|
|
|
"When a civilization can produce a work of art as perfectly achieved as this,
it's hard to believe there is no hope for it."
— Richard Roud ROBERT BRESSON’S
THE DEVIL, PROBABLY
NEW 4K RESTORATION SEPTEMBER 20-26 AT FILM FORUM
Robert Bresson’s late masterwork THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977), a blistering indictment of post-May ‘68 France, will run in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum from Friday, September 20 through Thursday, September 26.
Constructed as a flashback and based off of a newspaper story, THE DEVIL, PROBABLY centers on four disaffected youth, disillusioned with the reality inflicted upon them by their elders, as they drift through Paris, politics, religion, and psychoanalysis, witnesses to a society in moral and physical decline. "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 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
Shot by Oscar-winning Italian cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis, who worked with Bresson (Lancelot du Lac, L'Argent), Visconti (L'Innocente, Death in Venice), De Sica (Amanti), and more, THE DEVIL PROBABLY is Bresson's most controversial film (French under-18s weren’t allowed in). It caused a furor at the Berlin Film Festival where critic Derek Malcolm (“a masterpiece that history will vindicate”) and R.W. Fassbinder threatened to walk off the jury if their support wasn’t made public.
Bresson’s LANCELOT DU LAC (1974) will run in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum from Friday, September 27 through Thursday, October 3.
Constructed as a flashback and based off of a newspaper story, THE DEVIL, PROBABLY centers on four disaffected youth, disillusioned with the reality inflicted upon them by their elders, as they drift through Paris, politics, religion, and psychoanalysis, witnesses to a society in moral and physical decline. "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 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
Shot by Oscar-winning Italian cinematographer Pasqualino De Santis, who worked with Bresson (Lancelot du Lac, L'Argent), Visconti (L'Innocente, Death in Venice), De Sica (Amanti), and more, THE DEVIL PROBABLY is Bresson's most controversial film (French under-18s weren’t allowed in). It caused a furor at the Berlin Film Festival where critic Derek Malcolm (“a masterpiece that history will vindicate”) and R.W. Fassbinder threatened to walk off the jury if their support wasn’t made public.
Bresson’s LANCELOT DU LAC (1974) will run in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum from Friday, September 27 through Thursday, October 3.
“One of Robert Bresson's greatest, and least-seen, movies.”
— J. Hoberman
“Thirty-five years on, THE DEVIL, PROBABLY can still trigger a shock of recognition.”
— Dennis Lim, Artforum
“A ringing indictment of the modern world… There’s something mannered and at times even freakish about Bresson’s handling of well-clothed adolescents and his multifaceted editorializing—which improbably recalls Samuel Fuller in its anger and dynamic energy—but the power and conviction of this bitter, reflective parable are remarkable… The work of a master, and, judging from the work of many of his young French disciples (including Leos Carax), one of his most influential features.”
— Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
“The best film about the 1970s. I think Bresson did it too late for it to be properly recognized. He should have done it three years earlier. I could not watch THE DEVIL, PROBABLY when it was released because it showed exactly what I did not want to see of myself. In 1977 I was into punk rock and getting rid of the past. I just didn’t want to look back. It captures that seventies like no other movie.”
— Olivier Assayas, Interview with José Teodero in The Believer
Written and directed by Robert Bresson
Starring Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc, Laetitia Carcano, Nicolas Deguy
Cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis
Editing by Germaine Artus
Music by Philippe Sarde
1977 | France | In French with English subtitles
Approx. 95 min. | 4K DCP | The Film Desk
Restored in 4K by GAUMONT with the support of the CNC, at ÉCLAIR CINEMA, from the original negative.
— J. Hoberman
“Thirty-five years on, THE DEVIL, PROBABLY can still trigger a shock of recognition.”
— Dennis Lim, Artforum
“A ringing indictment of the modern world… There’s something mannered and at times even freakish about Bresson’s handling of well-clothed adolescents and his multifaceted editorializing—which improbably recalls Samuel Fuller in its anger and dynamic energy—but the power and conviction of this bitter, reflective parable are remarkable… The work of a master, and, judging from the work of many of his young French disciples (including Leos Carax), one of his most influential features.”
— Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader
“The best film about the 1970s. I think Bresson did it too late for it to be properly recognized. He should have done it three years earlier. I could not watch THE DEVIL, PROBABLY when it was released because it showed exactly what I did not want to see of myself. In 1977 I was into punk rock and getting rid of the past. I just didn’t want to look back. It captures that seventies like no other movie.”
— Olivier Assayas, Interview with José Teodero in The Believer
Written and directed by Robert Bresson
Starring Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc, Laetitia Carcano, Nicolas Deguy
Cinematography by Pasqualino De Santis
Editing by Germaine Artus
Music by Philippe Sarde
1977 | France | In French with English subtitles
Approx. 95 min. | 4K DCP | The Film Desk
Restored in 4K by GAUMONT with the support of the CNC, at ÉCLAIR CINEMA, from the original negative.
