Robert Bresson: A Passion for Film looks at the great filmmaker's body of work not only by coming to terms with its thematic preoccupations and the development of its unique authorial style, but also in terms of the ouevre's seminal place in the history of film. The filmic rhetoric that Bresson pursued was nothing less than an effort to create film narrative's exemplary form, throwing off the conventions of the theater and acting that still dominatemainstream filmmaking. In this respect, Bresson's films are no less ground-breaking than those of D.W. Griffith and Sergei Eisenstein, whose formal innovations have been thoroughly explored. Wonderfully written and subtle in its exploration of literary models and source material, Pipolo's book is the firstcomprehensive study to give equal attention to the films, their literary sources, and psycho-biographical aspects of the work. A thorough portrait, Bresson's sources, style, and biography are explored via a chronological investigation of his films, yielding a rich analysis worthy of this master filmmaker.

Tony Pipolo is Professor Emeritus of Film and Literature at Queens College of the City University of New York. He writes regularly for Cineaste and Film Comment.

• Introduction


• 1.: Rules of the Game (Les Anges du péche and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne)


• 2.: Author, Author (Journal d'un curé de campagne)


• 3.: Triumphs of the Will (Un condamné a mort s'est echappé and Pickpocket)


• 4.: The Young Virgins of the Provinces: I (Procès de Jeanne d'Arc)


• 5.: The Middle of the Road (Au hasard Balthazar)


• 6.: The Young Virgins of the Provinces: II (Mouchette)


• 7.: Dostoevsky in Paris (Une femme douce and Quatre Nuits d'un rêveur)


• 8.: The Ultimate Geste (Lancelot du Lac)


• 9.: Angels and Demons (Le Diable Probablement and L'Argent)


• Epilogue


• Index