A MAN ESCAPED
Original; Un Condamne a Mort s'est Echappe

Based on the real life escape of WWII French resistance leader Andre Devigny who escaped from a Nazi prison at Fort Montluc hours before he was to be executed. As he is ready to escape, a young boy who is known to have collaborated with the Nazis, is placed in the same cell. Now, to at least assure a chance at escape, he must either trust or kill the boy. In this seemingly simple story Bresson finds a vehicle to showcase his unique, painfully exquisite style of intricate filmaking.

'The Bresson hero's ascetic, singlemided dedication to escape is almost mystic, and the fortress is as impersonal and isolated a world as Kafka's."—Pauline Kael.

Directed by Robert Bresson. Screenplay and dialogue By Bresson. Photo by L.H. Burel assisted by Henri Raichi. Edited by Raymond Lamy. With Francois Leterrier and Roland Monod.

France 1952 105 minutes. Subtitled
ISBN 1-55881-022-6
OUT OF PRINT / NO LONGER AVAILABLE

MOUCHETTE

A 14 year old girl lives with her alcoholic father and bedridden mother. One day, when she tries to console a boy, he misinterprets her affections and rapes her. With her mothers death and other troubles, she declines into a dark world of hostility, violence and ultimately, a tragic death.

Directed by Robert Bresson. Screenplay by Bresson from the Georges Bernanos book, Nouvelle Histoire de Mouchette. With Nadine Nortier. Jean-Claude Guilbert, Marie Cardinal, Paul Hebert.

France 1966. 90 minutes.Subtitled
ISBN 1-55881-412-4
$29.95

PICKPOCKET

Michel is an insignificant man who drifts into crime, is arrested and imprisoned. An attempt at reform begins when his conscience is stirred by the death of his mother and the reactions of his friends to his situation. Finally, when he meets a master pickpocket who offers to teach him "the art", he reverts to a life of crime. The plot is based loosely on crime and punishment, but the rigorous and compelling microscopic examination of the thief's techniques, his motives and his secret existence is pure Bresson.

Directed by Robert Bresson. Script by Robert Bresson. Photo by L.H.Burel. Music by Lully. With Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie, Jean Pelegri, Kassagi, Pierre Etaix, Dolly Seal.

France: 1959, 80 minutes. Subtitled
ISBN 1-55881-021-8
$29.95

COUNTRY PRIEST
Original: Le Journal d'un Cure de Campagne

The dramatic story of a young priest and his problems with his parishioners who neither understand nor accept his deep faith and his struggle to deal with his own mortality---he is dying of cancer.

"One of the most profound emotional experiences in the history of film; no other director, with the possible exception of Dreyer with The Passion of Joan of Ark has come so close to communicating a religious experience."---Pauline Kael

"[Bresson] has made in 'The Diary of a Country Priest' and 'A man Escaped' two of the supreme masterpieces of the cinema." ---John Russell Taylor

Directed by Robert Bresson. Screenplay by Bresson from the novel by Georges Bernanos. With Claude Laydu, Jean Riveyre, Nicole Ladmiral.

France, 1950. 121 minutes. Subtitled.
ISBN 1-55881-025-0
$29.95

ALSO AVAILABLE:

CLASSIC FRENCH CINEMA
RENOIR
TATI
CARNE
CLAIR
BRESSON
~ OPHULS
~ COCTEAU
PAGNOL
} ~ CLOUZOT
~ VIGO
FRENCH LOVERS

FRENCH NEW WAVE CINEMA
GODARD
~ RESNAIS
~ CHABROL
FRENCH GANGSTERS & SPIES