Robert Bresson
FilmmakerKnown for:
Au Hasard Balthazar (1966), Pickpocket (1959)
Education:
Self-taught in filmmaking; trained as a painter
Robert Bresson directed 13 films across five decades, each made with non-professional actors he called "models" and a systematic minimalism of image and sound he described in his 1975 book Notes on the Cinematograph. His films - Diary of a Country Priest (1951), Pickpocket (1959), Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) - reduce cinema to what he considered its essential elements. Paul Schrader's study Transcendental Style in Film (1972) took Bresson as its central example.
Robert Bresson's Gear List(1)
ARRI
Connection Source
SensesofcinemaWebsite
Connection note
DP Leonce-Henri Burel used a handheld Arriflex with fast Gevaert film stock for discreet location shooting on Pickpocket (1959)
Product description
Introduced in 1963 as the final evolution of the Arriflex 35 II series, the IIC added a larger ground glass, movable viewfinder, and anamorphic desqueeze capability. It is an MOS camera with no internal electronics, powered entirely by external sources, and uses 200-foot or 400-foot magazines. Produced through 1979, it was succeeded by the Arriflex III. Over 17,000 units in the 35 II series were manufactured, making it the best-selling ARRI model line ever.
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Last updated March 20, 2026
