Bresson...where have you been all my life?

Given my close proximity to all things film, it's amazing that I haven't gotten around to watching any movies directed by the great French filmmaker Robert Bresson. My good friend Alex brought in a scene from Au Hasard Balthazar into the directing class we had together last fall. I found it interesting and borrowed the DVD, but haven't seen it since. So, perchance, I happened upon another Bresson classic Pickpocket, and, finally, watched a Bresson film...and I wasn't too impressed. In fact, I was downright bored half the time. Actors reciting their lines as if their reading it off the floor (they constantly looked at the ground). Long shots of people just walking. If not, for a smoking hot babe of an actress (the Natalie Portman-esque Marika Green, the aunt of another babe Eva Green), I wouldn't have gotten through it.

But...I was watching the Criterion Collection DVD (a cineaste's dream) and watched all the supplements which convinced me that I was all wrong. Although I must admit a lot of Bresson's appeal to me veers into sheer intellectualism, I love the fact that he used non-professional actors only once and that he strove to instill a sense of spirituality into his films. While his films weren't commercial, they were trying to do something that hadn't been done before. It's inspiring to put it mildly.