Apart from students of technique or cultural context, Robert Bresson’s movies tend not to connect with larger audiences. Nor do they seem timeless. Some need to be seen more than once for a proper understanding and appreciation. Modern audiences are likely to find his films boring or little engaging. In our quest to understand how to make great movies, we ask: why? Below are five Bresson traits that make audience enjoyment difficult:
No filmmaker sets out to make a bad movie. When a movie is bad, then, it is usually not from a lack of trying. Instead, it is more the product of a disconnect between how a filmmaker thinks an audience will respond and what actually works. Below is a list of some common filmmaking techniques that are surefire ways to lose audience interest.
Two older movies treat some of the challenges occasionally seen within Idle No More. Each explicitly addresses the problem of allies newly disaffected by their privileged lives.
What role did the 1862 smallpox epidemics play in the transition from indigenous sovereignty to colonial rule at “Comox,” often translated as “Place of Plenty.” Canadian academics commonly teach that European diseases swept North America ahead of settlement, leaving an empty wilderness to be occupied innocently by settlers. This is not what happened at Comox or throughout British Columbia.
On March 12, 1862, two smallpox carriers, each suffering only a mild case consistent with having acquired the disease deliberately through inoculation, arrived at Victoria on the half-empty Brother Jonathan from San Francisco. One went to New Westminster the next morning to begin the epidemic in each of the major newly urbanizing centers in the young colonies…at the same time and in the same way.
“Doctor Zhivago” is a timeless movie. It is as enjoyable today as when first released in 1965, almost 50 years ago. In our quest to understand great movies, we ask why? It is easy to appreciate the craft of “Zhivago.” Competent acting, exotic locations, speeding trains, intense battles, crowds in motion, beautiful costumes, striking music, relentless story progression: “Zhivago” has it all.