“The pickings were poor and not worth the risk.”
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
Sep
6
Sun
The newspaper of Sunday, September 6, announcing a derby. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
– Michel
“Pray for me. I forgive the evil done me.”
Procès de Jeanne d'Arc [The Trial of Joan of Arc] (Robert Bresson, 1962)
Aug
17
forgiveness
Jeanne (Florence Delay) bound to the stake. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
Holi: someone is forgiven (forgiveness being an important aspect of Holi)*
– Jeanne d'Arc
Jeanne trusts her delusions to forgive the people who brought her to justice.
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for August is not date-related but lists, for the most part, the colours of the rainbow.
L'argent [Money] (Robert Bresson, 1983)
Jul
22
A man at an ATM holds on to a Visa credit card with tweezers. DPs: Pasqualino De Santis & Emmanuel Machuel.
Everything's expensive: someone is a at bank or ATM*
* the Bales 2025 Film Challenge for July is, for unknown reasons, mostly not date-related and follows some sort of vacation narrative.
“With nothing to do, no news and in terrible solitude, we were 100 unfortunates awaiting our fate. I had no illusions about my own. If I could only escape, run away…”
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (Robert Bresson, 1956)
May
2
A hand with dirty nails writing on a scrap of paper with a pencil stump. It starts “Mai 2 Ma chère maman, Je suis à la pris[…]“. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
– Fontaine
“Can we not admit that certain skilled men, gifted with intelligence, talent or even genius, and thus indispensable to society, rather than stagnate, should be free to disobey laws in certain cases?”
Pickpocket (Robert Bresson, 1959)
Mar
12
Michel (Martin LaSalle) in a busy café, observing. An emptied water glass next to the thief should make him look like a paying guest. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
– Michel
“Time to empty our slop pails and run a little water over our faces, then back to our cells for the entire day.”
Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut [A Man Escaped] (Robert Bresson, 1956)
Dec
29
slop
A man's hand holds a spoon at a perpendicular angle. DP: Léonce-Henri Burel.
– Fontaine
Une femme douce [A Gentle Woman / A Gentle Creature] (Robert Bresson, 1969)
Mar
14
National Write Your Story Day
Dominique Sanda as “elle” – “she” – a nameless woman. She peers out of a window, her face partially obscured by the muntin. DP: Ghislain Cloquet.
A young woman jumps out of a window, leaving behind her husband, an #antiques dealer. Sitting in their bedroom with the body lying in state, the widower remembers her. In his memory, she is nameless, abstract, a state not a life..
Une femme douce is closely adapted from Fyodor #Dostoyevsky Кроткая [Krotkaya / A Gentle Creature] (1876).