-samuel fuller's pickup on south street, 1953 (aka pickpocket)
-robert bresson's pickpocket, 1959
-jean-pierre melville's le samouraï, 1967
(all films comprise a certain criminal activity in the underground)
moments from robert bresson's pickpocket, 1959(dp. léonce-henri burel)
abstractions from jean-pierre melville's le samouraï, 1967(dp. henri decaë)
images from 3 films, all captured and shown here in an attempt to look at the works closely with a magnifying glass, and highlighting small details not normally visible on a first viewing, or even a thirtieth viewing (particularly le samouraï).
having recently read an article by jonas mekas, in which he said that film criticism/history based on 1-2 viewings of a film was totally worthless and that a writer/historian needed 30 viewings before saying anything, these bresson posts are an attempt to look very closely at the films, not from just reading about the works, but by watching them analytically and repetitively, and attempting to view the films in a way that extends the 24 frames per second to 24 frames per minute, to slow them down with the eye.
after looking at the films frame by frame, a regular viewing becomes completely different, a world of details.
(also, please look at my kurosawa entry on the auteurs film journal)
((more obsessive bresson business here and here))
