Robert Bresson

Robert Bresson (French: [ʁɔbɛʁ bʁɛsɔ̃]; 25 September 1901 – 18 December 1999) was an acclaimed French film director. Known for a spiritual and ascetic style, he contributed notably to the art of film, and particularly the French New Wave. Bresson is considered to be of paramount importance to minimalist film, as most of his work featured non-professional actors, little use of music or scoring, and ellipsis, in which events important to the narrative are not visually depicted. He is arguably, along with Jean-Luc Godard, the most highly regarded French filmmaker after Jean Renoir. Godard himself once wrote, "Robert Bresson is French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music."

Life and career

Bresson was born at Bromont-Lamothe, Puy-de-Dôme, the son of Marie-Élisabeth (née Clausels) and Léon Bresson. Little is known of his early life. He was educated at Lycée Lakanal in Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine, close to Paris, and turned to painting after graduating. Three formative influences in his early life seem to have a mark on his films: Catholicism, art and his experiences as a prisoner of war. On his beliefs, Bresson had called himself a "Christian atheist". Robert Bresson lived in Paris, France, in the Île Saint-Louis.