Why is it omitted from any discussion of Bresson by his most ardent fans? If it was OK to show it in a triple bill of Bresson at the Everyman in the mid 80s when I saw it, why is it excluded from a Bresson retrospective at the BFI this year? I found it a quintessentially French film of the period and of a very high calibre, my second favourite of the six Bresson films I have seen.
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we need this on dvd very soon...i've got it on vhs,taped off some australian
(i believe) tv channel in the late 70's. But it's a beautiful film. absolutely.
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Hmm why on earth would she do a thing like that?
So if Mrs. B reads this....please please please!!
I love Four Nights...absolutely,so sweet,romantic and dreamy...I've got A Gentle Woman on vhs,but i've only seen it once.
Anyway....it's sad when artists won't release their work on dvd or cd...Same thing with Alec R Costandinos. He won't release his masterpieces (yep) on cd...
But i guess that's another story and another forum.
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well, i think we should respect that. but i can't see the reason for not releasing Four nights or Creature when his other films is available.
It's wait and see i guess.
I love Four Nights...absolutely,so sweet,romantic and dreamy...Yeah, never did I think this could ever form part of a description for a Bresson film but here it is. I definitely sense a dark underlining to the "sweet" parts of the film but it is true that this is probably Bresson's most accessible and "lightest" work (by Bresson's standards, it must be said). And it's pretty good, too. The romanticized storytelling, the musical interludes, the quieter moments about the artist's musings and his art... and it all worked with Bresson's austere choices. By sucking the melodrama out of the romantic relationships, it certainly did feel as though Bresson was going for something more pure and ever-lasting than the initial thrills and chills of a new relationship (only to, of course, show how completely how illogical and irrational such pure "love" actually is).
Could be numerous reasons. The print is in pretty poor quality so that might be part of it. It's also seperated from the 10 other Bresson's I have seen by the fact that it's almost vibrant and just barely minimalistic, if at all. But I'd certainly place it among his better films - though admittedly I'm not one of his biggest fans.
My 105 favorite films - http://www.imdb.com/list/5pdE8_ZEh0Y/?publish=save
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Is there a new print out? Seems to be showing up a bit more lately. It played last month at the Film Forum in New York, then last week it was at the Gene Siskel in Chicago. I'm planning to see it on March 17th at the National Gallery of Art in D.C. I saw a very bad bootleg of it some years ago which piqued my interest.
shareit's playing in toronto next month as well
shareWhich theatre? I might make a trip for a showing.
shareI saw the "new print" at the PFA....but it didn't look very good. Lots of scratches & blemishes, the subtitles became blurry for some parts, a few sound drop outs...it sure looked like a well-worn film from the 70s to me.
sharetiff bell lightbox. they're having a retrospective on all his work actually
http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiffbelllightbox/2012/4400000375?fro m=bresson
it's already started but there's still lots to see (it's going on until the end of march)
The print I saw at the National Gallery of Art during their Bresson retrospective a couple of months ago was about as good as the other films like A Gentle Woman, The Devil Probably and Lancelot du Lac. I am hopeful the traveling retrospective will generate enough interest to see some or all his currently unavailable films released on DVD.
shareI believe that a deal has been done with Mrs B. to have all of her husbands films re-released and those never released on DVD in the UK in 2013. This will include Four Nights of a Dreamer.
shareAunt-Peg,
Any news?
I searched recently the web, including French sites, with no results.
But I've been told a new print was screened at a film festival in Japan in 2013.
I also read about a new 35 mm print here (April 2012): http://www.thecinematheque.ca/robert-bresson/four-nights-of-a-dreamer.
Bernard
EDIT:
- Film shown on CINE+ Classic on Jan. 27, 2013 at 20:45
- Film available for streaming on jookvideo.com, per http://www.criterionforum.org/forum/viewtopic.php?p=453764
I haven't heard anything since, so I suspect that it was false/misleading information that I heard.
Still these things can take years. For example finally the Oshim'a classics from the 60's & 70's (Boy, Death by Hanging, The Ceremony, etc) are finally coming out in France - probably no English subtitles. But there is hope these will turn up in the UK or US.
Likewise, the 1970's classic Thundercrack has become coming to DVD for years now, though 2015 may finally be the year.
This is a masterpiece. I covered Bresson's entire catalogue after watching each of his features in a 2 week period during a retrospective and ranked Four Nights as his 6th best film (After Diary, Hasard, Escaped, Mouchette, Pickpocket).
It's largely been ignored due to lack of distribution and very few film prints available, although a restoration was conducted a few years ago indicated a home video release to come, but this has yet to happen.
Full coverage of Bresson's films/technique can be found here:
http://aestheticsofthemind.com/category/robert-bresson-2/
Four Nights of a Dreamer review here:
http://aestheticsofthemind.com/2012/04/21/four-nights-of-a-dreamer-quatre-nuits-dun-reveur/