Les Anges du Péché (1943) by Robert Bresson
Sunday, September 16, 1984, 8:00 pm
The Early Films of Robert Bresson
FILMS: Les Anges du Péché (1943), 80 min., script by Jean Giraudoux, and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1944), 105 min., script by Jean Cocteau.
Tonight the Cinematheque presents two rarely screened films by Robert Bresson (dir. of Lancelot du Lac, L’Argent); made during the Occupation, Les Anges du Péché and Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne are his first two features.
“For me, the cinema is an exploration within. Within the mind, the camera can grasp anything.” (Bresson) Set in the cloistered world of a convent for rehabilitating delinquent girls, Les Anges du Péché features the visual and storyline austerity that became Bresson’s signature, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne recounts the sexual jealousy and revenge of a woman who sets up her gentlemanly ex-lover with a disguised demimondaine. The pared-down narrative and Cocteau’s brittle dialogue infuse the film with a tone of distance and stark abstraction. Les Dames… was Bresson’s last film to use a cast of professional actors.