Models

The fellow above is one Robert Bresson born September 25th, 1901 in Auvergne, France. Of course today isn't his birthday, but I figured since I was having a French movie type day, I should throw him into the hero mix.

Bresson is considered a patron saint of French cinema, and not just for his spiritualism, and his Catholicism that heavily influence his films. He was known for his actor-model theory of actors. He used non-professionals as actors, he used them once, and no more. He sort of treated his models like disposal razors, one use and they were done. This was partially because Bresson did feel that he had "used up" what a model could give him in one film. He was famous for his perfection, once making the star of his film "A Man Escaped" shoot one scene 50 times in order to make it just right. Right for Bresson would equal devoid of emotion, he wanted the physical movement, no emotion, no striving for style, just the act of doing whatever the character is supposed to be doing.

I must confess that I have only seen two of his films "Pickpocket" and "A Man Escaped", but they are both extremely good films, and I have seen them both about 5 times, so by my theory I have seen 10 of his films. He was a master craftsman, and had talent enough for three directors. Anybody that can take some fellow off the street, or as in the case of the star of "A Man Escape" plucked from philosophy class at the Sorbonne, and get them to turn out the performances they do for him, is a fucking genius. So, it is for that genius, that I am sure is evident in all of his films, but especially for the two films of his that I watch over and over that Robert Bresson (September 25th, 1901-December 18th, 1999, at the age of 98), you are my (349th) hero of the day.