When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best - that is inspiration.
Robert BressonRead
My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The creative process transforms ideas from the mind into tangible works, giving life to inanimate objects through filmmaking.
In this quote, Robert Bresson reflects on the cyclical nature of artistic creation, where an idea is conceived in the imagination, initially loses its vitality on paper, is infused with life through the actors and objects in the film, and ultimately comes to life again on screen. This illustrates how art breathes existence into its components, similar to how flowers blossom in water, emphasizing the transformative power of filmmaking.
Themes
ArtCreationFilmmakingImaginationTransformationExpression
In practice
Example use cases
During a lecture on filmmaking, I shared this quote to illustrate the creative process.
More from Robert Bresson
All quotes →In the NUDE, all that is not beautiful is obscene.
Robert BressonRead
Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: people look without seeing, listen in without hearing.
Robert BressonRead
Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
Robert BressonRead
The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine.
Robert BressonRead
For me, film-making is combining images and sounds of real things in an order that makes them effective. What I disapprove of is photographing things that are not real. Sets and actors are not real.
Robert BressonRead
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I have erected amonument more lasting than bronze.
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