Muting the image: Lighting and photochemical techniques of bresson’s cinematographers

The practical accomplishments of Robert Bresson’s collaborators have rarely been acknowledged. This paper argues that Bresson’s productions were the site of creative solutions to unique photographic problems that led his cinematographers to develop bounce light and flashing techniques, as well as to use the 50 mm lens. Research into these aspects of Bresson’s cinema not only grants one access to the dynamics of Bresson’s unique mode of production, but starts us on our way to placing Bresson’s films and the work of his technicians in the history of French film style.