology, Desilets argues that they participate in a messianic-hermeneutic tradition that runs from Paul through St. Augustine, Blaise Pascal, Karl Barth, and Walter Benjamin, and which contributes significantly to contemporary discussions in poststructuralist literary theory, political theology, and religious studies. Desilets’s insightful explication of Jean-Luc Nancy’s deconstruction of Christianity and Georgio Agamben’s recent work on religion makes a substantial contribution to film philosophy and emerging critical trends in the study of religion and film. This book puts forward a nuanced theoretical framework that will be useful for film scholars, students of contemporary political theology, and scholars interested in the intersections of religion and media.
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317354710
Category : Performing Arts
Languages : en
Pages : 208
Book Description
This book revisits the tradition of Western religious cinema in light of scholarship on St. Paul’s political theology. The book’s subtitle derives from the account in the Book of Acts that St. Paul was temporarily blinded in the wake of his conversion on the road to Damascus. In imitation of Paul, the films on which Sean Desilets’s analysis hinges (including those of Carl-Th. Dreyer, Robert Bresson, Pier Paolo Pasolini, and Carlos Reygadas) place a god-blind mechanism, the camera, between themselves and the divine. Desilets calls the posture they adopt "hermeneutic humility": hermeneutic in that it interprets the world, but humble in that it pays particular—even obsessive—attention to its own limits. Though these films may not consciously reflect Pauline theology, Desilets argues that they participate in a messianic-hermeneutic tradition that runs from Paul through St. Augustine, Blaise Pascal, Karl Barth, and Walter Benjamin, and which contributes significantly to contemporary discussions in poststructuralist literary theory, political theology, and religious studies. Desilets’s insightful explication of Jean-Luc Nancy’s deconstruction of Christianity and Georgio Agamben’s recent work on religion makes a substantial contribution to film philosophy and emerging critical trends in the study of religion and film. This book puts forward a nuanced theoretical framework that will be useful for film scholars, students of contemporary political theology, and scholars interested in the intersections of religion and media.