This column features a weekly pick, usually from one of the independent cinemas, of a film that — because of age, color or length — might be in the viewer’s blind spot when he or she goes through the week’s cinema listings.
Bio Ponrepo (Bartolomějská 11, Prague 1, Bio-ponrepo.cz) is currently screening several of Robert Bresson’s films and this is one filmmaker whom it is important to take note of.
Born in 1901, this Frenchman directed his first feature film in 1943, and by the time of his death in 1999, he had only completed a total 13. Yet the filmmakers of the French New Wave saw him, together with Jean Renoir and Jean Cocteau, as masters of the craft of filmmaking, for they had complete control over all aspects of their production and their output certainly enriched the scope, not only of French cinema, but of cinema in general.
Bresson’s films have a very minimalist quality and almost always feature nonprofessional actors. These characteristics do lead the acting in some of his films to appear rather uncomfortable, though non-French audiences are less likely to notice. He shares a certain respect for the spiritual with the filmmaker Carl Theodor Dreyer and it is interesting to note that both attempted to bring the story of Joan of Arc to the big screen, though Dreyer’s silent version remains the most revered interpretation.
Bio Ponrepo will screen the beautiful, surprisingly thrilling, though almost completely silent A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s’est échappé, ou Le vent souffle où il veut) Jan. 11 at 8. It also screens the classic story about mugging and redemption, Pickpocket Jan. 13 at 8 and Mouchette, the tragic story of a young girl in a rural village, Jan. 16 at 8.
The films are screened in French with Czech subtitles.
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