Bresson, Robert

Bresson, Robert (1907-1999), French film director. Bresson was born in Bromont-Lamothe. Despite a lack of training, he made his film debut with a comedy in the style of the time, Les Affaires Publiques (1934; Public Affairs). His style was fully established with Le Journal d’un Curé de Campagne (1951; Diary of a Country Priest), adapted from the novel by Georges Bernanos. Also a writer, Bresson renounced claims that he was “decorative”, employing amateur actors and rejecting all theatricality; he developed this look with the famous Pickpocket (1959). Influenced by Bernanos, whose Mouchette (1937) he adapted in 1967, and by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, whose work he adapted for three films, it was as an unorthodox Christian that Bresson made Le Procès de Jeanne d’Arc (1962; The Trial of Joan of Arc), Au Hasard, Balthazar (1966; Balthazar), and Le Diable Probablement (1977; The Devil Probably). The 1983 film L'Argent (Money), written and directed by Bresson, was based on a tale by Leo Tolstoy, and gained him an award for Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, which he shared with Russian director Andrey Tarkovsky.