Robert Bresson

Robert Bresson is generally acknowledged as the leading ascetic of the film world, using mainly non-professional actors, directing them to the minutest detail yet seldom explaining a shot, and keeping a tight rein on the formal qualities of his frame. Austere beauty is his trademark, characterised most often by blank faces which stress both privacy and the universal. "Although there is a matter-of-fact quality to his work, concentrated viewing brings out an extra-ordinary sense of passion. It is as if his characters are straight faced for fear of exploding. Their human feelings are in turmoil with spiritual imperatives, and the struggle is as great as that in Dostoyevsky — one of Bresson's models." (David Thomson).