Robert Bresson – upcoming retrospective in LA/what’s available on DVD/Blu-ray

Bresson is one of my favorite directors and I have posted about him before. This retrospective sounds great.

I have seen most of these either on discs on in a retrospective at the Carnegie Institute Museum of Art in Pittsburgh in the early 1970s – see the small poster below. The image is from Four Nights of a Dreamer.

MAJOR news: @am_cinematheque will be hosting a near-complete Bresson retrospective in September, with 35mm prints of DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST, A MAN ESCAPED, PICKPOCKET, AU HASARD BALTHAZAR, LES DAMES DU BOIS DE BOULOGNE, L’ARGENT, THE DEVIL PROBABLY, and MOUCHETTE!!

— Ryan Swen/孫天行/Sun Tianxing (@swen_ryan) August 17, 2022

Here’s a list of all of his films and what’s available on discs. This is what is currently streaming on the Criterion Channel.

Angels of Sin (1943) – never on US DVD or Blu-ray. It has been on an Asian DVD

Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) – on DVD from Criterion

Diary of a Country Priest (1951) –Criterion DVD now out of print

This is the first Bresson film I saw. It was in a class. Most people walked out and there were about three of us left by the end.

A Man Escaped (1956) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion

Pickpocket (1959) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion

The Trial of Joan of Arc(1962) – never on US discs but has been on TV on TCM

Au Hasard Balthasar (1965) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion

Mouchette (1967) – on Blu-ray and DVD from Criterion

A Gentle Woman (1967) – never on US disc but it was on VHS from New Yorker Films

Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) – never on US disc

Lancelot du Lac (1974) – out-of-print DVD from New Yorker Films

The Devil Probably (1977) – on Olive DVD, apparently out of print

L’argent (1983) – on DVD and Blu-ray from Criterion