#jean-claude guilbert

[essentialmoviegifs]

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966, dir. Robert Bresson)

[omnivorouscinephilia]

Mouchette: A Broken Girl in an Abusive World

Here is a piece I wrote about Robert Bresson's coming of age film Mouchette, a big influence on the work of Celine Sciamma. Give it a read but be forewarned, it is a bleak one for a bleak film.

Robert Bresson sits at a particularly awkward position within French cinema studies categorically speaking. His most famous work is associated with the French New Wave, but he predates the movement by decades, existing within the French Cinematic Golden Age and working through the loathed “Papa’s Cinema” era of post-war cinema preceding the New Wave. He developed a deeply idiosyncratic aesthetic…

[medievalandfantasymelee]

Hot Medieval and Fantasy Men Melee Masterpost

Qualifying Round

Day 1

Guy of Gisborne [Michael Wincott] VS. Guy of Gisburne [Robert Addie]

King Arthur [Graham Chapman] VS. Robin Hood [Richard Todd]

Antonius Block [Max von Sydow] VS. Arman [Matvey Lykov]

Edward III [Blake Ritson] VS. Ivanhoe [Anthony Andrews]

Edward the Black Prince [James Purefoy] VS. Henry Tudor [Luke Treadaway]

Pero Tovar [Pedro Pascal] VS. Sir Thomas Grey [Nigel Terry]

Richard III [Benedict Cumberbatch] VS. Edward IV [Max Irons]

Éomer [Karl Urban] VS. Gimli [John Rhys Davies]

Elrond Half-Elven [Hugo Weaving] VS. Elrond Half-Elven [Robert Aramayo]

Carlos I [Álvaro Cervantes] VS. Mr. Tumnus [James McAvoy]

Niccolò Machiavelli [Julian Bleach] VS. Niccolò Machiavelli [Thibaud Evrard]

The Sheriff of Nottingham [Alan Wheatley] VS. Finan [Mark Rowley]

Guy of Gisbourne [Basil Rathbone] VS. Nasir [Mark Ryan]

William Thatcher [Heath Ledger] VS. King Arthur [Charlie Hunnam]

Darkness [Tim Curry] VS. Zbyszko z Bogdanca [Mieczyslaw Kalenik]

King Vortigern [Jude Law] VS. Uther Pendragon [Anthony Stewart Head]

Corlys Velaryon [Steve Toussaint] VS. Simon Aumar [Justice Smith]

Asbjörn [Tom Hopper] VS. Connor MacLeod [Christopher Lambert]

Hamlet [Christopher Plummer] VS. Mat Cauthon [Donal Finn]

Ned Stark [Sean Bean] VS. Lurtz [Lawrence Makoare]

~~~

Day 2

Dong Yilong [Henry Lau] VS. Frodo Baggins [Elijah Wood]

King Ecbert [Linus Roache] VS. Bofur [James Nesbitt]

Beowulf [Gerard Butler] VS. Henry V [Kenneth Brannagh]

King Arthur [Sean Connery] VS. Robin Hood [Sean Connery]

Thorin Oakenshield [Richard Armitage] VS. Thierry of Janville [Jean-Claude Drouot]

Björn Ironside [Alexander Ludwig] VS. Hamlet [Laurence Olivier]

Martin [Rutger Hauer] VS. Criston Cole [Fabien Frankel]

Bard the Bowman [Luke Evans] VS. Perrin Aybara [Marcus Rutherford]

Leofric [Adrian Bower] VS. King Marke [Rufus Sewell]

Miles Hendon [Errol Flynn] VS. Amleth [Alexander Skarsgård]

Jorah Mormont [Iain Glen] VS. Little John [Nicol Williamson]

Odda the Elder [Simon Kunz] VS. Barristan Selmy [Ian McIlhinney]

King Arthur [Nigel Terry] VS. Nicodemus Ravens [Jakob Oftebro]

Brian de Bois-Guilbert [Sam Neill] VS. Brian de Bois-Guilbert [Ciaran Hinds]

Edward I [Stephen Dillane] VS. Robert the Bruce [Chris Pine]

Prince Charmont [Hugh Dancy] VS. Galessin [Alexis Hénon]

King Arthur [Richard Harris] VS. Ulrich von Jungingen [Stanislaw Jasiukiewicz]

Brother Cadfael [Derek Jacobi] VS. Thomas Beckett [Richard Burton]

Father Beocca [Ian Hart] VS. The Mayor of Hamelin [Claude Rains]

Bronn [Jerome Flynn] VS. Mikoláš Kozlík [František Velecký]

~~~

Day 3

Balian de Ibelin [Orlando Bloom] VS. Athelstan [George Blagden]

[byneddiedingo]

Anne Wiazemsky in Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

Cast: Anne Wiazemsky, Walter Green, François Lafarge, Philippe Asselin, Nathalie Joyaut, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Pierre Klossowski, Jean-Joel Barbier, François Sullerot, Marie-Claire Fremont, Jacques Sorbets, Jean Rémignard. Screenplay: Robert Bresson. Cinematography: Ghislain Cloquet. Production design: Pierre Charbonnier. Film editing: Raymond Lamy. Music: Jean Wiener.

In his book Watching Them Be, James Harvey calls Au Hasard Balthazar "probably the greatest movie I've ever seen," and goes on to quote a number of others, including Jean-Luc Godard, who pretty much agree with him. I can't deny the movie's excellence, though I wouldn't quite go as far as Harvey does. It's a film that will try your patience unless you're willing to take Bresson on his own terms, which means not spelling anything out explicitly about his characters and their relationships. You're left to surmise a great deal about what they're doing and why. In fact, the only character in the film who gets a more or less fully fleshed-out story line is Balthazar himself, and he's a donkey. As usual, the performers Bresson chose were people we had never seen before on screen, and as usual with Bresson, that worked out well, especially in the case of Anne Wiazemsky, who plays Marie. Only 19 when she made the film, she brings a freshness and vulnerability to her role that radiates through the deadpan non-acting that Bresson imposed on his performers. The film brought her to the attention of Jean-Luc Godard who, the following year, made  La Chinoise with Wiazemsky, and she became his second wife after his divorce from Anna Karina. I happen to be somewhat averse to films that center on animals, particularly if they carry the symbolic freight that Balthazar (whom one character refers to as "a saint") does, but even I couldn't help being touched by his story. This was Bresson's first film with Ghislain Cloquet as cinematographer, and the contrast with his previous film, The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962), shot by his longtime director of photography, Léonce-Henri Burel, is startling. Burel tended to follow Bresson's lead in providing austere images for austere stories, whereas Cloquet brings a romantic edge to his work. I think it only emphasizes the purity of Bresson's intentions.

[hobodiffusion]

★ 20 octobre 2023 > bit.ly/hobo-20octobre2023

★ Les nouveautés de nos éditrices et éditeurs sorties le 20 octobre 2023 > bit.ly/hobo-20octobre2023 Mariarosa DALLA COSTA, Femmes et subversion sociale, Entremonde Pauline CLOCHEC, Après l’identité, Hystériques & AssociéEs Carl WITTMAN & Cy LECERF MAULPOIX, Un manifeste gay, Éditions du commun Nelly ROUSSEL, Qu’est-ce que le féminisme ?, La Variation MAJÉ, Ne plus tomber (en amour), Éditions iXe COLLECTIF, Censored 09, Trouble | Censored Martin RIEUSSEC-FOURNIER, La Primaire populaire, du projet au désastre final, Adespote Mamadou DIOUF, L’Afrique dans le temps du monde, Ròt-Bò-Krik Claude DIDRY (dir.), Face au covid, l’enjeu du salariat, La Dispute Yannick OGOR, Le Paysan impossible, Éditions du bout de la ville Anne CLERVAL & Camille GARDESSE & Jean RIVIÈRE, Inégalités et rapports de pouvoir en ville, L'Oeil d'Or Guillaume FONDU, Que faire de Lénine ?, Éditions Critiques Julius DICKMANN, Pour une autocritique du marxisme, Smolny COLLECTIF, Quand l'Opéra entre en Résistance, L'Oeil d'Or Virginia WOOLF, Écrire pour les femmes, La Variation Merle COLLINS, La Couleur de l’oubli, Ròt-Bò-Krik Laurent CAVALIÉ & Marie COUMES, N'i a pro !, Éditions du bout de la ville Sophie DJIGO, Sécession, Les Étaques Baptiste THERY-GUILBERT, Lésions, Blast Colette THOMAS, Cette fois-ci la forêt était vierge, Prairial Stéphane LAGORCE, Le Grand précis de cuisine pas pareille, Homo Habilis "Pour l’Afrique et la diaspora noire, reprendre la main sur les écritures de son histoire, c’est réclamer une parité culturelle, créative, historiographique, et revendiquer un récit de l’universel enfin découplé de l’impérialisme occidental." Mamadou Diouf, L'Afrique dans le temps du monde, Ròt-Bò-Krik.

[rapturousrot]

Mouchette (1967) dir. Robert Bresson

[frankenpagie]

11.25.19

[coolhandlook]

2017:65 — Au Hasard Balthazar

(1966 - Robert Bresson) ****

[stealsfromstills]

mouchette//robert bresson//1967

[genevieveetguy]

- What do you see in that boy? - I love him. Do we know why we love someone? If he says “come”, I come. “Do this”, and I do it. - Poor child. - I’d follow him anywhere. If he asked me to, I’d kill myself for him. 

Au Hasard Balthazar, Robert Bresson (1966)

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Au Hasard Balthazar (Robert Bresson, 1966)

[medievalandfantasymelee]

Hot Medieval & Fantasy Men Melee Masterpost

Qualifying Round: Day 2

Dong Yilong [Henry Lau] VS. Frodo Baggins [Elijah Wood]

King Ecbert [Linus Roache] VS. Bofur [James Nesbitt]

Beowulf [Gerard Butler] VS. Henry V [Kenneth Brannagh]

King Arthur [Sean Connery] VS. Robin Hood [Sean Connery]

Thorin Oakenshield [Richard Armitage] VS. Thierry of Janville [Jean-Claude Drouot]

Björn Ironside [Alexander Ludwig] VS. Hamlet [Laurence Olivier]

Martin [Rutger Hauer] VS. Criston Cole [Fabien Frankel]

Bard the Bowman [Luke Evans] VS. Perrin Aybara [Marcus Rutherford]

Leofric [Adrian Bower] VS. King Marke [Rufus Sewell]

Miles Hendon [Errol Flynn] VS. Amleth [Alexander Skarsgård]

Jorah Mormont [Iain Glen] VS. Little John [Nicol Williamson]

Odda the Elder [Simon Kunz] VS. Barristan Selmy [Ian McIlhinney]

King Arthur [Nigel Terry] VS. Nicodemus Ravens [Jakob Oftebro]

Brian de Bois-Guilbert [Sam Neill] VS. Brian de Bois-Guilbert [Ciaran Hinds]

Edward I [Stephen Dillane] VS. Robert the Bruce [Chris Pine]

Prince Charmont [Hugh Dancy] VS. Galessin [Alexis Hénon]

King Arthur [Richard Harris] VS. Ulrich von Jungingen [Stanislaw Jasiukiewicz]

Brother Cadfael [Derek Jacobi] VS. Thomas Beckett [Richard Burton]

Father Beocca [Ian Hart] VS. The Mayor of Hamelin [Claude Rains]

Bronn [Jerome Flynn] VS. Mikoláš Kozlík [František Velecký]

[byneddiedingo]

Nadine Nortier in Mouchette (Robert Bresson, 1967) Cast: Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal, Paul Hébert, Jean Viminet, Liliane Princet, Suzanne Huguenin, Marine Trichet, Raymonde Chabrun. Screenplay: Robert Bresson, based on a novel by Georges Bernanos. Cinematography: Ghislain Cloquet. Production design: Pierre Guffroy. Film editing: Raymond Lamy. Music: Jean Wiener.  Mouchette is an unsparing film, in which I can't find even a feint at Bresson's usual religious consolation or symbology. Mouchette's name means "little fly," and her existence is as brief and mucky as that. Yes, I've read the essays on Bresson and on Georges Bernanos's source novel that posit some kind of redemptive motif in Mouchette's bleak life, but experiencing the film doesn't reinforce that for me. Abused endlessly, Mouchette is no martyr, no saint; she is as spiteful and deluded as you might expect. She refers to her rapist as her lover, and once her mother, to whom she was at least dutiful, is dead, there seems nothing to which she can connect, even her baby brother, whom she carelessly swaddles, and when she goes out to get milk for him she dawdles, leaving him at the mercy of her gin-soaked father and brother. She is too proud to accept charity, scrubbing her muddy shoes into the carpet of the crabby old lady who at least is kind enough to give her a shroud for her mother and some clothes for herself. When she goes out to roll down a slope next to a pond, it looks like she's spitefully dirtying these gifts. And then we realize that what looks like mean-spirited play is in fact preparation for a most unusual suicide, which Bresson doesn't actually film but leaves us to infer. The film has been called tragic, but it looks to me like unfettered naturalism.

[detournementsmineurs]

"Mouchette" de Robert Bresson (1967) - adapté du roman "Nouvelle Histoire de Mouchette" de Georges Bernanos (1937) - avec Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal et Paul Hébert, mars 2022.

[mysilverscreenlife]

Mouchette (1967)

Director: Robert Bresson Nadine Nortier, Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal