French film director and painter Robert Bresson died at 98 on December 18th 1999. Bresson directed 13 movies that marked the history of the French film industry. Quite ascetic in style he created his own language seeking invisible reality, soul and spirit as well as spirituality and grace.
He once said that art was not a luxury but a need and that any creation was like the work of a painter to such a point that he considered his actors as models.
Bresson first worked as a painter and photographer before turning to filming in 1934 but started his career in earnest with «Les Anges du Péché» (Sin Angels) in 1943 after his release from a German POW camp. He then directed «Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne» in 1944, «Journal d'un Curé de Campagne» in 1950, which earned him the Venice Festival Grand Prize, «Un Condamné à Mort s'est Echappé » in 1956, «Pickpocket» in 1959, «The Trial of Joan of Ark» in 1961, «Au Hasard Balthazar» in 1965, «Mouchette» in 1966, «Une Femme Douce» after Dostoievski in 1969, «Quatre Nuits d'un Rêveur» in 1971, «Lancelot» in 1974, «The Devil Probably» in 1977 and his masterpiece, «L'Argent» (Money) after Tolstoï in 1982.
Bresson was not a director of commercial films and experienced many difficulties to produce his movies during his career, as he did not want to work for the public. In his view a film was not a show but a true act of artistic creation.
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