Film Forum

France, 1977 
Written and directed by Robert Bresson
Starring Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc, Laetitia Carcano, Nicolas Deguy
Cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis
In French with English subtitles. 
Approx. 94 min. DCP.

"I hate life. I hate death. My sickness is that I see things clearly," confides student Antoine Monnier to his shrink — but, even as he promises marriage to his two girlfriends, he also arranges his own... suicide? Bresson's most controversial film (French under-18s weren’t allowed in), caused a furor at the Berlin Film Festival, where critic Derek Malcolm ("a masterpiece that history will vindicate") and R.W. Fassbinder (who'd homage it in his own THIRD GENERATION) threatened to walk off the jury if their support for the Grand Prize wasn't made public. “Even though Bresson has painted a dark picture of wasted youth and beauty, one comes out of the film with a sense of exultation. When a civilization can produce a work of art as perfectly achieved as this, it’s hard to believe there’s no hope for it.”— Richard Roud.

Presented with support from the George Fasel Memorial Fund for Classic French Cinema.

Restored in 4K by GAUMONT with the support of the CNC, at ÉCLAIR CINEMA, from the original negative. 

A FILM DESK RELEASE

Reviews

“Bresson’s chilling visions of daily life—includes a brilliant sequence aboard a bus that depicts the mechanical world as a horror—suggesting its hostility to the passions of youth… These children of the revolution tremble with uncertainty, and their loose gestures and shambling ways conflict with his precise images. Both the world and Bresson’s cinema are in disarray, and the signs of his inner conflict are deeply troubling and tremendously moving.”
– Richard Brody, The New Yorker