Robert Bresson and Plot (SPOILERS!)

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Artois
Joined: Tue Apr 11, 2006 9:03 pm

#1 Post by Artois » Fri Jul 07, 2006 7:13 am

Nihonophile wrote:be on the look out for the Bresson 'We are sad and we die' giftset featuring Diary of a country priest, Au hasard balthazar, and the new release Mouchette. More Details Soon!
thanks for ruining some of the supposedly greatest films of all time from one of the greatest directors of all time. I was planning to watch Bressons films for the first time over the next week or 2 after finally getting hold of les anges du peches on VHS so I can watch chronologically. Nice one idiot.

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tavernier
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#2 Post by tavernier » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:40 am

Artois wrote:
Nihonophile wrote:be on the look out for the Bresson 'We are sad and we die' giftset featuring Diary of a country priest, Au hasard balthazar, and the new release Mouchette. More Details Soon!
thanks for ruining some of the supposedly greatest films of all time from one of the greatest directors of all time. I was planning to watch Bressons films for the first time over the next week or 2 after finally getting hold of les anges du peches on VHS so I can watch chronologically. Nice one idiot.
Yeah, damn you....I thought they all lived happily ever after, as they do in all of Bresson's other films! :shock:

Napoleon
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#3 Post by Napoleon » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:50 am

Artois wrote:
Nihonophile wrote:be on the look out for the Bresson 'We are sad and we die' giftset featuring Diary of a country priest, Au hasard balthazar, and the new release Mouchette. More Details Soon!
thanks for ruining some of the supposedly greatest films of all time from one of the greatest directors of all time. I was planning to watch Bressons films for the first time over the next week or 2 after finally getting hold of les anges du peches on VHS so I can watch chronologically. Nice one idiot.
Welcome to the forum!

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Andre Jurieu
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#4 Post by Andre Jurieu » Fri Jul 07, 2006 11:49 am

Artois wrote:
Nihonophile wrote:be on the look out for the Bresson 'We are sad and we die' giftset featuring Diary of a country priest, Au hasard balthazar, and the new release Mouchette. More Details Soon!
thanks for ruining some of the supposedly greatest films of all time from one of the greatest directors of all time. I was planning to watch Bressons films for the first time over the next week or 2 after finally getting hold of les anges du peches on VHS so I can watch chronologically. Nice one idiot.
... because the plot details are what are really important in a Bresson film.

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backstreetsbackalright
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#5 Post by backstreetsbackalright » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:05 pm

Andre Jurieu wrote:... because the plot details are what are really important in a Bresson film.
I always thought it was the nudity...

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tavernier
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#6 Post by tavernier » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:07 pm

backstreetsbackalright wrote:
Andre Jurieu wrote:... because the plot details are what are really important in a Bresson film.
I always thought it was the nudity...
....don't forget the brazen mutilation of defenseless children and animals.

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GringoTex
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#7 Post by GringoTex » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:37 pm

Artois wrote:
Nihonophile wrote:be on the look out for the Bresson 'We are sad and we die' giftset featuring Diary of a country priest, Au hasard balthazar, and the new release Mouchette. More Details Soon!
thanks for ruining some of the supposedly greatest films of all time from one of the greatest directors of all time. I was planning to watch Bressons films for the first time over the next week or 2 after finally getting hold of les anges du peches on VHS so I can watch chronologically. Nice one idiot.
He didn't ruin everything: only the donkey dies in Balthazaar, not the girl.

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Michael Kerpan
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#8 Post by Michael Kerpan » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:45 pm

> He didn't ruin everything: only the donkey dies in Balthazaar, not the girl.

Hmm, must be an alternate version -- re-cut for Hollywood.

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toiletduck!
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#9 Post by toiletduck! » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:46 pm

Langlois68 wrote:He didn't ruin everything: only the donkey dies in Balthazaar, not the girl.
GOD DAMMIT!

-Toilet Dcuk

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arsonfilms
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#10 Post by arsonfilms » Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:01 pm

Well, since we're all haphazardly ruining film endings for people, I may as well reveal that all of it merely foreshadows a larger, overriding spoiler:

Robert Bresson dies.

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domino harvey
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#11 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:52 pm

spoiler: pockets are picked

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tavernier
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#12 Post by tavernier » Fri Jul 07, 2006 2:55 pm

arsonfilms wrote:Well, since we're all haphazardly ruining film endings for people, I may as well reveal that all of it merely foreshadows a larger, overriding spoiler:

Robert Bresson dies.
Onscreen? In which film?
Let me guess: he was one of the unlucky knights in Lancelot du Lac.

paa400
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#13 Post by paa400 » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:39 pm

If knowing the ending of Bresson films ruins them for you than you aren't really watching them and paying attention to what matters. At the end Mouchette and the donkey drive their car off the cliff while Harvey Keitel looks on.

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Glass
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#14 Post by Glass » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:52 pm

kinjitsu wrote:Now, back on topic...
:-({|=

Artois
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#15 Post by Artois » Sat Jul 08, 2006 10:48 am

Andre Jurieu wrote:
Artois wrote:
Nihonophile wrote:be on the look out for the Bresson 'We are sad and we die' giftset featuring Diary of a country priest, Au hasard balthazar, and the new release Mouchette. More Details Soon!
thanks for ruining some of the supposedly greatest films of all time from one of the greatest directors of all time. I was planning to watch Bressons films for the first time over the next week or 2 after finally getting hold of les anges du peches on VHS so I can watch chronologically. Nice one idiot.
... because the plot details are what are really important in a Bresson film.
heh I've been reading this board for a little over a year and have long admired your posts but that is just downright idiotic, are you really that jaded? Just because you (and it seems others) like to know all about the films so that when you watch it you can skip the emotional 'first viewing' where one is drawn into the narrative and skip straight to the analysis viewing, doesn't mean everyone else does. My love for cinema is first and foremost as a spectator before a critic, and I firmly believe the ideal is to approach a film from a state of complete ignorance for the full impact of the first viewing.

How is one supposed to have any kind of genuine emotional response when they know exactly what's going to happen? People on this forum obsess about 1% cropped off the side edge, yet something like what's been revealed here won't affect the experience or impact at least in part? The focus of the films may not be the plot, but the plot is still a device which serves a purpose, I don't doubt the film is still a powerful work of art no matter what you know about it prior, but it won't be as powerful the first time around. From a site of supposedly cinema lovers, why would people be so nonchalant of diminishing someones, ANYONES experiece of a great film/director like this?

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Lino
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#16 Post by Lino » Sat Jul 08, 2006 11:21 am

Since you've been reading this forum for over a year now, you should know the answer to that by now... :wink:

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GringoTex
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#17 Post by GringoTex » Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:56 pm

Artois wrote: How is one supposed to have any kind of genuine emotional response when they know exactly what's going to happen?


You'll understand when you finally watch a Bresson film.

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GringoTex
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#18 Post by GringoTex » Sat Jul 08, 2006 1:58 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:> He didn't ruin everything: only the donkey dies in Balthazaar, not the girl.

Hmm, must be an alternate version -- re-cut for Hollywood.
I meant the girl in Balthazaar- not Mouchette. I didn't mean for my spoilers to be confusing.

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luxetnox
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#19 Post by luxetnox » Sat Jul 08, 2006 4:04 pm

Langlois68 wrote:
Michael Kerpan wrote:> He didn't ruin everything: only the donkey dies in Balthazaar, not the girl.

Hmm, must be an alternate version -- re-cut for Hollywood.


I meant the girl in Balthazaar- not Mouchette. I didn't mean for my spoilers to be confusing.


Kerpan wasn't mixing his spoiler 'metaphors', rather making an ironic comment on what types of movies can be spoiled by spoilers.

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Michael Kerpan
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#20 Post by Michael Kerpan » Sat Jul 08, 2006 4:12 pm

luxetnox wrote:Kerpan wasn't mixing his spoiler 'metaphors', rather making an ironic comment on what types of movies can be spoiled by spoilers.
;~}

To tell the truth, it a movie can actually be spoiled by a spoiler, it isn't really a movie I'm interested in seeing even once.

People need to recall that Bresson's original audiences were probably already familiar with the stories he was adapting -- so he surely expected people to know what happens at the end of Mouchette and AHB, etc.

jon abbey
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#21 Post by jon abbey » Sat Jul 08, 2006 7:11 pm

Michael Kerpan wrote:To tell the truth, it a movie can actually be spoiled by a spoiler, it isn't really a movie I'm interested in seeing even once.
oh, come on. most of Michael Haneke's movies say hello. it would decidedly impact the intensity of the initial viewing if you knew what was going to happen before seeing Funny Games or The Seventh Continent or Cache.

Narshty
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#22 Post by Narshty » Sun Jul 09, 2006 7:19 am

Michael Kerpan wrote:To tell the truth, it a movie can actually be spoiled by a spoiler, it isn't really a movie I'm interested in seeing even once.
Do you really derive no joy from surprise or narrative construction then?

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NABOB OF NOWHERE
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#23 Post by NABOB OF NOWHERE » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:52 am

I'm going to see Titanic tomorrow. Hope nobody posts any spoilers in the meantime.

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Nihonophile
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#24 Post by Nihonophile » Sun Jul 09, 2006 11:50 am

Lovely argument my joke sparked.

Bresson made a movie called a man escaped. Its a prison escape movie, wait a minute! that frickin frenchie, he ruined his own movie. RAHWHAWHAHWHA

Cinesimilitude
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#25 Post by Cinesimilitude » Sun Jul 09, 2006 1:58 pm

even mainstream audiences don't seem to mind.

Highest Grossing Film of All Time: Titanic

Highest Grossing R-Rated Film of all Time: The Passion of the Christ

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