Transcendenta

Style in FiIm:
Ozu,Bresson
Dreyer
PaulSchrade

VI
DACAPOPRESS
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I I I lffir ydB filh hr dlv.lop.d r b:rllddhrrl *ylc .
styL whici hft h.{ cnd by vdlo!6 .rd4r n| dlnG.
dlhE 1odpr6 ilr Holt lu.r d rnthopolosids .t rle be
of th. dtury.ll!@v.rcd lh.t }drs' ln unrLtd cultu6 llrd
fdnd dhnd wlys to apnr dn Lr DlrlhJ.mdoru, so,in
cLm4w.l.t d liln-h*.n hrv.d.rkd r .md6 of
rftm.Lnril3tyl.. Tll. dyL n not btdndc.Iy hnendhrrl
or r.tigiN, but it r.?nehrr . w.y (. rao,Ir th. bErLrt gs.
of th. rEh) b rpprddr thc Tranadm| Th. rrtu blinA
b:lll6d.d i. dtFdat ln .r.l ori Llr .1. go:1rni lh. r.tho.l
4.tth.t'lGa,dEie.
Yein! o:u h rrpx, R.ld Bls h rr|e, b r
Ied€cCd DEy.rh D.m4id ol18.lttfu i.
vrioE ..uti6 hrw L4.d. mrl$ly odno 61n f.d.
Ttu ffion fon w! mr d.h6lr.d b in. di-nJ<.B'
pdsnilftis, culbri p.lltt r, 6.61$,.r so..llry, lt n hn..d
lh. ftsdrol iwon v.drl @dng.nd.'r {Ed6n b dF65
th. T.rsddent h !. dd rh. nrhE of dr filh hdiun, In
$. And r€sln no o.ha f.aon c6 gi!. thn nyL s

Th. 'rpi'il!.| unrv.$lll!y''of kselndmrd siyl. my

h'.rlou yinr.rpEtld by thlolo8b'4 a6ih.d.i'ns,
p'ycholo3ilb)butitand y b. d.mondEt.dby.drls. 'lai thi'
poinr.v.ryon m* rtrh to th. *idh..; on. h!6i.niryr.
rh. filnr, Rn6, rd fEm.r, hopLiSb lxhd the diye6.l

8r.u!.bu*! !.!rbryl.lr tundumbly jEi thri,:

lr crn h. lDl.rd,.nrlyz.d, .Rl a.nRr A|dbugh
'ltl..
rrrnx.nd..rrl .iyL,lrl. my fo'n.{ E|lls@d6bl d, sbivs
btrrd th. li.{.U..nil hvn$L, lt n nddE nEfi.bt. M
hvn6l. (rll, iink.nd..trl nrl. uG p4.rr. knp.r,l m.rnr
{rm(. nl|tlr,dhl.gu.,.dutn3-{or priLtht..d
 ald tDLm,lEfu IUE 3ft f&ly pdL. dlrrol bdr (:td
.aathdlrtlit trtt'S ro !pd.t tud tm tlEr.su
hnL 6). A Eh liL. "hdddahl," .tt( .ll, lr .lmd
nolucdmir h rd afticish, rxl'ttyL" l! lrtil! b.rr.i crurhS
m& pbbletr rrlanli solv.s'lbffi.nddr.l" [! l.llm und
lne juridirtton oI jomald., paldculdy:iong f,lm cdlkl
"Trr*ntl.nt'l" G drmrly a crthll En for rh. lmtr..ir.
crilic: a 6lnt plor, rdrhg, $6q !.d dlr*tlon rn rll
lpokn o! 6 teenilng 'ding,
6.h oth.r o. rhdr.!., lnd "6tylC'
rr r.rr ro rrthjns fr@ a.aea r8l. to r wly 6f llf.,
"Tr endar.l *yle," Ito{d.r,.6 b.. $.tuI hm tn
nln dlticisa {d wh.n .n.lyzinB tk olnt ol.4t:ln
Slrrn lai,.uci a On, BiE56 lnd Drv.t, h c.n b.
tldt Fn.able. Tfie ud.Rtrdlblg Elucb.. oI .6th.llclrnt
dd saiou. Gln dd6 6.npldy rh. .mept ot ddrhdhe
lE crus.d ine a[G io b. rid.Eih.d drllhodld
rov:rtins d.gE, aiut d,iil'b.nd.n '!d prt Gfor
,mdr dFy re d -ditud.d. &i Lloa d€. t mro!.ol
dy @ b.drd. dq hrE l. a{d kw rh.t
lr "bdln6dabr" '@ '|Erh!|
rnd *h.r L ".9b" rnd horhB ll|b, n
rdd t lB r }iidr.LdE. !p.dn. tttl4 but.ls t!
dd.:i.*# '!n
sfih srli.h b Dha iL

DEllx|raNNo.1:Trdffi L
olni P{bdrh.? 411F,46r *ir * DtPld.
Th. T'arodor is h.Fnd no.!.j r.M sp.rl6.., ad
krEoddt.l odr. lt h! tItG dtrd'd d,g6 .nd rhd. d13B iur ir h.nra& i5,!y dd'n d,lh.loDmt. B.r.nd
-li.i
d 6! rtudhd loth hav|dldly rd 6 pd of.Il. Lrg.r whoL
lsrhdord !rtl. ir noi .
'+u
la6.l lL "EItSiou. I lhl! rroisnthBeis l ile azr..mt.t
kr{.nd.nti in lile .ndid, Trtuod.n..
uttunrb!.of lhr
h.. b..n .
'u6l.d
Itlm'wtkh .u t. .u.ch.a b nlnr *tti L:nre.atrln
Flrtld. th6c dd aolc fis rppsFi2
I of rh. plilosoplrical d!b!b rtrc. Plao ol rh. *rth.tt. d.brl.
ne Plotinus,and ha, be€nvdlolrly lnt l?Ftd by
.rthhri! lor .[ th. r.lRo, $br nd go6e66F on. hs t phtlo'oplpc, dhdici.nrtheolosld!,slhrpol%rrt',rnd
p,ycholqlsb. Pd of rheonfudon Ir r6.nrlcr $. ern
d!.rLn.d ft r.krour 8lm', ri n.iile ! p6drl vLionnor 6
''
omcl.lc.t.dJrn, It Ir tut nreHrtly rr?rfiedby JM rr rhe "tmr..^d.niil" canhavcdifermt n.lnlryr lor dlg.dt
.rrl., Chrlx ontlE Mounr,d sr, FBd! eo!8 t[e offir wdi! , lr crn n.a dierly or indlrdly, (1) rh. TruK.d..r,
n b nd .erully.!tfeL& pr..hns, @soodr,ill :lltrg .h! ,{oly or ld.rl iG.lt d wh{ RudouOtro sll.! tfi. "1 ,liolb
n?r, !t b onl, rr4,.rly. rgla onFr," lrl ih! k nsdddbl, nudn .d. o' .dll.b wnr.ft
lt. .rlfl. iop4 b akd tiL 3tl. fd it, chpondt .rpi.ii $r.lhlng of rh. Tr@.aient, o! wlr.t MIt... Elhd.
prdr arm th.lndrvldu.l rd* rlo aploy i., frdn .h. qntor.. ln hli .nllnpol%r.rl etodyof .mpedv. F!8to.r .rl!
whhl' hau.R .hd..dbb,.d frm dE aorN ft m6r u!. "l !rulh |'" (t) t,@.d.ft., th. h!m.n dqbur
 B)lconioiniry rh. woidr,,kr5end.nbt," 3h..,rty.
.rp.dae *hi.li ra, b. @dv:id tj.itlq: d6p Fy.id%iol
r.li8ious krh, {d "d" inro m. @, ,1re*ndhr.l
n..d o' eurcd! (Frdd), or tt :n dL'rl, "otha1'Io(. ri,,, ong
rmpljee rh' h..onrdtr! rcl'8ron€nd iirhomoScnldr Thjs,of
rouE.,sRrlde himoff troh ihr (q5id.r!bl! boJvdr aihc vh.
Similrl, the hmr o i.I- to ah.rd vdl.rt.t of
$nsid.r th. rrnxmd4rrl outsiJ. rh. pmlnrt oi d,
.frr.d d, G) ,o&s rhi.n i4on d* ti.€/!"&t!rh.r
Trserldc. h .n ie olt.. .q@rd xith baff@d.K tn
rbout th. Tr.nk.ndmt, *ikh 6y rh.ir v!.y d.Gnitun hot d(.
nlbion b€lsc th.y Dor[ dr,s lrm r 6mndn Srond of
dlrldly IbF th. lrsend.nt lt*U 3ine no mn d Ltus
kin*€nd.nht .:pai€n.., .rr.n*€nd!nc. G rt e ;{p.dd!
rbot tllcrdtr dk e.h s unt nF4d n.tre (dmhon
.xpdl€n..; .n fd nlrgio! nc s iwin m.nifebiion" r cli!.
rvd.tion),nd"divituly-i^rpirld"s.rrlruE5(?..irl B€llmori"&tadRdiStonrFti!hob:drbyrt.hmn
cv.Lrim),.lthousl thl' ...Bo'y ny b. ony U@ti.d !i!e
6:pe r@ (nffirr.. ro.6kt. An .nd Rdi8ion .r. IxG
.vm m.ny t[6]%i&s rclrrd rh. $iour S.ripruE a dJy
ben ld *rks ol nnnd.4 Tnns..dmr.l.d i5nordd:dan,
.rpE$ivc or tll. Holy, (z) sorlc whict dpre$ rll. TftRndhi
ho*.vs: "A{ canberlr8tou,,,'rhe h. Gardue v:n d.'
tn huhd i.n<fioo ft.-hrde, ftn{l3Di:ed, or hrn+.l..td
Lsuw urot4 i'or an rpp.r ro berglStou6rlur cm h. n€nhd
wo'b {l1l.lt .E moredprFlv. oI lh. Wholly Oth' tir oI
Mohun.d- n6 Buddltd nor cl'ii3rix. fl@ i' no Chdsda
.h.ir inailrdt.l c.bE, @lJ er.i a tlE t hun.il@E d ry hoE rh& rhd. i! ! ctuisrir s.i4a. Tl4. n only ad
z.n Bard.nn (r) work, whl.h rcLi. !n! hlmu.xpaiha or -.,
*hichhrsrtoodberor .Hory."rrh.pFpstundi..o!
tan:c€nd.ne, which .'/r.! not th. T!.nrhdhl brl tn.
hn!.endenhl d is, .hd.IoG, ro.rpr$ rh?Holy lt!.lf (rlE
humr who.ipdihc.6 th! Trrn*.ndlnt, *ork 3uchrr rrrcnd.nr), rd mt 60.rp*$ o! illud':re rrb, f@ltnsi
.rFssior prinri$r or $y ol tL. b&y pet.lEl%iol nowls
rbout nliSi.$.onv.Bi.n. crmdsMMT rffi^rArr
lh. t.mr "Trrsend.nt,"'1r6t.!nd..tal,".nd Tll! dlii.il qft*tn6, ,boui r rend.nbl L
'lransend.nc!" ilpr(nr r hierai.hy of lk spnibrl ltm the undeGtdd.ble he.au* ilu mor€pur .nd:hsotrh slch r d
Oiher{i!.td ro rhe hunrn{ri.nrd 8.c.u* rheTrrnmillnt b(one!ih.l6scefuluI'Atibte*brnk nd.nhl:di!.
raElv s*rll out d su.|i tut.s, th.t. i, b.und b $. 6dfj6hudtv. pl*' In his erdy .f r.diddn dunri:n and
elhnti..onfcion ov{ tl*. tn' Piiloloph{s .nd -n ttieb
.ru hufran, rnd humms h:v! ofh yl.ld.d
aoseinre.pd fM on. c.hgory to ih. n!xt, to
to th. tmptrtioh
d.fin rhe
b
I odlntJ *t (.s*nrially rm<dd.ntd
coohr$wrny
r(1, A.dd.
wrn6, "An, 4m tt€ hrsl,4t, i3 dly r fre@
Trans.nd.it tv the i6.n !:r.rihc. of krn*.nd.na
cd rlt
's
txdns.sand rl& hdtuY,ih
dSht 6
h.
be
i b.nhd,.vcn<nphrrlrd honlyrhrm.rof !.dn!rh,.uAh
rEk$.drllly, rdrlrhou3hrrlilistrbdkr[$noib5c
:t rll, th. !.tliry or i@.gt+hy m6t otu b r hd whh dE
-

woi./ "Evlry irtd€nr rhdr rhe has.ndhtd vkron L'Ir<. b Le., ,4 L*. h,n{odhht Elision,
.vonhdberu6cttisinvr .bqrlau8hlLPF6mPilonmth! trn,!end.nhl r* osg.r rtrI m)E .l!hr "abhtur. rlgion
tnr of rh! huErnhind, u..oNod! ot lE lihrrtiom Thd€fot, Emyrikrrm,lt h wirhodrhrpeindvtihour5ood Ab$tur
w h.ncodorT& cnndB rshrda o lo r: o n d it id o f ,t h . fr on .drnli b. sd nor h.;rd.4 A crinr.l dao.ion to dr.
rclt, h.5 hen rid abou.tl; lnorbl. onl, bd t:n&mdml l. .d roy Norully l..d to ih. da oI.Frriv.
'ohdll$
rorhrnR r6outrh.unle*.hh. Of rh. l.sd, mrhinS..nb! prcddL!'n,d hdidtorcoloidg.rlrerrsrr. Botfircl8ron,nd
n rf t r r l h r y p n l l ! , : n d k h 4 . o n t o t n l d u n d . r r f i e b r n n d
I n'nrn yorle r<odhgly, cDnot i'fDm o.. rDout ilt or tr'n{ irfi.i|l .lPc$ron rheyni abrJ!nop!d,,
I r.nr.nJ.nt, rh.y c.n dly b. dPEtru of dt Tr.nn.nd.nt Trnn .n h'y rot.d. orfi.r ro'ft oI.x.r.ston, bur
ll,triyrlll (on..nk.kontansand.nhl *t.dtwhicl "tur.irl
n.rnnor n,,|'| rh.mii.qorl or ilF!n.ne.. coed(ur.lh is
rtr'. r rllThtrr.nd.nrln rh.hrirn mtoi.

c.l..ti., blrscmdental a* is rutocratt) th€yhavsmade
lnd*ft .d,bly poorhedfelloss.
Ule tlnrmdental ani tfte dlttcm ot kan$ndenhl
ad i, i *lf-d4rudive proe$. n ontuua y dealsin
.onradj(rbnFverbarizations of the ineffabl€,The con.eprof
t,ncendenhl *pre$ion in nligioo q in ait n(esrn, tmpli.t
a .ontrdi.rion. Tranrddental eipEsion h nliSion and .d
a(cmpb ro bilng nan asdoseb ihe tneffable,invisible and
unknowabh4 rclds, iFage, andided canhke him. Li!? th€
aiist, ih€ oiric knows rhar his hsk i! turile, and ihrl lis fro*
eldque.t *d€menr crn only leadto sitencaThe .dricat hqriry,
R%e F y iaea, en& d ihe galf 01nldniem.!
ahholsh a .drir.annoranalyze rhsTr:n:endenr,te
clndsftibsrhrimanentrdrhen nft in lhich it b
rans€nd€d H€ cin dkovei hor rhe imnansnl is exprsiae oI
LiLe"transenden.e,,,rhl reh ,1ryle,,ir3u<eprible io
.emnriccdnfusionIt .,n l,ve diole mraringeI it crn me.n,
' dimroclikeOluandBru$on,Irhinf haeapriority.Innod
.s Wylie Syph{ drrer "a conemporary view oI the wodd"'
expre$edby a p dticular 8€oBraphlchlsbd.al .ulture, or it .an
n.m rle individual expnsion Ra]nond Dugnar dekdbe as
the"or.!ion of r pa,onal,a hle.ilve,i'mn objedive'*ddd,"'
oi ]t.d n€an what Heinfth Wolfilin clkd a "gd*al
i€pEsnbiive loh. 't Thedyl€d*cribedin $is e$a) js a dyle
in the way ftat WoUJlinusedtld rein. a siyle likc the prihirive
dr da*lc *ylcs, rhe expre$ionof dmilar ld€* in sihilr lorFe
by divd8mt o|tuft. The liGt iwo ol rie rbovlnenfioned uses
oI3t k, Syphe/s andDurgmts, pspedively dadib. lhe dltural
r peBonalgualiti€soI a sork ol;n, md th'efore an fsl
rprreplhk lor ait which rxpfts*s the hBan dPdi€nce rarher
rhi,r thc Tmnsend€nt ibelf. Wolfiin! fte of *yle, otr iie orher
hi,trl,Lidrcmed wfthqhit n uivcBrl ratier tfimPaticdr
lrr|levi,l u mcans of dpr$ion, rnd thererdeis ldeallysuiled
r, I llir d dylc which *€k to exp'c$ ihc !'tlolly Othe'
'ldL
rl"rlLlll'(ilvNloi cuhu*sud pasonaliii.s.
&pr.*nbiive llrnic fom whichcxpr6s6 rheT,aniendllr, As
u.ed io ihis e$ay, trnrendental {yl. EIe6 b a 5pEinciilnic
fon, dtho$h therscouldonctvahly be svdil hanrmdental
sryl* in tln The aitical apprden I a$@are w h rh. en
"ranscnde.bl *yle" 4hoe rherbovedefinidmmd my be
loonly.illed m ElraJe-Wolfilinnethod., This hdhoa n, a8aln
+iie.imprr,.3tudy of conrmporary aiisrjc l ercphmies
rh@gh tll. an.lyEisol commonlilm lorms and k.finiquB.
nu sitial mdhod u*d jn this .sry L baseaon ho
prenisE, (1) ihat rhen aresuchthingsre rl€rophanie,
dprt$ion. or !I€ r,nn€nd€fl jn so.iery (Eli.d€), (r) ihr rhee
de cohnon r€pE*nratile aiisiic Iom, shapd b)/ diverg€nr
cultu'e, (Wolflin), TrNddmbl dyle i5 eachoI rhde.
Any 6lm (or phenon€non),or couEe,cr bedn.lBd
Ilm &J, dib.,l pdprtlve No deGnmonol',irannenJenbl" or
'!tyG" tunopolie rhe dtd$idn oI any qoll( ol *t. Filn5
efrplorins ran3.E.a€nbl sttle n'y 6€ ardbd 6dn rhe culilhl
or peronal p*p€.riv€, ind rh€yrsualb, are.Alrhdgh tlr
difical (dhod I a$d.iak sith rh? hm 'hmsendenrll dyl€"
doa nothrvea ronopolyoq rhedi!o$io. ol thelilmsof
fiIro th€ tlnr naket ability io exFessh is ol rurc or pesonality
is mon imponanr rhanhis inability b tansmd them,bur when
r lilmdo* een to havethd Benuindy tan$endmt,"Otha'
ghlitt, Lh a, Oz!'s lrte Adffin or Besont Di,ry df d
CDBnty l,nsi, th€ oltural rnd p.Gdnal appoa.hes,rlthough
perhaP3fadually acoftk, aF inadequak.A .uliural or peGoEI
apporh n e$arily disEgardsth€ uniqueqlalily oI
b.nsendlnial siyleI iis ability to han{md cuhureand
pasonal y. Thee c a spnitualhth rhai .an b. a.hlNed by
dbj€div€lys.tb$ o6j€d, and ptbe side5y eideriai cannor
be dSiainedri$ugn a luljediv€ pesond or culrunl approarh
Thc dudy o! t.nsendental style revea* a "6ive*al
fon oI rrp.crniation." Tlat lom 15lemdkably lnin€d I th.
r, ny dhoa 6E ilnft b
'hn

lt"tr'i(i{ No. r:Tr^i{f NoxNr^!S *

lhrrirl'rlly, tmneid.rhliyL i! simplythir, r g€n*al

conmon expie$ion of rie Thnnendenr io morionpicrues. Ti€
difeucs amonSrh€frrn5 or o4, B.€$on, and Dnyd are
cultuial andFe6onal; rien 5imilaririesaft srylkft, andEpre$nt
a unill€d renmron df rheT,n<endeni on filn
Tow^iD WoRnNcDErMIox
^ (psycholaSGn,dpr.*imnn).
Man, filn-makeE havedployed tIE rftc€nd€ni.l
dyl€, bd few hav€had thc daodd, rhe rtdr, ud rie ourighi
lan rdsmro.mployii exctusrvety. Elmhb or rie
tmrendenbl +yle canbedeedcdln the6lne ol ndy orier
diftroEr anronioni. Ro$ellini, P,olhi, Boetli.fier, Renon,
Mioguchi, Bunusl,warhol, Mi.ha€l snow, rnd 8rua Baillie.
one o1the .onpll.arioG df dls.u*i$ ransendmtal dyle is
ihat it enteGin rnd dos businss wirh all sortsol styles.Drcyels
The Pa#tanal laan ol Atcn+ be desribed,! a hankend€nr,l
fih whnh ;nddga in €xpr8sionrsn,Pa:oli.ts T[e c6pll
A(ard;h8tost. Mcthrb asrrlan cna€nbl liln {hnh gires
siy roMnGtealLm, ,nd so.tthq! szusnMd Frd' Nd/
re r trn*endeobl riln whichlhus b Fychol%tal Ealisn,
<end€nial ,!ytF
YsuinoOzuin rheEd indRo6ctBre$onin thew6r.They
hvr hkm in lnrclhduil,Iormili5rn!ppro:ch to liln, andiheir
fil'nxfl d|t, trhnhur t0lud! or crudrr ind rophbttded
,otrtrn$.r'hrtitrrLly{nrift9d.of o,ut trrrlitosrnd rhe
f' ur,!,'l.ofIrtu{,1, n, ,lh lLLnx i{nnrcr i similIdyle
(, (tt(sn rlf fr^n(onrlo r.c,vl Di, y,t fnploysihe
rfl K.,nlrtrhl {yb*rcn6lvdr,ilrhor[[ i lilms&enot
t{.rnfilvc.I rh.dylc, ili{!on',,rnl lrrdont.Dreyer
lit{hriLl rlt rnu$r.ndor i.l oitrdq , hrlir to Brt$on,
mril,ly h (),n,,,burhcncvc'.o'nl,ld!Ll,rryrlcofIilms
rtr't'hyrnsrlr riri{.otdcnhl rylc. 1 ltlnr sry couldb€€xrendld
r',if,r,hr srlLlILoildinplsof rlx l'ddl41(,mdpaitially
rrlrrntrl) rrinl rmnxcnd$hl dylch !MhlnoI rhelilft oI
lrftl,llr!{1fi l'( *rJ llobcdoltos+lll"l lrlrlgh thse,6uld
l,! r.ltri!'l! v(kll $on th.lhrnr, rhnr.rihPlesshorldbe
r ,lll,k$ r",r'y ll.wrLS htofrl! , t rA t rDrn r
lrdn'drIrr rlylc k . r)rs rlo , l, c ih € n )s re ry o r
rnrft!i rro! l$w' rll,onv.iti[rlh.'rr(dions or realiry'
i,nntr'ilhDL tly.ln'lq:hr, dnrnl.lxm, exPE*ionth,
'olh '
r''l'rnmhhLi,tr1, l[rlly, nrioiLhi,. lo rhctrnr€ndenral
dtct ntidnalisn is only oneol nany ipproacha b llfe, not an
hFeradle. "lf *dytfibg i6 €iplainadby lndtr{&dabl. cauerl
n€e$itie6," a6$otAn6J6. Aylrt srot4 "or hy ohjedivc
d.eminiEn, eveniI thcir pn.jse n.tore rtnalns unlmm, then
notfiing is sacrsd."L]\e €nemyof tran!€ndda l. lmm:nence,
whetherir ls *rem,l Geallsm,rationali,n) or i{ehal
ro ihe t ns€nde al ardn
rh6s.oNertidaln .rpfthndn.olpal yareefroddaland
nrioml connrucb devisd 5y nd b dilurear.rPlai! a*., the
I. norion pfulr€s th.* on*Nd5 ta*e the lon of wh*
RobeitBr€$on nN c'll.d'!d€.ns,"'r due or nudy 8!id€! wlti.h
fi€lpth€ ew{ "undesta.d" rie dhl, plot ading,
charadsiarion, em€D,orl, iuiii dlal%ue,editirg, In fili6 of
banndddbl srylerh6e.l.n€nb aie,in PoPultremt
(thar i, Aey arenor exPresiveor dlruro oi
"mn*p*sive"
pasnality); tley areredued b 4a3i!. rrrkendenr:l dyle
rJ]tArearitybyelinin ins (or neaq €!frbadne) d$.
elodb wh.h ar. primrly cxpr€ssiveoI hufran dp.rien.e,
tfierabybbhing iha oNmtional inbrPrthdms or real}y or
thendcvance andpows. Tannd;dd dyle, Ille th€ hrs,
hnsloms cxpeliencetnio a epdrable ritu,l whnh cn te
In illie 6say ii*s wil 6€ nany o.casionsto draw
onprisons ber,ecn kan<hd€nkl dyle md edli€r m€ins oI
r.liglous md dtistic expRsion. Tha mod incduciue of rlE*
hdaphoG G berwen tansendmral dylg and Fnnihye ad
prihrnly bscalsepdmttive d hasalwaysbeendose\ dsociar.d
$ith pdnillle religlols bdl4. ]f onediviils a* into primitivism
andd'$idh a5wrldedar DoennaI'as done,rrhdshdet,l
styh invariaDlylalls into rheprin ivEn cohmn. UsingD€omat
di.hotomite, t.nsmdmtal dyle chsss imlionrltun over
nriondrm, rcperitionovd rari.rion, sa.Ed ova piofanc, rhe
d€itn ovq rhehumanniic,intellKrual rcalsm ov* opiic.l
Faliem,rw.-dimensionalvisionovtrrhE€-din.nsiond*ion,
rlJrbnovcidp€n4enr,.nonym yov4individ!.li?aiion.
(Thepndl rvc.la$ical dichobmy is rct reeFaiily r
.hronololi,ilon!,ih.yonbefoundindl.ultures.)ThsreGon
f or th! i(LrLlyh.rwcentans€ndenhldylsandpdnitrvirmh
obvlou':borhh!v.'rworldviewlhichendors mrnkindrnd
tIIeall in a de.ply relt mit , dich on't uks th€ e$.ne of
their Eligioushes."u wh€n4er digioE prin lviin derge
from r pod Heu..r. cdtort, . n4 arisric atyle€dE, shettE
it beBy:mtine, Gotlii., or slp@iiisL In cin ma,ihe n€s lotm

In e,(h oI ih€ rhr€erluprs rna follow thee will be

appropna!.referh.6 6 €aiier alusricieligious exppsionl
OzutothezdaGolpin ing,g{dlning, andhaiku,Br.$o.
to Eyantin. l.dognpbr Dcys ro Gcrhi. aichfte.ture,
Tlrjs e$ay hops !o posit th. hascend€nhl stylc ,nd
explainson. of ib aedhdics. I havenor atknptea . full an.lysis
of th! dtebG sinceI amprinarily i.rdaEd in th.* filn-
nalec b rhc exkni rhat their filns eveal tfie k n<endenial
rryle. IFm a {udy oI ozu! Iaer fanlly,on:e.yctc of fftns de
can*ric{e th. r,mend€nhl ,ryle Ircn a ndigcnous
(Orienbl) dltr* dd.xamin. how It fmcrions hotft in nd our
oI tu .llbru. In Breson: piison .y.le Albs, wEran history

'bFhdFbt$lqdad!tyl.,'hE'!d!,,P'd'l{"{i
Ldr, Mrdmr l *ild i@ Tilfivin MoGe'y, nshr, v4o or'
lo'lLPoryc!dl|G!@LI ctrl4 by Mah [4.htd, Ndhdhi&,4r,
-rrscndnril 5rylcchos6 hklldrl arth ov{ oprtal adb,

.nd iholgfit r,'e alreadyilk.ai€d !h€ hfte.d€nirl5rtle ton

obFcdw!. r[L ma. rptsudy hrr D irs cultu&r his GIn5prdllde d €x.elhnr oppdtunrt, to study
u&nrd ry dkrd, r res io FrF h d.pdr Dd s!$sr how t actoally"sorl<v'm the viesd.
6nL rnd ri4 lrnd b tusrr rhn hrt &
Diayd's Ghr, althoughIAs su.Rssful oh rle hans.ndmbl
@atu^dualsdrdiFod {^@'a6!,4,rh. s4it EGb.t al l.vel, illu6hatelow th. dyl€ (dr a pd! oI it) 16.6on, in . noinc

Tlle c...1*ion {nl db.d$ someof rlp prcblem ran€d

b s<Ed obJ!d'. h tdrdoEl 5yr(h.oryolhann€nddr:lst le in th€dnema.

onoin PriiewPry d {', tn! oM.{p

l. Ozu
'l'ltc 6lns of Yarujiro Ozu *hplily the kankendental
siyleh theEa+.Inhi6nltu tl s5t le& nakGl,
tndig.nors, aii .mh.r.lall, .!e4ful, larsely becaEeof rhe
iapftse .dbre it6elf. Theonc?i of hNend.ntal.xperimc€
rsso lnt;nd. io tapde$ (andod€nral) oxuE, thal ozu wrs
rble borh 60dev€lopthe ban*endf,hl siyl. and io day withln
thePoPdar.onv€nrioN of rrpanAe ai. ofl, dlten deldib?d
* dE "mod l.ph6e of au &c.ro$,,,gdned Feped $ r gdre
diEcbr ed dfticrl and lh,n.ial 3!...<-nftr& ,hi.i no
diEb! inreftsed in rrnsendeniil eryte..ula €xper to reap

Orimtal d h ga€hl r.d zm a* in p.*icular aspie ro

the Trftendlnr Lik pdriile art r.d iq:l ori€nrrl ad
mks no disrin.dotu bdwrd rl'e 5rcEd and iie sEulr. TIE
Odhr lorgcd a lasth8 dlhE ori ol rl'a ih! Nloplrtonnb and
s.hotdfiG ntpothsird andt! nre ca*s rdiz.l, d
fdynous d in rhich'!lt that & rru€, blslDhseE it hd
bEn 5rid, hasib orrginin rhespift.",rn zen, ihie ie €xpresed
5y r. H. Blyrh|'fhe podi.al rnd the i.lbrour ar. iddrical
drt€6 of nind . , . to ine EliSic ,ll ihings arc poetical. . . ro tlr
podicrl all thingsan reljSious.'zror lhi e€nhundredyeaGzh
IE5 culrivr€d tIE rftddetal .xped@, and rhe
Ttlnrlndht IE folnd expe$lon nd oly in rcligion anaae
ris, but ilso in a lide vdllty of "@mno.pla.d'actillrle, This
*pruslonof th.Trar@nddtwa5notrheperquisitof a
lntll.dull or clental elie. & bean. m hdhi. pad ol rIE
od€nrll h.ixrs. n.nn} ri'@sh rie rb, and no disrinctionwa5
nads b.twm. ih. nn. and tlE manualais, Z{ didikes rie
"oilor of rlltrdlon" whici coms fon a r*m likc
"t!i8(ndN r/" D. T. su4ki poinb out, be.use in fld zen
dkllks iny !flul to woras.Aclnowl€dging iht lrminrlc
ob*rcl., il r! earero 5r, a! slzuli doB, rhar Z.n opraks *lrhin ,ufnd..rly dk€n.i.J b l.!3h rl tEela s.v4J .d$.s hav.
dE "r.rlh of tanse!d€n..,'{ poinrld dr ih. ehlution ol ozut approacl'b, omp.rinS rhe
Illts O:u did noi n!.d to revlw rhec!!4$lon of rie a9t2 I Wd.Bom, Brt . . , \Unark Wo Mjr4 K4.do) wilh rhe
Trr.*4dhr in Japan,or inj!( it hb th! odhrrl .uliurc, but ,Coad Mot\lnS (Ohd!d). Ozu! tnrn onsin I trJ'r
'9jgaftl
aon, B!. . . . {eF
oi, ro.drpr r ro 6lR. Ozu Epr6db hriLrjon.l trpD.r rnnrdd: lje tnrn onsin Go'1
M.ding *4 ibn.rl -.1.1.nd
xd unv€g! coep.nd b dE En !.,
th.ulht sd d. ed h. bdnte rl'. rethr ol odhhl k did6
roth.hod.m,$ chicfflhRldiun.DmldRihl!has t w6 8om, But , . .ws"..rlw rrt,|d rlr .onrdDlad!..a
6.h.h.rlz.d lapalesefln dlrkros, phciry Kwqrwa on rlr o:u! ..rty filns Gu.I a! | !t6 a"n, Bd . . .) w* squr.ly
f'r lelt (mod!n) da oa 6 ihc In (rrdiiron:l).r ozr ria, wlthin rh. orBinrl rhonin-6.1i conc?t; li8lr undd*rkd
iarkedly con,.N,rive rn subjlcr m{rer 'ishidd ndhod (hes6 cotu.lLs with I tiryg of rod.l coNciousn.$. ltme, afilu€n.., rh.
anong rh.lsr r+r.6. dnEbB to urilia 3or.d or olor), and *r, Aovemtar pis$urc, rd W6rrnLrtlo. FbeFd th!
tu ercv. b !* Ih. old trdldm in rl'e nd fom.t. :n J.pd rt'onir-8s*t h Bdd4 ud Ozu in pnricdn. Wt.n Oa
"n d.hdviliarid!onlyd.lmdftdy.aold: i!e@r dxB.d-whh Il!; I(qhr@nEdyrlowty totud ro "Gis..a
ov.r r .lvjliarim which h{ 6dund for two nillmniJ'l in ..dn*"-Iu took rh. 3[orir,8rli mrh hin, d.dn|8 nud rh.
Omt ltlmeZd d nd rhou8htie the .ivllizdon, lllm ie the !m. n'nuhc ov.r rh rhodin B.nE .s Iohn Forddid de th.
amrr.s wcdtr.. ozu'r l.t r fflns d.Rtptive oI thc
although rhelaprn€n cuhural rrdItid :ft.'d.d ozu rrorlr-8.ki, bdr pt6.dpti!. oI it. -e.or
eN. luxuri.s, his r.sk war not tr Bsy r5 ii mrr rcm. cino. ''b eyeryoz! nlh,,,Rtchie sri6, "il! edtd
habanon of th. pnN.rt r /.etmnh8 rnu.tuc in 6nrh@t dJv,Tl..ndroI$edl,.Fnonoadlhr -lDL
ohpo y rrpu,.nd i|| hir etidng r.r htiriond v:lE Or ltu onat rh; h;e 4 ri hr 6r; rk;ddt. ds5 ii
otu.nr.n conkrryro.ud.ni k nd5 diinillr8d.d., t?r.6r.d.5 or6a volk d,rnahs46t ,,!Jr:sE ty
radton!ry by manylipan.!. youth!. In i *n.. Oru bu&.d sprftt (so,r!r, 1916),th. oIBa "a.mily'r.plr., $e l$u$hold
frehion ln ht6puBu of a lllhlc hm*end€nral !iyl., but rIE rmlly !nit, Ozu !ocu* or ih! krsions bdw4r rie hon. :nd
EsirtlNe lE net wrs rchdv.ly ninor @mpard [o tfi! F.istd.. rh. ofi14, tn! paEnt rnd ih. .hild, rtici fig.xrhstons o! tlr
.no6r.Fd by Brsson who, in rruce,lE b 8o brk b the ht6r b.e.m th. old dd ne J.pm, h.rwr.n triidon,nd
Sclolltrelorsatldi.pk dhrrdmrh.fitforf.id w.lEhizrrim, mdalds.hly-h.erd h.n hd natue,
:ny hoF of nG p.p'Jrlt d.!3ffiiJ !4.*. Tow.ra dE dd ot li' tif. (tu.tid in {6, rt rlt. .qe of
Ozlt c.G' *a! 6! of ran hcnr I h. .dnnudt linit.d slrty), or fodsd his rnhtim.n .d:h aomr or.ond.r
his hchnquq flbFd m.dd, .nd edibrial cohNn| Earlyin his uithh th. rhorinZeki. Tib .mli.t ii not d!6. ln w6ren
thr .nd ti cairinly k nor plor: "Pictue wl$ obvton! ptob
..re.r (ozu ndl! nltyjorr nhs overthtry-fiv. y.:s, rrom
bdn m. now," Ouu bld Rt.ire.
rerT ro 1e6:) ll! 6lh.d th. Dmantic and ,odJ tlt hs in3in€d -Natubtty, ! fth mnd luve
soh. krndof ihctu. o!.li! ti t3not a !ln,ld r re.l rhai,
uponb, t!p'e* prcducdr bct l:rer ih lif, p*kuldry ir.d tl!
pi.runi,nlgoodi! h$room{cndr.morr.d0,.,4and
send Wodd Wr, Od li6ir.d hin*lf b rh. ir'ontn geN.
ocniry l,b r!tud (,4rir'Jo'i) | ,,I w.n. ro D.ftrr a rd!
rd wfihrn lh. *,'i,a.lt b ei,io t rns ol ogrd
'nd .lu.!.rc' hy .lbirBriry.tl rr. drmrti. d.via!. i waa6,at.
p.dpht..lwfi.r[rei!lll!ulrho delinarinq rt.drahad.
Th.!trrin genroconcghsprolchrlrnrnd hiddle-cla$
upsind dowhs.ao In Ozut hind japd.* ht;hrJ Golved into
lrl. lnd"ih! sondlns hrhorou,,Nordl'nd bllilr Flations
ccin n ot |nr lng tor.s whkh fie Ep.dedly dlhon*dkd in hil
wl(hlnthc f imily."!Tlt!r,ott-(rlr, Inlrhlly| 9.nn oI
nlnr,r,,l alrlrouBh ri.,!fortanu*b!r.oncit.J, d.v woutJ
nrloJr.n,ind lrth( o6!dy,odlrmrFdl,' rl[ht.rlqrsrnd
bc.m. not1,.k(trrtl!dht,nyrhlry I ifl ificirt re ptor.
r.ny Fr,mlrrt6 In!hp!,ori'rJJl.tlirld

hor!,o,tdoEBh on. fuJy
Th. cidjor,h.o{hn.nons!dtrh
ozrtl.rer.yd.olfimny-ofGRfilms0irrre.nGln,to4
, 949ro196t rerrur.. rh. 6kang.n€nI of prFnh andchildnn.
Th. indd.nb of .*rmg.m.nr !. in thln*lvs rtndLasly
p.ty: htjrge, floc.rion, bt.lqing5, and d hod edhS ry.,
tM hod. B€hindIh<. in ia..b c rh. divisin .l@b
of
noa.h Japr I ih. S..qd woild w.r 0i. (hild..n d. cirLd
dp,IjEz g..fr(ioi) .nd wserni:*ron tfi.
'ho
.ofparhdralidnS .tturr of offf.e Furine). Th. prlnlchild
ekmgemcntis nota frrlun ro'tommunrc.r.,,,Gin American
juv.nile delinquacy r h' Ev.n h suce$ful r.liionshipe Ozu s
cfi,rrcK donor.on-unicr., asihr wod i3!r.d in sriol%ic|l
h.r,.n,sirh.dmi{r:tio..ndod oful id.rch$8..Iii.
cnn.l.mcntGulrsfrorth.lo$otrh.trdition.llrnilyuity
w[1.],wi' n.vcrvcrb.lly6rmn,.r!d]. rh.nBrplac. !n hn
liFrlhn'()7( fur iltrnopposinsfokr w[htnrhdm. of6e
M'l{'dr(Lnrr(on!ilnlnEi vriciyol hnrnhlng.ible
, hd fl k' l onrli r r'rfsdrudofu orr {ory t6lly noiling
N'rrhil dNdok) rdurdruidn rv(irfirms.ozulas
norodolr for fi163 the 5.m. jhriion dd ov!' rSrinr th.
tuLheFd.ugnkr lodli r of L,? 5p,jr3 'nd :elot be.me
ih. norhr da$hrer.onnl.tof r.& r4!irz,'Ban.ikr.
rnd r4.rd ro.
t:i[.rlaugfrr.odirr b ?inAr.! nn Alt!rco" lsodnr Na
J!{ .5 04 sddld m <.drin .dlicb ro pc.nr jn llis
6lrs, h. s.{ha d! .edii prcph rohdp him pG..r rho*
6nni.E. The h.joriiy of ri! larr filn, *ert photosrrphld b,
YGhm Abub rnd dl werc wrltt n in .olt.bor:rron wtih Koso
Nodr. o:u md Noda €njor.d I tesenlary rcLrioBhlp brs;n
dnkbr Dd wihr: "Aldrcu8h s! ddt r.ne dowh th. detrils
of th. r.b, thly:€ h our Rind5.r ue s|lwon id4. w. thinl
r.. It E d.nadrl3 .hing.arOr rd Nod: rould d.viie rlF
p6Fd.d frlh.nudy in rh.rfrrds.rcrd by dod:nd in:8e
by inrg.. afErrhLdr.n4v.ppp.r.rion (vhd rookhomtout
nonrh! h oneyearin sclElo.), o,u woutdne.hm t altt shoor
rh€PEd ozu-Nod, srrpr,
sidla,l, o:! s.trl.d on . selld Sroupof rdor rnd
Lk!$6 ro :pp€e in hir lilm. Th. NclQ' of rhir 8'oup
d3i!r.d of chishu Ry!,s.b*o Hd., Nobu N.thur', and
Slin s:!!ri, Th? wE Oat 6lhic "f{dy." tn ...h 6Lh .h.y
aorldpl.yslthiv iaiioBo!.har.d$,.ciinsourdod.3tic
.ontr.B wuh tle *ns. o{ 4d8ned awar.n6s whkh omee from
plryjng th. rcl* md L.1lry tlE sam. lmo onehlny tim6
o?u chok hre 'deadoE nor fo! tldr,str,, qralit, or
ldins skiL
bur tof ttun "6sentirl" qurlity. "In c6eA is not r har.r ot
slilfuh.r or l.cL of 5lill D .dr h.s. I! L wl, tE ir. . . ."!
"Th.f!h{.dr!3hkrs oI !4r. spr'! odt: s.Lu!. tn.
chi hu Ryu)b<u€ hdh4-d:!d& 6natu dI t4L
(.aru Hdr, yolo Tsut.s.).trd
'h€ *Eikd b a r'drd.dru.hk^,tndn
coof,ir
tn Ar A&uhn Atqn@a tAd^t'shtm rwshi!, Ryu)," -
I Koh.wtu Fdnlty (koh,r.swk No Ati, 46at, ta An
Brr of :n, Od.6trd fik hdniqu.. Od Ieri'ld.'3 Artonn Afhoon.ao..r.npl4i,r li3 l.n 6lh3 O:u dlpld.ly
.osJlmri. 'Etr.m.listr hie dar .F.h:r:ftd!!d lt "d lo{ak cdbh klllquE heIEd u'.d in E rl! s!'m'r (r) i[!
a!*€ndo!r d8or, i.on.em Io! hrdity md..onoB, n aePirl^B t{clrns 3hot,ol wlich th.c de fift a b &flr s!rm', G) r
b tlll ultisrt. in lhlhttm."rr B.crBe Oz!! i..hlnqQ L 5o doiop {iti mphri! on trdal dprt$ld, 6u.h asrn old h.nt
IimiEa sd pFdthble, it 6 l..xdhld cloc.ly rn't in d€p6, pLdr. h *,rhln8 tl|. rll.rhe, b) r phyrrcrl :ciion ro 4prdr
r.6l wil.i Donrld ii.Ln lu. r@mPl4trd in r t tul*L obvicdorar@hr,rh.$rdi$douoI.Idakrcl.f
dd.6n d, "YuFo O:!: Tli.sFa o{ lft Fllrc'"{ in dlaun, (d: dr o. 6dia rir. i,,. dr,l|idr huls o.
Ridn. dddtbld On!'!Ftu'.! d.hPlitud in I'i! !{nmr, &rron by n.dor inr. bo lhoE, (r) 1 (t 6.rkm r}o difi{di
*tuduq .dlrlnsi rdPo,4l Knq rd $er. {Ul b. ned b lndod dtinss uiihoui .n octd@i'tod." paulo (6) us..t
pqio.|1.rlly rf.! ro som. oI RLhica oh*drtio rt ihb n.tlon .l rrckub, nonr'trf, lrghrin& alrfi.uli rlk rsv.ry nr. rln
ln.rrly Ozu. E rly 9r"rr:lso dnuinr k.hniqu$ sl ch Oru
o'ut rsrr L iwrvr d rI. ldd ot I D.6d arEd d lld not 6hpLt ly dl,ord 6ut.d. ro ur lB' m.l L$: (r)
k di.iun l a.t|jm o dE b;i.L@t l[E r;t.lor.t'. nokdhl (r") ri8l., G) aen r.ts or Elrtiv.ly 3td
Fosd.'T[tr krditiord vna k l|l? r'l* h r+4, da.ndha
d!..tior (r) s@a ,hG. $L pup.4 s{ lisfit .on!dy.
; lery limitd 6da o! vcion. It it li. *dtllle lot srtdus, lo!
The purpos. of ihk esay, h*.v.r, t! nor io d.nr. Orut
lBiening,ltIr th. posidonton wii.hon 3e5th.Nol,(Pm drl. by wl'ar heofrrkd, Dd by whr wI l.fr atkr hr! un..nhs
shi.i oru Dr..lcs of ih! r.r cEIIml Ir ft tll. rBrhldc pturirys-hi5 liod nyl., shnh mtht b. crll.d . bannddhtrl
rdnu<trrri,tll.,a$ ..trlbd.."r!Th.cud.,.rccptinth.
r.c. or inndc, n4r tuas; ii tll. Ift! nLB ihR & ro
,rs, no dolli.t, no ao' 04! dlt GInk Pln.tu:nd it
'rt*
dr. .ut. rnd n k not th. I:n cur roi impad or rh. iqtiPoftg dt 3.foi. on?.r:nrlvze rl'. t,n*lndhrrl stvL in O.u .
lor mehphdrtll merning,b(t tlt. Pr.iry cut *hl.h d.nores! nln,, onehu* nrk (o!.*.nplo n!L) .h. .fl.lrl let
rt. lv, rlvihhic rrcc.sion of wd6 .ludv. ili,thction blrwen r;{end..rrl *t dd rhi.i of
O.. 6r* not, hor.v.r, rni'k! O'u! "pr.di.tablliry" tsuj.mdmtrl ?tprr.nr. siihin ourt &,L Do ozu,! lilmi
f.r 3!p.ii.irlit, orobvio"ffi! Irt rurtuEnd,a ftF
.ip6 .Tr:dod.nld.lorh.ya?t6so!&ztrdtrlr,
mr.d!r!it'I.ulHl'dddU6th.mkhniqug xd hrl.:Ddi!e ot rh. Tro6d6r?
l@.rrdlr rn film rfid Glm.PEdkr$ility ln odt 6tns d€s Th.fiEt,inm.dtrt .G*.!(un5.,,a.dloI.our.,"
;t nlR iFm r lack oI intthtln d disin.lity, .t ll doe6ii th. Th4€ rsno d.tic-fr...onmunierion *fih $! Holy.nd rry
Iilft.{.n? dir.bs, but rrlherfbm rhePdnlttv..omePtor *ork whkh ltp&sd $c Tr{:end.nr mld rtso *Drc$
ittu.l ii *lkh Epdidon le Pr.f*rd to vnilty, ih. p.ronrlity !d dhur. of n5 drirt, Thln on6 rl'e .lbmr
Ii j! Do$iDleb d!fin. O.ut e!tl. by *lur lr i5 no! Ozu pbbl.h of ndividul rnd-a', o, ddar nlns i!lei.6 .i;
is tl[!16{rl.r shd d@'t ito Qn:in thinF Thls .iiffodd .tfrts. Th. aidit(tion 6.&q r{n nddrrt d rh..n
of t.[niq{. snrin!.d thbuSidt O.ut li{.tim., lftn hk S6t of r:n<.nd..bl dpdid( 'd
&el*! inb lmtat homhar
film ro hk hn, A! he3or old.r rl.i. wcr. nor. $d n@ thirys qu.nroni I whlch inf,u.n.cd On! .d hor? Hk p€Fonrt y,r
ll. dldnl to, Thlr.m bc rcn nor dnly by codPnhg rh. early
rndlrt'films(rwdrSo'n,tlr. 6oodMo'rin3),but
'nd 'leo
ly.omprrlnSrh!difi.nnipf s.! ol hlrhr.t fllhiE rly
strad.r lS,tldr rcr 4 w8 m:d. In .bout ih. hldiL or Ouu t
hu lpdi*r) pdrod, y.r It B 6rrl.ll, dl(.thr tron his Ld
finrf Bd.knyu.l.!r, Lik lrnnn, rhr Actrna of th.
II Zen .lltoie, or rheTsn{endeDt? And whkh cn&J d€nnitbn or
sryLnbdsuired iouncovsihaiionuence?Thepe6ona1,
.ultubl,orrliade-Wol*lin(h!$endenhlstyl€)?
A11tlr€€ tritical nsrhons lved sondhing abouroznt
fi1ms,andnone.an benegl€ded,Ea
Eip€.rive inauen.e.But for €v€ryatiet theF ts an apprcpriae
pdoity of dttal nethods, anaiktt p€ieoniu, ia, be a
refl(rionortt iimdin8r or vn
rem5 tht hn p*onality ws envelop€d5y zh .ultoie, and that
Zen cultorcwa5€nvdopedhy a tant€nding re,lity, lile ths
lish who atethe nsh$ho ae rhefish And, tadng tht s€qnene
of intu€n.er it is loped onewill rrive ar the ,inal unique
inf,uenc on Ozu nnd hie lilmi
ozu ;N H6 PERsoN^urY
Theque*ionotpssonalityGnotdnplyanrtrerof
rll*fier or nor fr is posible ro derectOzut pesonalny in hie
tlft. obviddy ii is. Th. dil€nmasanJ sohtions oI ozu'e filrc
,real!oth€dilemmasandsolutionsolfi Gdlnlife.Ozunever
nar.i€d,6rt*ryed athoneliving$ithhcagingmother.
HGlilmsacolh!abouttherelarionshipsof .hildrenbParenb,
thshardd(Gbnsofrairiage,andthebaunaortheraniry
"bFaking up." FollDling lhis ftitkal enph3sL,one*rner h*
contndrd thrt ih€ moth* is *ongd in O,nt film bRarse
shewassoin hiso*n life r'As tsoftm rheose dih Aln malca,
the as. o! Olut leadcharad{ uslally cores?oded to his
oM €e, intl asOzu grts oltlei his .haradqe cam€not and
noi€ !oembodyrheoldertadiiionalvirtus of laPan.On
ihc otfo hmd,ihse *de alsonanl exP{ienesin Ozu'slite
whichhe did not epres.r on liln. (H; dPeiPnes a! an amt
rBei.r:ndansipapdmanarenot4fl€.tedinhls6lns
ll n*hr b€mor helprultdPhnsethequc*ionoIO,ut
lnqnullry dlff€runtly. To whr *rht wil Ozut Pdsonality
L''trr,fl trlhw$d.xtenrwas rP r. " ih ri! € o f t h € z e n
Ltrlr(r?l)rl(rtrlublugrklisp$onn]ry In rh€nams oI ths
r'ilrrl,rul {thl,ril dii6t, dr s&c hh ll'tr i rciu,1lyhiSNy
itrlrvlLIrllrrrrut,nn dns?Pod Ir,rilrrrc Wenelnan,
f ,l,trllL$NiLu' t,Irrc!,iae1'o, !rntrrund,byandb13.,
i,rtrtrl rh!!or,'1t ortsHDil qt'l
canaraswany $ys, 'thd i am the doer'-,hercs h
hadition:i oltnhl dr "humanindividuality n nor d €ndbrr
only a naans.4l lr Ozu s.s a "pssonal" diredor liL., say,
Fellni tlat ir, if ne soughiprimaril, ro expft$ hiEpEEonal y in
hie lilnr, th* would se€mto pla.e hld h iLe hadilion o!
Wesem individualbtic rt rathr tfian raJftidnal Oienbl rd.
Ri.Ii? sehE b ddeborhsiJs of rheiseueon onehand
h.writsthat'ioz!cndr!n intoftiveaid,h.isamrsbr
ftaftsmnr foi hin, 6li i, nor expEsion b* !nMrioa",'ed
ontheoihdhandhe{*e${ozutapprorcht.'inturiv€
latner thm analytic."l3Que*ionsd abod ihe ,|PaEnr
onradiclion of his *rhmenb Rkhie ieplied, ,,oz! $a5 a
orrtlnin who alwrys maaellL 6lns d€ safre*ry, He nwer
va,iedl s qay ol miling a ftln, aor Ii5 way of ediringonFa
lory andFalnfll proes, Now this n€ans rharh€wasa
ftlbman Blrldonltlinkheeverrhoughtoflh*all rhls
n'atr.+d in rhat .e8ad I nnd hih intonrve.H. did shat h.
lelt IiLedoing,Ozu would talk with you for hds abod a lind oI
lms or a edain color,bui iI you asked3borr the m€aningof
&ythlng or rhejder b€Liid his pres€nredideahe wo'nd lid !p,
He r.5n'r inr€r€ded,ozut inn€i *11 is thde lor atl b se€,but
ny poinr is rh sholinS it wasnoi otu ol nis con.drns.'4.And
Iate,,1 rhinl ihat i, dding bortr5ides01the mder G .orcd
andI rhink it is rie only posirionro hkc in a non dualinic
on dokr daninrtion onenalnes rhat Ricl ec
I€nftiftdalilg is un oi'lable,ana,a5hesaye,proper.The
prisonarv{58 olruGl dilema wlth 50v€x€5wErem cdrics
wourdnor haveo(uftd to lhe raditionat odenbl {ii5t.
con:id*ed il rhelal3{ conkxt of zen culile, manand his
srnorndinS3 d€ counrqenveloptng,lr{ 6 re niod rnd body,
.odenr d formj any disrindion b€ireen rh€mis arbirrary.Il
ozu'eworkis really*epeJ in zn culhE, asrhenexr*dr.n
mhhil, rhcnany {!dy oI rhe"individual" Ydujno Ozu apaa
fEm trlrrLdnrlzenvalus Gie i$le*, To ompou.d rhe
PlndoroN lShrsat thatoz!! h
rharis,lih hlrlmr, w€relomaiciic.Thismay*rle rhe
r r.ddr ir{ hsnin8l€s.onbadictim,andlrisandural
roJdbllrL(, d,y cro${ultniil appre.iation of ozu'3,ilmsin
l(L{ N !riJrrLotrilOieihri
P
.!lrur.l phlnon.non (th,r is, o(uu wlthin , partj.llar ar.a .ppEv. rh. nm. lor nnrl shooun8.Actoff *.r. torbtddento

T
.hong!padkrlar hbd oI p.opl.),jl c po$i6leb lat thatth. rure.v.n nlh..l .crionsif rh6g dnrurbedozu,r .6pGiiio..
Ths. dr.mn.no, rnd niny orhetslile them!:.!h to hdi.rac
Z.n .ulhr. hv€lope, rfie indivldurl p.fonJ y, but 6(
"one that oz dr6 rfid i ht88a !tria thrn p.tsonrl, pry(hologE.i
rh6. fthab, hcludbg pandoxrql €pigi.ms lile "Oa!
lnhltton*.' ldfrhlitve,'hiv..ny 6!.ni.g unrilon. EarL6 nv.hi'on,rl h.ioushr.lil!rhet.dirionitO .nrrtnil*,to

t
ihr botfi p*onalit/ ed .ultun .t! .nv.lop.d ty r h.okmding elnini. hk p.son.lity in orderro propce r lhstr,

A*dD Pn-!^m: O& rm ZH Cu.flrr

& ir pci$l. b idrt O:u! prsnJ ti| ,nd bdjers L,
hL ilGs, bur ihis do6 tui dh rlur $. p€sn.lity-.j6d Mu.h oI O:u'r.pplddr is d.riv.a fEm r.p!*.dM
.ndc:l ftrloa c fte h€errppd.l b hi5 ,ilnr. Tle pndl.8.A tbelf, ind n b tll. k didonald.nnb *I'id h*. hin rh.,.n6r
int m..ion Eatuea aron [L pnv.t.lil. nry b! inal*rl I1 t:pf.&oI.lldkkro6."Tl.n6rapp6pn.t n.lo8,lorll.
r. h+pmed b tnol a grat dlll .lout ilE privaie life ol Zd dltuil dhdb rn o:!'.61tu ir z
!{itr Ma Yun it would nor €rpl.in hk "one{ohtr" ,ryle of dgsL..t religlon slrh plysi.al da polxkal co.chr lil.
rrni-c prtntinS, similarly, all th! fidr of Ozu s privarelife Shinbtn or Chrilrr.nuy, blla wry oI lilh€ ,hki h!,
.rnnordpl,infttsn dfious k n'..nd.ntil pauss.Ther Frn.red ihl ilrr. or rrp&6. cultorc fl'. alli.d powcE,
R.ligiousand cul.cr.l Divbion ,Ttu .J/p.ot cddud
.l.n.nb *c nor dedkd lrdm a! indlvldu.l pdron.litr. ,1rpm6.
'.po'rd:
Th! peEonalinr?rprehdonol ozu's lilm5 16 ben u,lrllt expB*d by rhe$ods rpirir,t' .ts.nti:lly
.no![3.d bt so dsladiry ciruhnrnr.! | on., iiai s. Za ih nitori'4r I ondudd.rhrd br S.rh Al.n Wrh.! rd
h.pFn ro krur m".L mr r6out Or! tl'rn w. Jo aSout.rli.. 'imply r:ngdo! t^/rd..,! Z.n L rh. quinG*@ of hrdi oml
\ JaF*e d, e.d oa tuglr io hbdue t roar@.
kinim:l disG,:t!d rao rh{ O.u, unlil. r zo p.d d pjnt-, I
nun !( living hus.n hdng3 .e ht! t.w m.r.ii.l. The d'rd6 lnr.pe+ Ijriory -hkh
rh.x.t oI zh t:.m b pEdoll.rt. rr
on kr.!n aF.xped4d8 M., fa th. sitic *Lo lfu ,rFp.trtinS, Sxdhb& rh. tlr ..rhony, po.rry,
"atu:It .Eh6y, N.h a!.hr, rudo,K.naHa dG.:dr.e rfic
!hFrhi:6 witl th.n kelh8i f,.y .on.lud. thd tlri Lelng5 t prRd.nb Io, oiu! Illc. Tom Mrln. [r5 sdr.n rhr. ozut
.E r.pi6entarlv! oI ih. Iilm-mrk* .nd l€t rhenriier 3o .t 1 filhsr.rtu.rundlrk rhehailuBrhtr,r.u4s.nd Drenrm
firt, But the cluiadde who rr. hollnS on sc.n ruy beno
noF or 16! Eprc*nrrtivd ol th. nlm.hil.r rhana nonhnrln I 4imhb,rrburth.hrLu,orou4",ii;lvom*;ot;
rtdiud. in rll th. Z.n rft rnd in Ozut ldm;-
."
rhor ol. h,ln or a bunding.Th! .h!ncEF'indiidu.l a.€llng6
Perhrp' rh.6rdc prb'cipteot zln ri n rh idr *o,4 of
{'otuw, jo, inrb,Fdtor) d or p$in3 lhpodec.: it is zd, ih. on(p! ot rug.lion, dpih6s, dd votd.
th.,Dosdi$ Iom ehi.i 8rv., tn.h hning vdDg.Erh '!,
EnpriGr,dl.n.i.nddilnBsdcpcittv..Ltunrrt Zdd,
prs., d.i .dim L p,rt.l: ltt8.r ton to.ot r
-hi.[ dnpr.3rpe@r.rialhadr:L-reoIrdtri,E.
.rp..r.ne i brid.rp!6sion, o' Eth-, mI r aPcsim
'n, o. cdh!:l dpdid 'Th. bl.nr 3ficr ol p.p€r ir pftav.d db s prF. .nd r;:h.
.l th. Indivrdu:l ,'orrty by f'I'8 lh!
,5 pap.i." Wll P.kBon {rF p!p( doB
hrt rn.rp*don oI th. Tirftdd.nt ib.lf.
ir bForu .mpiy, Much ln rh. sm€ w.y rh.soud of rh. frc3
Ev.., lndicalion i! rhrt O:u did noi rtr.npt b dplor. h3
(hrouSh plopplngl'iorf!*t[ponJqab th. sil.ne h 8$ho!
f "ronrllry the p6r.l'0108, ol hk.hiirctF. On the
w.ll-lnown h,tlu, Th. soud silee fom b ih. rithcFihc
,oNnryi l$mid!.v.rydr.hPitodiil" hlrldoBoIm/
lmprins' /',! M, Ir rle.lD':.b usedro referro rh. Drcet
t'ry'l'Dh,8knn$n..,r.y!moiror u^,'r mroGPPoithath. bdw.c. rM br...[o of r f,owa irdsmmtr r]r. hprin.$ is
wotrl l(tr(.th t',doih.sahikrNrw!,iy or thirty
rninh[#ltrrof lh.!om.M.Y!an,sungp!i.i.'rn;
unrllrnrl'r.r'n,nmM!orrubtl.tyhadbeh
'rnrrilv.lln.r odginnoroth."onc drn rnyh,,,prini.dontyonr(omft or
lr,nr Inn'n{.,.trrrMton-lll.r rlor,rnd onlythenwould h!
l|'
Mr Yie, bre Fj8,gdqi, L\e bleond 5l,ld,:
"T6€bl'n! sh?dol paps b pddved
tt\e .n!as,leillng tlte rmainder blanL.The dprine*, lowevei
wasa pa{ of rhepainting andnot ju* rn unpainka backgrcund.
T1lesinpE nshidgboatpla.edin on€.ornq giles nering io
th. whol. spac.,In th. rne ntuer the donesin a zen gard€n
given.aning ro ihe rak€dspae, and ihe lina5oI a haiku give
neanlng ro rheuwdrten tansiiionr
LiLethe kadiiional Z.n ai;i, Ozu dn(6 sil€nce5nd
voids.Sil.nce d emprin.< an adive ingredienbin Oa!
films; .hrnd€a ft5ponJ b rhd asif fiey lerc au'lible sounde
md tan8ibleobjeds.Althougi 5uchGpons6 ,ie $uary quit
subrlr a ratherobious u$ or adie ,ilen.. adts tn aaily
srntr,,se6lkoHai.l$ jlntoldhdprenbof hdinknrion
td rarty, a de.isionwhi.h dLphder then. AIkr a Polite
iiSum€nt tlle pdenb, despondent,3o tp*ans. In rhenexi shot
rlLof;rhft b naring into ihe cimea while ln rhebackrcund thc
nnlln Jos somebusyworkrnd spealeto him. shenal8 a
r' lvhl rcmrl, rnd fiereplies, "An." Stunals uorh{ &nrk,
h. iriin rpli i, "Ah." The norhtr leavs ilu roon andHac
wil|(nrol,{l{rJyrhroughtfiebaclBound.Thefarheragainsay5,
"AlL"'lltrrl! rlu!brton€.ledric,nu.hmoruneaningrul
rl,f i,rythi',| rhr Rdls.o!ldhrv. mid
|, (tr' rlL'tr'rrL,iilso p o : .bitJ' Lc lh d rre mn a n ro f t h e
r l,trr,rih,mrryor ionnany l, i r i. o , v id n mc nItillr
Ozu s Ird€ sAile in on€.ornc a di,tnt adion (bois, hains
rlowly noring, p€opleo.wEing) scu's, taThe FLNorof
ctz,nr@o,a' Rielocha.sk Na ,4jt lejz) lh{c is an
oh'ids €xampleof rhi5: rhehEband h* jud left lor a i{8thy
*ay in SouihAmerica.His wiIc, who had inexplicahlylefr lbme
Ever:l dayseadier,di.l not ohe to tll€ airpoit to rte him oft.
As his plde depaitsOzu lolds u in the lpp e righi l1and.oher
oI ihs fnme. The r€d.1llF fram i, €npt , nJ rlle plne llo*ly
rmjsh* 66h vb{. Ir G a "ful".o6poeition, ana asin rie
on..ohd painrings,rheplan bdngsout the qualiryof rhevoid.
Bui ro* of ill, n, is eiprt$ed in Ozu's'tddas." His
6lfrr dr dructured Leh.en acrionmd .mpihsr bdwen
tndooF.nd outdooBi bdNem scenemd .od.. The onflica are
always*plt*ed in ildooE, usualy in long dispdsionate
.onaecadd5. Tle sdri$s nry lary (lrcme,ofiice,bar
ftrarrn9, bri tlie do.y is ftdy foN d€dby anyihj!€ bur
n'door .onv.4atld5 (rd the on€or h exceprions in €achfilm
aE il'€fratically cR.ial). Ti6e indoor discu$ionsaresetotr
by 'oatu" i *ilflife lc€ns of outdoorlapane* Iife, .mp ty
st€.E aodalleys,a p$ing kain or bort, a distantnountain ol
lile. Ri.hi€ hasd6sibld o^t lilro ass ombination or (1)
IongsAob,(2)iedtunsiob,(r)cl6e-ups,inrh€usual*qu.n.e
oI r : r 1 a.r The rola srill-lifg shob d. insen€db*w€en th€
longshdr, tlus linl$g rheconveEaiidal indool by olrdddr
sd1IG. Eachof rfie codd sb of1an ozu "paragiapl!" io use
RicI ts Erdnology. TI€F aE no .hape$, dnly pa.agraphe
:nd.oila5. fie codasin Ozu s films fulAll tli€ rane purposeas
the u ( tetuen rie in the lamousRy6an,jrgardd: 1ie
'60r$
cftprinBs G tlut of defriion. M.n is implied,kt k no! pF*.r,
md the ftsuliart sroaiion is oneof longing rd lon lines,":r In
Wetarn,n ooewould ldurally rsnn€ rhat tft€ .o&s a4
inseicd 60give wri8tu b the par.Snphr, bur for o:u, .r ad
zen, it n prtci&ly the oppefie: ihe dtalog& gi!e! heaning io
th€ 3i1.n.., rheaclionio the *iU lif€. O2u i5 p€mearedwith flrr
r i5ih! thsh chanckr inrtrih€d on hn bmb { EnsakuJi.
"whcn life is empry,,,wai6 {!ies, "wlh fsp€ct ro the
p*r, rnd n,rhs with rtsp€.t ro tle luiure, rhe vacuumis litl€d
strh rln t,oqi.4! rn z€n aft rtu *nse of rhe,,inll.ftety
up lrr risrnf isnowfieftirongdrharinrhcrtolr.r
Gri fu v'n l[c hi .scmon],.chl'nk. rheplssrr rsnrc
i'"

Yx; ihroug( a Ddiuhu,ry pGdeemin€d ibal h rh. snElnrh

century$ m.ny N on! hundEd rulesfor.ra-ro-yB werelaid
down,ddqniniry everyihingfiom the subj€dsio b! discu$ed
dudng b io ih€ deprhof ihe lacau€ron the h ciddy. Rdhe!
ihan o(upy ih. mind, thek ninure ftle freeir oabling ro
rhink of norhing,to b€iimel€$, o! in rhewordsof . frnous
Z€nrinpo€n,to be'litring qli€rly,doingnorhing."
Similrly, Ozut films ponray rhe ".imh$, seu-sufil.i€nt
etenalnow"Gk,krrn)'His.haraceG...aielivinginthe
nou," Ri.hienits, " d rhc}hav€notuno9.. . slen a p6m
di€sin ozul world (whichn ofen) he i5 nqely od in{anrly
3on. TlErc *e no gho*s i. Ozu as
B€l8mm.The pd baiely exieb for Ozu "s "NGhlCh" r Ozu r
tlms, su.h a! rhes€ne whenthe fatha in Ar Artvnr Aftttnaan
rcvLn5tft La! whe!€ths banaid resemble!his deadwif€, h
noi 50nuc! a longingior tlle pdr in wenern krms bui is mor
likelyan"eyrneion"oftL!p!€snt50lamiliarbZenai.
wlpn Ozu lo.useson a wall cloct, wathins the *rdndi ri.k
fdilely rway, jr is padirry to conka* filn tin€ 3ndF,.loldgi.n
iihe, d botl' Milna and Richiesugge*,but it is alsoto d€ak
tI€ ndod of htal iindsinss ink8ral io Zcn an, The dock i5
lnpdrdrr h{l'anical iim. dos noi afed iho* living in an
dehal piesnt. Thae is no'1r.e again* the do.k." A shotof a
.lo& *fles thesamepurpor.3s,sa', a shorof a ra* i s
nov.n enb arenoi iho* o( dne, but the ifrpdapribl€
novemenbof rhemindin conehplidd oo inpodanrly
ndud* rheclocl 5ho6 in hL codd; dne n part or the m!, tfie

.hF ey!, rhrcu8fidhal. Edh po5si6L€vlni in r ozu filn cn

bered!.edro a p4dd(nined, liaied andprcis. nunbs of
sho6 llrhekaboylisof acqhincolororexue,r cqbin
ryP€of conveG*ionwill €n5u€r if a
loarion,I anrh ryP€of converr*
m8€ndts (n.rca,
hds(wdlk, whardh.r t hily n€nLac de doiry),* the
orfi( rll9, consae a(d$€henb (rubr neting plafts
'nike
ind'iN,), h i rt*iuont thry EninLc! and dBQ$ 50!hl
pf bkr, lNrrbScp!6ponl5,whrorhan.mb$ of rhe fimily
 aplg rh. f.ding of pdunte ,llltr bed*. (rdo ro
@'.),lnrzdidon l ori6r.l.d rh* b. D!.rt tl to
p.lerid' a di* sodd rp.n l hii !l! 'ould p{l6thB ad.l. 6rut
rE Ls, printinSnd Ep:rndrg th. ru. !.e.. O,! w.r llo
.Frl..$dlllrne6pdtliiellft psleu!!.iollep.|lot .r
rhob,Alnins dd re6ln is tlE !m .rory,Tll. .nd rF.lar.t .
z.np.lntllsca*soLtb?rslnd.prlndnsr olldy,ti.
hd piodudoI Oa'i carcer.r hcdaclb.rl . I inBk nlm.
In i Zh dristic.lphab.Fwl|.rlrc th pdntt!8,
g.rddln8, oihe hi.{6ony-lh. 16. Ltt.! l' sv4 ep.rkd
rr'.nd.rlv ddt! on wdL A d](.m..l$,.vft nlnuh, r!
.la.yr hrded b€ho oo lthi {hi.h nrr ,..n rob.
ldadoL Tl'c niy b.. v.rl.don ol brul rtlot.lr . c.lllgr.pLir
Lrbr, or r 3li8htd.viarionrr Frull.l t.hrtdu..l rrru.tuc,
Evmin su.hdlr indi'c' bL D.rhr Oz! dh.*r to rh.
hdnor oI 26 an. k l' p6nbl. h Ah! ulrk ay
^liidBn ddd..lrt Od r.Pudr.6 l',
odErn, b IEa CDbo8'{hlc
wh6 Ftd6ng.i. i& Ltte ol l|t. d|!n iphrb.l,..r, t Aot
oaclftlE Rtlrnl''saoM rlt. !E6t hrttsr o! nb [.m, oa
ftdtlcln.*n lft/*d rpr.t t To.l€6?adad.t
i! nt 5€d a if or ha Epdbd @ rhd d. rd o€, $h!
:.loaa dIE h d 616,6d..ci .hd l! .4?.nk 66ty
.i $@ is Ei.ry {idlin e.
Rierr in Orih.rl d is d'|'r.?.rild.
,h.tuEd dud. rirEl.
oa! Ioq I;h, L\. d:urs., oli.!, h.m i.d bu. "tf u o& dthrritc.vmt(lik.l|l.bllnilin3olO.dtpui,tdlt!tr...),b ir
.h.rdd B h r cdfi lc.dd, a Glb 9?..r .dvdrrrb
.y.ltc, yit[ litd. n3edd tall, d.Jrn8 th. tlm.l.s On n.s
ol hd dd mhE. "Wlllr Euop.d !r i&rd9 d+lcb:
n@6t in dnq" Coondew,ht wdkr, "6 .(ftr.d rctlon or
.t dolnS)rln, br ineynnrdsce ed €xPre$dnulddn.nr aeIfedorGgI , Ondtil a{ Ep!$ntr r.ontlnu.ur
(rh. dprlsra'r semnrion,oma UO. n$! 4k8dlalloN
.onthsrid,'4rTlE conilmdlon k b.*d on rh. ht{kudur.
.n norircnclrd,butn ith.! is thetea.dhony r th.y .F ol itual. A d.in D.tEm of 6lrck l' *4r*u. wrtlln rn
prcducbof sh.tzm.als'to rcll€daaidcnl" pMli.p.rlsbl.
Orup,ragr.ph,aa*ainFftmotO;pdrS
In Zln p.intinSth€r.dniqu. iErl evolvd lnb u $rhln d od 6ln, .nd a certrrnnun6.' ot ozu ltlhi n.
llphabd of b sh a6[e!. TleE w.rt . ..iiiln nhbo 6f bErh rcDeilbl. *ithin .n ozu ertr. Tlu dbrl lr not kDnri. f6m
irol4 B.d ro rc?rsnr Dtu,l ohj.dsr !h.y *E l.r..d the[orm,vhichLnoisodt IroDrh!q@t nt,
by br.. fmdlad pierd€!, rd wE m.drn8h4 udll lnOzrt6lnB-'sinrllrudi{orrlO hrd.d,th!fom
..nnbl.\]. siFlhrly oru riy 5P.,1of Odt dPhrb.t.. ili of lE.lr ir ih! diurl rhkl .Err6 th. .to.l pBrht (.t t!.rr),
Itrd.i.mln.d rhob fEn wli.h h. would tu€! &P.tt ru*

I 8rv.r sd3hr ro d,. d?r&$ {,!), ud 6rl.r lr p6rbl. b

rr . 2.. |xlnt.r wouldur dt "d!b clu" ibor. b EPr.Fni r lour
tulc l}[ l&yr, tlE !6ic ui.el.hu. tuodr ot 2..
l,nn.finl ph nRll.r. ro Od wdlil u*, lhot.l. .lo.fic'ltm
rr.h.K dr(lh.d thur by w'tt I
r" lh. loFiurkl .nd. m"i"s tin in th.6:.qrdrd io
rI Whsrc rhe moodor tlle homent is solitary andgui€t it 6
called5d6;.Wh€n the aiLt is fe.ling d€pr$€d d $d,
md rhc pedliar emprinss oI flelirg.dchee a Slimps.
o1lonething rrthq odinry ud rnpr.knriaus in ik
incrediblg'tuchn6!," rh€nood ls calLd p{bi, whe!
rie ndhenr evokcsa moreinterf, nonatgicsadnes
om4i€d witl autnn ind tlle vanishingawry ol fi!
rcrld, it i5 .nll€d do,r.. And when tlE vieionn rie
hinrbs * d mloown nevd b be dncoveFd, rhenood
AltlDugi .rch of tll€ frry! ar€obvjouslypre*nt in Ozu'sfftnt
Ri.hiewriks tiai Ozun pdnadly rheaiist o! .Dd&
Ior whlch hc give5Tmalo Niw,'e taMlation, 'o'o 'o
"eymp.ihdic
3rdnes", '1he hd .ftd of .n Ozu lilm c , lind oI rusigned
eadn.s, a dln rd knoling *Enit wlfth m,lntains dspii.
rheunce.rinry or Me andthe ihings of rin sorld "i! Ozu!
rRhnigus, Riciie , i6 elsewhm, is sarur.tld witlt D,bi
bK seol spoverty:nd "exbaoAlnary rcshi.tion."q lt b
!€ry dlfft.lti fd the rverageW*km rtewtr to lPPt.i.ie
the qD,n oI Ozn e ihener or ih! uari o{ k tlchniqle, i{ch
l€$ to disiinsui5n b.t*e€n the hoods of ri. f,ry! Thc
JapdesFErylish di.iionary nrelf desp.iG of a.y *remPr to
delne or delin ilG aedldl. twins of 3eti.nd urti. Sinply
!eci!!e tl'e we*ern vi.rs .@or male tte disiindions betw.d
sbiartiawote,. A!!8.ninozt s nlne hs+ould not
ntt ldlt rl n* tha! Ozu G ,Ier a singlebeic doiioD as
t nu.h oI W6rern psychologi.,l realnn. Tie.ods of On!
Iilhs argfnarl,bly .mplcx, and tf! dltreEnc. baw.a a
*ill shoroI a vase,a larrri, ,nd Mout rlit fray n6n rhe
diftd.h.e hetw.cn sri, D.ri, ard !aaE, when thg srill 3ltoi
of th. v*e is lisr shownh tak sP'inS i! evoles u.rt 6trt by
rh. nme tfiar sameshot n 't.peied'late! h rhe liln
(onnots both rDrn ud Y!8en. 'lso
Thr fountainheadof zen and Z€n art b a fund.mental
rtrlyurc.p.in.F .Ut1fi33:reof oneSrhf $'Any
JLI'domy bdwc.n h .nd nihF lrhi.h Z.n nfioll D T
tr
lJtlr'ri d, ".ll thd onetihE shat i5commdly knorn
& rml o|)|rdrvrwirlJ"r!)ls fake.r rhenY.hwghsetAJ:n
rlr(rrkr oarilln h.i.tihr wEr oo a.ouse thd rh. E:{
"vn
lLFrrsrr.rlld li,nNiln rnd NarrE ls m.," suzull
mb. "Nor m€r. partictpiion in erh other,bli . tundan nbl
rdmuq !.e.d the rwo."' Transl.ed inb Wenem bms
rhb .onE cl6e rolmrheGh, i comp*isn zen would nor
rRpt t{au* p,nth.isn involvB an rtilici.l conc.ptualizarion
of r unity which c nibril ind sponlanmus.'t\. unity.l m'n
mhe ffndsplre expre$id ln the Z€n eardcn.Whm I
'nil
24 pri€d .del€$ly dipt pnn6, reds, dd halns hi5 8ad€n
"he is not inte*eing rith Nlbr. 6!.auee he is NrhE,"3'ln
hs mostr.adioery Iom (.t led b westem mindi) rhk unitt
ls dpn$ed in $e dalo8y tld as th. ,ish sMft in tll! wdd
.n.l nev.r wc.ries of il sohd lvet in mtore rnd shouldn€vs
Th. greate* .onflict (andrha gftat€* r*ulring
dEllludomei) in Ozu'sfilm, is not polld.,l, psrchologic{
or dm.s&, b{t Is, fo! w.nt of a b.
TI'.t ih€ agedcmnot .onnulnat witfi ih€ ,om3, ihat ihg
Dam6 crmor ommuni.ar dri tf,elr.htldrcn, th* the
i'.r"-- *,r rh..f6e wo'kE-r!.se arc
--* ----t."
.ll dhddons o! th. Fo6kn rhri tfu hodm lapmer. crnnot
@tuni.,r snh hc hvironnmt. Dudng a d&itlleioning
el6irinljrg bod . .haradd In t rc /!r, nn s.ys, /'h L p€ople
who End ro compltare life. Life icelf is very sinplc," Thie
d6prn is &t..i€d h r sihllar drinking sene in Early SPnrg
in wllich . .ha',cer sara "The world bdry isn't Ery
lnhn*inS," andlli, (n$d &plier'Th,rs th€ fat ihat n
,r. ing !r. t{* disillsioment ud loneli&$." Th6e
daEllfrts ieted a bFaldown in th. haditional atitud. to{ad
miure i. zh ad. How cn nm omplcate life? How .an tlu
h5i @mpli.aie ri€ sarer?This Jor Ozq n i)E gre{ thnri of
nodemizatid: it lhread rh€ tadiilonal Onm.*, and whn
rh.t unty wo551€srft Gr of th€ 3ddurcFhon!, o(icF
comeb^Uing rltel Thk rtal dr potenii:l dch y hdwen man
lnd nduie hc al*ltr 6*r a rhme of Japanese ai but has
Sain€dr arttn {h;old intensit, sinc€"modlmizaiion'in
hpan.Th.afrc orlprlrslzrrc Jape* yolth (andi n
exk.ordlnriily nild in Ozu smprra b )dngd dnfttoE lile
Hini r O'hlnr) tainn paEnb ad polid.'l leadec i. m
cn$lror ot tldr rffont.g.in{ tt€ badni alcon.cpbof
trtr srponJridthrdlsuni(tInrrphsrlilc by.vokhI
ihr trrdtrloEl r.ridee or z.n d I! r ont.rpor.ry, .in€na6.
ont.ir. H. k mbrdly ior pEdliporil b th. oldei Sherdd
b.. ft th.y arc do*r ro kadirlonrl.uh!E rnd bftru* tlnc
lh.li .vo!d cure, rhenood ol .ui{m. "t .h 3dawhrt norg
lynDr$di. wLih rh. old ?6P1. tirn * h de ymg,' on
dlrd h 19tt.'Tll. rf,.h. oI nny rent novi.e tnds to d.ny
th! v.lu* oI th. old g6€.rid ril ro rpprov. oI th. m,iic
L.hrvlorof th. young-But i||..U !.ofL t. dl5pL.s.d by ih.
jds nbdlon ollh. r.nn8 ril &.p! ro oPPe tl*n'4
ln tlE tad;$n oI 26 .n, ofl d€ not loB. s altGdrl
ryntlEli! !.rsen tl| old Tr th. d$, nd and nrrut, Lur
urt.s rh6. ddmb n r[. Lt3.r cdkr ol rhe frryr
whkh ltrecb dd.mnpa$a -'tl .v.rrthtng. The Maway,
,pit-Akne d.l9htd ol fokya Tuillsht lTaklo Bdshakr, a957)
mlnfelb lh. rane'tFpath.tlc !.dn.t!" which Pemeareeh.r
E p.d.bre, mi,udedtmdinS tutha.lhe Fldor ol &een let
Or4 Ri.'; d. of rheLr* srR$ful of Oa,9 l.t rfilRs
b..u* h! hEals hi' L .1 elturting rEhi$ onljds withnr
tl[ Lrg.r qtdt of ii. tfp Oa noduly dIE rh.
.o.nkr bdffi pd6r rd d ul,d.mGF|tinaihrt,no
L cnrr (d. rq r,bo sb,y, T|! G!,i @d5 qr od. nrn' rn
h.trr shrt tfieir p.n.n:l ditr 6.o rE, hoth 5h'!. I d.? .!r6!Bdq! ot nru(i thq fl ih. An:l .ilhF ad 6prtu,."
3^.. ot no r^ Ct .n r.o, lros*er, 04 atrmPc
ro roirrv ^ona "ucre'
i.hanq!orh.nt, r.onvknon kod oldn€q ro lradltrdnal on.n.s: "Hk 6lns s fritMully Ef,.d l:prn.!.
rh.;, * r hG dh* filn!, a srdu:l und.Brrding llre thaFtuE rhn rN orhd tli€6r Ozu i6 rll. oolenr
",;*
rhrt.urrt-ih"'wd almys pr*nr A! r E ult, tl'? wife s tor loth th. otd{ md youryd generaiiont,,@
"onvedon' b quiE u..nviRlnE rnd on nstrts b, rrr. The n.d lhoiE of ozut tilG, like tne .od!r, !E
urolrlmirltLheh6b.nd'sPlu!fi foEd roFtoF bdr'. E lilmrioffi of MiuE. Thsc ahorsFay d?pid Dm.ihtng &
ol brt'lrrhrl b mr|(. hs Fint Th. ! I/! _.Is8. or h.rd" b.ditionrl 8 r hou.Li!, o! it Dy b.orPdln.
vroLh. th. z4 h€li.I tld u! iy It rlmys PEFi, nd t|i.I 'uch
nr n .d do is L.(!ft og'ilat .a lt. Th4 dld b. r Tfts <d6 e rh. 6Dl od6, dr. GDI eiLft6 &iI mDrics.
'tdwFjd" b.eE d* ihplt tirl $m hd hen oa dG tur .liRtn:r. rh. ondid !€t@ nm De.
phR 'd|a
rr@ one [:a !.d .rL6ity t!4 Ln ,
. .irn.Flh.r by pror nr.dv.n.t. or psychologicl Ev.lrrioe, -db4 !y
on!-:*l ch {ould vioLt rli. PdndFl ih.t rllee n*E hra hdgi$ n.n :nd n.iure wirh zcn rhouShrrd lif.. H. dcs
l.; r dilunity. on ws Proh.bl, .on:clcus o( rhe aF ot nor 50mu.h dinln.k th. .onlid b€tu€m hrn .nd ndun a,,
C,nT.arficn.ver:gainrtrhPtd3!ciad'adi.cniryeor you6i3hr iiy, h. [.n{!nds ii.
r h.r.dd onc idnlded rhrt Cr.?i r.. *,! "nor {.ll zq rrr rnd.uliuru!:nnor.re mer,phorlor Ozu
'nd fi1n5.orltrr prc(d.nb canb! Ioundfor o:!! h.hnl+e5: ihc
lhouF uf O:ut norhrl .mDid3 onuntivsthq rhan brc rf{rhr of mov.m.ntwrs I 3aglnJrprne!.arcir
ly, on ftir. !h:. .onf,lct,h. i5 not EaIy th! .omcdysrl l,.onchco?onkdinroo:!,shhniqu.;,
'llrtr 'rrho
nlvr'ft oldd0rltrolrorih.youns,bur$edYocrtor
 L fh. a4aq: ,./.mbdon ot lE.t'tt,
[i. 3t tlon rt ..l!E dEb, Oa dR i.lt-lc{o!I, o&d, h-d@roapb.6 'w,iul'w
of drydatairt cwbrA/EguoB
*d? d!. ro ttu t{t rh{ r a.I} dul'l mt oP6.t. .t *h I lo
J.r BuLe r .rltl,ne "L ryoiidnr."rr
ogj.. And, .! @rq hi. -p!l!d|njf .lb ir'ftded hh
lPp6rd ro 0lh6rliry, But t lh r r d$1. O'u'. krun4$ At ot. tlm. tucl .n .ppr.ct &ul'l filv! blm crlle.l
ii. !o rlnllrr to h'dtHdrl 26 hdhod. thrt rh. harhe h but u,r hds erarely: {ylrartor ltu d.5ire ro
"nlls,"
unm]|trhDl., md @. nBr dtlqllntly .tMe rhar O:u'e *ip lir. or rU ap€rlm olh bypaid th. E.I9 or dryrcd:y
pdrmlut, ltt tl|r oI rtu hrind.nil ddrt, Ir dny valubL litrr whld!.tr6 dl,.l@6 nar. @t ol a.huln tfia6
b.h..tui{*tls9G*Itudqlr,tlLtlmrlt,llL. d:l elo.L.4 6lvd: sdkdon oa ildcddr, tlE dbla
rhq oaEr d!r:fu,G36 si.h x qncl6?1!3 ,.E of '.
@@;. .h.i- of $ede, ri. d6ie lr dei . 3d.rd6
mrc dtiDi..d!d6d of zs rF
'. 'uE, .f :.d@, ti.d!.L. i. 5u!!.3+h@ r D dsdoi of
-|ll--4.
6dly b@h6 ddi!d!g!i;I$h t { lt,
-crlirr lt I obvlos,Itrt tr'6dd.l ;|n h d*m
s TN!.mnr smE (ii. "rrlld." F.dbm) dee.!.[ | i?sarrrim of
BmF Zfl CEmr:
lL,lt pap.ro !.ilry for-odd tlc iihslon o! tlE Tin{hddt,
Od ,nnllLd .h. tirh., ol Zln.tt llto notton pid!rcE hu.h in rh. w.y th.t .h.-ndJtu !r.pr!r tu dd lng lor .ny
sd h th. pbe$ he u$l'*d arhln .Lm.nt| *[t h *E .ot orth. hoodrof tn. t!ry,, Itu .v.rrd.r..l.br&, tnghE
r(.!rut hnlhd b lrpd6. olh*, hr shlch (d rlt L. dr*hold o!.rht@, dDa b* odrEkaslkhr.pmt
Ioud h Fr.E. It!Mrr*, lblv, $. U hi thb tid rh.'er rh. lvni8 trs ttu dad, ft phr6r.d tron tli. dhd4 rh6.
dx dr'b hy b *ci lh. Tru.dnd.n. ln rdo.! Pldud @ {ihi o dxy Fd..qu.e wldr lir. ta.ll Th.
Ire e dF .M artr6 .f tesnann 3ryL.d hr. dryd:y &de&{rly * u? tlE ebw M o{ il:fblrt
rh. fas ol ltc prqFdn t F Thlt r.dt! w rrbPt roliry{|fi. lurro. th,i lh.ffibb & odlr r mbnr
b aht(rh .[* rB 6u Ot'r dt!, dd d chrtrd,
'lE d.'nlly), F $.t lt n:y h. rr6Ld down ldd,
d s4mn,,,ll dl!d; th.lr .dFnht Pltt and rh. P6$rbl.
Msyrd nd. (ad "rq&m" .r I rFt$h@d {ol
.t .lr 6n th. tltrr roE F.dt.ly, On. smt.ndya th.
.ihs inhrp4l.donr or llre, dsl.ynl8 . Elhlntly !.llrdc
t':neod.nhl ltyL ft6 rh. F4.dlv. ol . !i!8L crluE
.nvltonnht }lrh frney, folL'yth, Bp{Glontrq xl s
(..s., Z{) s fi nisht *.n to b. rn !*ltilv. Prcdd of rhrt lortn. crd.d r. ihl drlme, rhn h&n.y to .ot. h
.dtsr, Orc nud rhdy tll. d.F of thlr rryL s u*d by d(.Mr mddd bl. *rl|ry sdb ,n th. .v.rydrt. Mon of th6.
ntbt| h dlF.6t dlbd b 4ert h its tn y urnv:E:l n8td, 1..lhl.t'm ilsign.d *iih Sullt-h loophols whtclt
q!.lldd. Om 6 dtd t[. h.lK.kdbl 3tL n@ za rh. 6h{r.ld 6 Mvsia{ly thd6h l.r.r i! ft dn
.ulbrbu. .Et.f l|bi|6.liltrilld@tBE Fo.arpL, bd@ tlEattu "r.:lir'" 'lip ot t!n!.f. &r
Ol'il.&rDrldL r i ydrtL.ndi@ tr b d irpririnr
th. d6l'..f O&l6a xd .o l#.t.alE, l.b ln ti. tun wh6 lhR ddim p.s t[. Dorddim hb
Dd.! .nd oth.a lo w@ th. @,li.d or.ctr& (m. l{i.r. Ttur k n6r r. fiulr arnudt 6!R, blr onl} h poinr dt
.yninr.o- r*, t"i.tt to*.od-t) It lo6.Uail in rh. ihr hlr ptrfmt ry'nrllen' b notrh. (ryd.y, Th..wryd:y
l.rd ot tmcnd.ntd 391.,lnd lt It FrbP. notoindd.nr,l dknph rodd. up :ll the loophold:u nt(n rl a€ bte.d
th.t th.k rt.P| .orEryondb th..l.rrlc Zh rPIbli3F: "wtu. lni.rpat.tlonr ot Erliry, €vd if rh.y r. .i .onvhrioDtly
b.!|n ro nud, Zh, hosirit! *r h4nt.l$' uid I thou8ht .(ptru. h.Iniqu! a6
"nrll'lrc' dftt.rllrioa hdtiple
uid.dlod z.n, Nunbln wd! not nMlrln' bui wn n pornlolvl.* onarlu*, dlrn. b6d .ftd. rr rh. e.rrd.y
..n. to flll ln4l.d!. .r za tuutdls g@
+.nt mlh].8 lr .rp6lq .I ie 6utn$.
M.t.lD" Ih.ftFol |,i'Htdat l ttyL e:
 T[eopenr$frEshobof ltedao,r'tu .\ayity
-48adlni
el.bails rh€ bG rhrclhold oI €xirn(, i nehcdou6ly 3.G !p il€
ni:*nrnofday-b'dayEility'"

lo ozu, ih. s9li:rtion le ner (ompl.r. Every siot t lDn

rh€ sarr h.lght,.very compos ion ndk/ sv€ry.onvenandn
nonoroi!,d.ry*pre$ionbbnd/cvcrycurlonfrrlghrand
prtdidiH!. No rcrion is intn,l.J ii r.omn.ni on anotfiri
nocvfli l.i&lnsxonhly rdtl'r trlxr. Tleiigfipoinb of
{ convr(rrtrrtdhh4 rteh.glnir,,$rnd (h.!nd, ft n$kra.
I
 pm@ ora mhLnumoIE l y orhun.nv!ru*,,,Alic sbre,
r[. "!dlh" ourly oruB h the ! dtlL ol : re, . atths
drbu.h.4 li4 ir a sF.btd tn.t sdhLg,in ofu' 'Th.'Lbulou,'if it ii b b. ryrhha noE l,lr u |rlrd
i5
. ..nv.cation trLr rki . line c P|tnn.f intodB d ftrn'sh. turcrin*,n.i} r hsr
chrlty.'.' In fiIft of E.dq/..rrl *yte rh.r E,rn rhh fte.,
iiporrrne but tlt. rmv.udon P.s! ovd thn, the dlttuerid d IIapLou. dFdd.! ot hltts r.elbs rhkh on hrv.;o
b:l& ofi uerlrd.d untulfiD.d. th. P.Ah .n., ud rh.
'd By plxn'g ttt .(h in $. hiddl. d.quft Fqrd4 Thr!ondtEt rrsdnrsi,ndNs/i
ir+. dns b. .Ls.
!rd, n (mo ddit.nty rnd undF.bdtv !d ! n i d.dwd
rrcund lBps.n ua, thGk.lniqr lor 15sihPl. a ndl.r c lsnfi€apl ..llyobr.Mdhvt;n..nt.u, r,,,,nUann
oFi,b! r d@r In B*tdch.r lt 4cohPr*6 th. whol. {ory) th!
ed lnb th. "t r"of
{ hrw tu rnd b&r l{|n$s retrhine untcliig
dio r. &?rivd of lE arhdic
d|fudr,.hhr|i@Idnd]utth..dt+.rl'rb.tu
lili :nd +it, dylkil Ev?ryr?ct'|dln& o! Oa! flr_nrlinS-
md* lh. rlBhi rnddvlsnh€nr.ll a! mvrbnmdrb untdh., uh.G do
ddyln., {rin3r omd&worl, $undh&(-tdL '6
oI tll|r mn'r fclh!, .oe toh?
cnlctio oI tIE.wryd.y, .na ih..d drrCG
Effii.tr ridSfi p?rirP..tErdt .PPmt, tlll L .X*u4d Ennln d lB!.i6.lr [oRE, rtu "Ii@ dhrt',/,
Grrrrlly a splrlrurtdqrlrt. Thir btundLq .oprsion h hor
in conn.dion {Ih Br6!6t u*.I.v.ry.lay,
rtrtl! ih{.ny h!n.n cin b!.!.nil roi. thD rv h!h; dn
Ilrr|.rrtd.y*Ghudn'ltFIIttNuldt
E4lE ThL @mpssia L dltd I, rd.mfty rnJ tuffrrraj_
nds $m6..Lp fi*,b..tF At {.li th oatd:t.rd4
n ! s absM;r dE hoty rsmy. $a *id"fis *t'
would 4e lif. ! rdlly d.Pdftd.I h.dh8, .xPn$to4 di:m
@6pr$ron. nor.oh. fbh rh!.old hvi@h.ni o, tlr
o'.:thrdiq G ln Wrrhott ddy ,ilht, Bur ,e P[l of th.
r PElud. b th. n'|m. iEilrd, bur oru only fM racfinE ! brnemdmt
tlr'endmbl rtrl., irr 4ryJry i ddt
mon.nt of Eitlnpud, whh o'dinrry Flity It htrKldd !tuld of b.14. h r! . rddy;r{trtR d;dd,: budd
dn r ${ r ro.l r derltn! r$ d unlalins dvioM6r. Th.
_terng dr.L
L Di'pe'lty:,n dul ot Po,.ntiil AittniE b.r@Enncn tn rhedult tutre 6t dryd.y rcatly bsm,
th^ a opar ruptua,nd 6rly, b tf,. Illnhr of dldsiE dh.
hb aiffird t;hkh flla,int. in.'L.iiu.dbnt
'na Sasoluacrlle rla b r orb6r or +l'itort ddtd udl, tnapt.:bt.
J.rn "!n non.t.lr.l,lt" whd wdrins or
o*i,'g ibp-itr.r" p.nror H*.h6.!min$ huM
_ _
h!.Bsd dDeiardq @: r[aE NdDtEionof
It3 dnprnry E r !rcsn'8 drcl h d{ dull sdd or
lrd*!.dhr Inn€ad!rhle i! only I l,oblly ln;olwd r6id -
.vrddrv Falltv, if 6r. weE {ridd.d b FnrrB I tlD3l., i!
'nd, b.h{en r hr{num of luhe .rrtad.n {d non*rerto..
b. d",iLd ds l".id"€ l".ld.nt rhl.n?db
- - Dt p.rityarddr.tsntu:| idnzorr€'iFlnraftar ot
-,sfi
surrl.lo d .h. n@d6rl .v!id.Y: dt. riN sPec e!
tN Aporing wrldhro rh. s.{i
rh4mlshtt.Nebllf.!h&d.]!b'drylxnrm,lh.!ri. AporqliJ diep. ry b4w.cn mn.nd uitrr. lrd.nie
.,v rn r,a nor b. . *ounth Thir dote r Ef]Did
O:u'rAI's. tt ruggsrr th.r rh. now oI nu 6d ehr. dy t.
-ounrin
E|dh6 In th. thlE' .L i6t tkP t&.nEtu, bld
'!s.td *t.r.b zrlEr lld ett.d, di(h, rnlih.tE ofur o[ h;
hrh thlv wm or no u*, dn yd !' tll. lmnd .kP [. b.8br b trrdr onaldd.rure,.ahtnlyaos.Ert arct 2ojdr.:dtd,
f.il r|ri rll b nd h thk bdrl ffild H. L ln. !@d oI
'knt thrr dhprrjry bhn c obvidu' wh!. o'! i!$.,s8 dmit,,
dNt.ll.nr h! .ci. dlG.i.n ro wld oL ldt f.diil' *tf
- 6ds:fhr onhs.ina tn r d;ror; ffi{ep.d
hddrn hrnd ilkr I dtrorki. '.n.' ^ G(nt Fndr priinry
by
Ohpirily rr (rukd Ly ih. tn(dioi.{ *lt* Avl ':Ur ru B t dr r h . u n l t yr o w h k hr h c y o r t , b u r r $ c D m € . h o r
"l'um.id.nrIy'htolh.rold.onr.\rof ri.!v!rydry "Tn. lnki.d.ft!..trronr{htldq6oi rlrSdrrhlr rh. rdhton.r
rlludq ol llt tulrry 6f trmsdd.nl nlG d.Pdd' uPd th'
un y n.y h!v. l;lrle nean;g qnhin rhc PonB.r ranily
*edr. Thc.odrrcanndrodyb!
!.ryoroinlndndrn,burnso a wry @mh.nbry onlne bck

Fo.thrnodpai,dispdityinOzut li1f! tconveyedby

a dEnge hum dhsity which sd. jnrpplopriate b tfie
diqi.illy ot'qvd envtonmcnr,an
d€cisrv! ad ior, reve,ls itself ro be i 3Pidu i | {€ighl TnrcuBhou(
hLnlbs rkreis.nundrcurentof ronp$sion*fii.}, alrhouSh
nd o!{,ly c!prca*d, ads inhd.
chnrdc by echoth(md morcinpd4rnrly bv rhdidt.dor'
The vi€wn *ns.s thd ih&€ ar.decp,urtrpp€d f €elirgsiun
telowrhesqlrc. Usurlly rtu t€n{'or@mpa$io!i5norhing
obvious,iii5nortiedinioJbloguedrednd l.aneak.hniqua,
butbahdidor.ameraruanleTadadsto,dhPansecnft ,
poinbouton"€xampl€o!this,inraisspritr3 rheahten,lha r h lolya sro'Jr rfi!
iMy ot dilpniry. "h1 rr4rbd4phnydeld$IJs
nie.caE!!tdtntonrolrh.irhonebidding fareklltd aBusr.

pdp.ndtdi! 5inglrrngle lholirg th. l.d15 bodg md ln rlltsEildfom dieparity n olrcnr€tedal by.
pdrhs,herhindsonrter'hni But rh.n rhehaE5sudd€nly rhoro!3h3oiry s.* oI irony.ln lilhr dt rlnrlndat styl.,
brerkrh! tiningrnJbalm.eiobni. ioOzut t.hniqu€ ind ihe ircny i! rh. kmpor.ry $tution b livins in a {hnoid world. Tic
uppe pxbof then bodk 5wing.luniiLy out of bnance,onero prin.ipll .h.!:des rakea a{itude or dd.ch€d awaren*s, llnd
the'ighi,rhcoihniotnel?It.T\kisa tifl inBmovement,dne Iruho!j. rhcbad* wd1* rhesooJ,pr$ingjudghenron
olknsenin nirumllif€,bdinth. contxt of Ozut n'ict noftin8.Th€.firad$ re'rlifewirh nonyandarein tuh
evdyd,yr b'ingeinundp€dldorsh of lun:nden5ity. "lnth. rft*rdwirhlronyby rheidtrtbc. honi. humorn oblidldy
picrun or n dd geomd't,l balan(," sdd $ires, "it somdin6 prnniinrh?6lnso1Brt*dn,Diryq,aidBe(nkr,bu t
happmr rhd ih.novlnentolanan * m:d! io fe€lveryfEh Ir il.o p'.rnr in rh€GIneol o,!. In 7oky, srory tle
LyhrinBu53.!rh.movem€nt*htrldlliddybi€al<srhe gr.ndhoih.r rtpa$e5 rh€nonr rode pr!.dl, wl€n she5iys ro
hdwid.w.d drughkrdla*, "whd a r.d b rr+ oniy&ed
In I 3jnilarly ambival€nriinde! ozu sihrltmeoudy
rnt b€d"Burlarrhilte#n. film5h.h?6.|I tsr.r.A wrh
cyold Lorl' LllBlkat3ndsynpaihy lor h;.haradeB. Ev."
lbny,rhegrindfrtfierwakhstddrdisr c€asrh€
{l'6 h. rik.s l$ or hisch'ades, asrn th. diinki4 5cne rn Shndndrhcr*lisrheiryougBmndsonwh:rh€wiub€ wfienhe
t rIt,0 StorylTrk!o Mana|dtoti,19r), or rls 4dke Srows!p,burrhegundsoni8norslw,ruoningplaylullyaway.
rynlflhy fo' rhsd.Hismblinking.anflaimp.e$6 tlevicw€i
I'r,4n,4dDtr Atr#noonthcirotri!nilruirionsai€revssed,Iirsr
rwou(ndr, Kr*dndHidydn.,,r,liytr joleona wanies (ana
Nrrl,lrr tintrf l, ir i willinsnas io wfth ,ll oI a man! cordud,
ihc dn$rf) byiraishtldn lry J{rr.din3rhaitheirihird
l,,il,nd'rI0,rnl nobh,without.o
r,l'rr,onpr, d, i,rhk.hxad.E,h.nspecGevEnrlen
Iti0tydicdofloohu.h
lu ! ! ri r f l r , l r r r h r h s 6 l nK , N a r N r r J o r c i p t r ys: i m i t i ii o t .
m! { rrtru' r! roberi obi€criv€obndc.
'rnF,y.ralso*.ft N llL',1l,rr hiJ rlreiuJiun!) l,y trd.ndin3 rhr rl(
ll,r hrrr(,!,( r'l,.iutorrons, yd theyalsor.B tohrv€
r,r(,l l, rhtr[6ru(! Ih.nrgg'nBsn5eoI dnpriy trvt tuLL{rlroullr
r,-tr,,1tr, ' 'hrr
1| ! h$ r ! [ , r i( hBm r L( it [ ! t r r r , yNnt r iLdi, nh, 1, l, (

b€cauee Ozn r.hftdee t'le anironicrl diiude bwara Me,
suchjolE'&pas*dotf lthtAmoiIsnyisozu'swayto
oee_ witfi dierdit-in li4 of tt nldd.nce.
ozu,;E;I.hdadtr m6iv'len..,nd lronv i5 6inll:tr to
thrt of Cz(h dir€dor Milos Fon.n, 5n tntP*ing
'ndtlh. Both
oRparison cm 6e &aM betr.n iidr P.dEGd i
fom of l*hr om.dy *fi;.h onkrsed d@hrary'!e.lim"
dthnstusof hunande.sit.Inthcncoh€dle!,disPniiyis
iet.ced Dv. krpiffiii artltodebw.d .lirtrr a Hulta.t
dlbi.l di{em€r 'nd
wde
tmy. rh€; drt fflis, srvm
remilably sinilar but Od! laiei fflhs noFd eadully out !I
ih.ligfit.on€dy caegory md .cqut€d r Righr * ya fflnown
b rnman i work. This is beca!* tA. hEr O,u ,lltu enPloy
bmsmdmbl dyk; 6r .hdglng suP€rfiel "erlsh" to rhe
nStd *.rrdat ad by changntgnnd di3plriy (.Idacte!
ambta'l€m, nony) inb unerp€dea&cieiv. &rion, ozu
hu'!od, hnnm.l€nsiiy inro ePitibal ddsfty. A$umtn8 rh,r
Fornrn rnd Od 3bied lrom s mlosos has?ln ltht .6edt
(81'tk P.t t ir-r-rlc l WE Ban,Alr. , l, Ozut €volution&y
b. iyporieiz€d rhus: th. twin inf,u.@' ol the €e of Po*w'r
W.*cmizrtion lddhld ih. inMre conlllci beM?.n Zh
olhr. ad nod.;Latm ln Ozu dd forcld htn liid€ ty,rftle to
htdlly h,s rlErd] nhlbia *yl. $ rh.t tll. ditfdde. ..dd no
ldgd berdolvcd bui i.d 60be tansdd.d. ?lu odp6llm oI
On'5 l.hr nlmsis s ovdhrdening ad dbpararethat
rapprocnddt camot be adnev.d by laughrs s in ligl* on dy,
but only by r delp lfrrlhrl .{&ms (Milo5 Fot:lH ie ixl :
rdisdredor of .ouGe,ilrhou8hi!.edii.rlGrk ondurion of
F rnai'r B.tl suggdte tiati'ls erer $lll hle a dlft*ni @s.)
Di,pdlry, rherefon, It a Srdual PF.er, eth Pi%r€$is
d.pcrtrnqrw:vrrrhesolidvheeof dtrydryrt:Iry At6Bt it
b ;nen8;" or.;D$,ion whci ksee th. qew€r' m'ldns hrn
b.li.v. t[,i .notim, !E pnthr but Siling tun no bngibL
p rcof. Finrlly, tt k a A?.i'i!'. etior, a lot lly hold c.ll lor emotion
whl.h dlsmb3.srny p&kce oI .vqydly i.!Ut/ Tlu <le.i!i*
..llor bnrk, rh. d€rydryeiyliz ion,* is dlnrudibl?.'6i
*llhln th. b.nrl tlllt, s$krmsr by rnd L€t be t,Ln on
hlrh, ln lt' mon drlrtlc lom,6 ln D!.v€13 otlrt tI$ dd.iv.
.don k rn rdurl nlrrcl., lhe nlrg oI ihe dead.ln ik lc$
lonr, lt h rlrll Fn.whar hi'aolos; a ndobjativi
'hirh
6od@l.Ent wirhir . f:cbal, motio.l$ erviFrenr The
Ithntel nops aplqed by rhesv.ryday rrc ro v.ryi$ d.gi€cs
pulld ouFth. musicsort the chancsE cmoe, The w*ylay
C.4Ekd tl€ vieels horioG, sho*.lngthey w?E oI no u*,
C[pnuy 6st tidrbk ihole emotloG,.ugg€dh8 ihai rherc
nlghr b. a plac lor rhd, a.llllen In Ihe d(civ. 3cnm sudd€nly
.nd ln xplic$ly demn& thevlew* Irll.motunal ouqut How
lh! vl.@ E di L tL,6.lemnd hy .nd l.rg€ derenlne6 to what
.rt it th. fin,l {.p of trsnnhddbl3tyl. *.si3, sill 6e
TtE deGlve adldnr ln O:!t n|n6 .re le$ dranatic da
Ln obvr@ ifran in rh?nh5 ot BE$on or D!.yd, ln rn Ouu nln
tha. de lir.elv to LesevaralDdludial de.irita a.bd5 6.10r the
ctbnnantone,r^ At A,Itnn Alttudoi, tor *ipL, aci .dda
b.!h:!dedsrF'droF brtof touriiEdionall^re*.m
hur. dmud! an.morionil dr?ui uhm th.e ls ndlhinBon rhe
rM hli a 6tillllfe riew ro &ei* i.,In adJi o& rhec ai€ rfifte
|.ft6 in sl]klr rhesda,r. .onLn'€d ani bds, rtu rpii*.r
druShhr oI a nooaL rhop oMar 6re,k do{n in reas {hen hd
Lrhd ! blolglrt hdft. d6nl4 Hiiayan t daugl&r a;e wt n
th. dkcov.6 tfi. the romg han oaher doi.! E al.lrdy nsd€d,
. .t Ih. @n hrlonoIdrnlmHtayamal n*ltw.ep6eilently
|'l{ hi. darghtd h., b.€n natri.d, In..lh ..n fi. peFon w€€pg
.|ft; n b nol a publi 4a.tr.le,6!t anoutpoudngof rh.ir
.Lrp.rt e@donr The !eph8 he,Ite 5d5uk Hora! Ianols
hrsaithsondusionof Trk,st,ry,isplrusihlebdrnapcded
-th. viudnr, iedioSly nor ben prepand Io! suci
6.!ional @rbus.. h ,4n ,4d!nn Af.gnoo, .vc!v othtr .vhr
h! ben a@pkd wilh cohpleE aolcish, .vh when(rwd and
tlorui play rhek 'nall.lda'Jole on Hnaram. neonly nod5
!..i8n€dly, Etc€fl in rn ,. raq "dEisivez nonenb iony and ihe
lv.rydaypi*mtanydisplay.I.m.tion.
OI th. culnlnmt dedsle acrion,Hnayrn.'e sol ary
w!.pln8,TomMiln.wiit6,"Nothin&,ppai! ly,h.spFp*d
lor ih. cmo{ton aepthol ihe l8r sqr ylr * ie . pgifedly
ndur.l clim,x bwar& wlr.Il rl,e snoh lila ias l€en noins.,,6
'il'rclsnntt An Attrmn Aftedadn Hn yam hadb€enr pan8o.
of{okhmInodl'r*s6!ldpertorbl sIDrJ*kdor. Hi5deeply
.n3r.ln!dlronkiniudewouldleinothlngrfkrhinonrw'rdly.
Sowlor "norNnr"-indthtr.lsnolmmedlik(ututorhn
 3. st6i'. a lrcEnrieu of ltz tuhnhadEs
rct rc56tpe
'he

srasn G ihe endplodud of han(mdenral dyle, a

quiesenr s of litu in whichrhenohtain i5 agah a iornhin.
st? ihreenay.onfront rlE ineffable,btrrn5 k.hniq!4 de no
turc "my*dous" ihm deps oneandtuo. Tfur r a dennii€
&fore andafera psiodof d;paritt dapenoJof*asie,rnd
bdweh thema linil nonent of d;piiiiy, dftidv. adion, whklr
ttgeB thEdpft*ion ol $r Trark€nd€ni. Tle hrnle.d€nrrl
siyrejrslf i5 neitherin€tfrbh nor m4i.ali €v.ry efi€cthasa
ca!!e, andif tfie viewcrexpeienccs**k it is with goodreain.
Tfie daisive adion dos nor rcsolvedieparitt, but te*es
it into {asc. To ihe ban$€ndi.g mind, manandndure mayb.
pepetually lockcdin connict but th€y re pffidoxically oneand
thesamc.ln Ozu, asin zen, {ast evoks thenoods ol $s i,r!(
,d f,tiolarl, ,o,o ,d,o4r,. Man G aSaindnr rfth n.h&,
arrhoughnor wihoui sd!E' "In rhis4spEi N.hn i5 divine.lb
rer€d rorsr 'nrarionalfty'tascends humandoubb o! anbiguiriet a.d in our
iNrr srbhnting to n, or rrtkr a(epting il, w€ tanshd o!*eh4."{
cnoroDld@rh ofrhil;r!ff! vdi s rPei{rLv
d,n& row swhrch b*i noqis Compl€te*asis, or lrozennorion, is tie kad€mrk of
'kPhohilnh* rtliSiors {t in evoy oltuE. It *i.hlishes in imaSeof a s.otul
reatitywhth can*and b6id. rh€ ordinaryrealityr ii represenc
v':d'on lris
*eeDinp dossoradEaLlv(rf&r hrm i Ei d(s rhcwlrlry orhd. h o.u, ih. imageof *6ie ie repF*ned by
*-'i'-.*t {hilh h:dbft n b<omjns rhe6n:l coda,a dl1l-1ileri€w {fiih @Fok5 onenF' Ir k tie
'6";.aiJ"*"r"i"
.;* i"p,-k rr&'-d sme redrictive view shi.Il h€n the n1n: therounhin hrs
aGdE-drhd<€n-*he6ndsi
--" dcdibGand msahBruL-he !{oms a moht,in a8ain,5dr in an d&ety di{fd€ni w.y,
cdnrud
rec s : Fod dEl moi€ He ndp' ' a Ph'losPhkaL Pshapsihe Gnst inaSeol **; in ozu! frlne i3 rh€Gnglhy shot
dFPrry-JeeP'lloBi!:l suPnhumdn of th. vas. in a darle!€d reh neal rheendof rctu 5p,ts3. IXe
whichteni.rob
uifetlnscnvnonmot rn€rRr' tr{*P'sr frrher ind daughk. ar prpanng b sp€ndll€n bn nighr und{
I?dh;wirhi.old
dteP groundof omPasron
dn44dsu.ll * rhs,thse€Yi5b: thc sihe roofr rh€ uill soonbem ied.Th€y calmlyialk rhftt
indawaiensswhi.hndandn*ure'rbu'hinrdmirtnd, what a nte day th€y had/$ il it werean, otherdir. The mm i5
ThE.of .ouue,krh€Triftndml dar!, thedrughkr dks a qustion oI ttu fathei, brt get! no
gur,*Mtln€Ralftd !omdhL^8"did P(Pre th' vre4s :nssd nere is a shordI tIE Iarhd ale€p, r shotof ilp dauShrer
Idlhefi nale€neof a',4/,n''4i looking!r hih, a shdrdI tlie v*e in ihe atcoveandov* n rhe
lr.N.nrcdrd todrshr ]1I* someihinB $;4h€ soundotihcIathdenodng, entt€E is a shoio! rhedaughkr
ntle rhkh rhrougfod rhcf'lm ws'orrrudmc' hJa-snrilrnS,rhenal€n8rfiy,hn+rcndshotolrheva*a8ain,
oi
lds th I in rlt cvcyday, tf,enin rh€PFgt$ie dcBEB
",r',,.nll.dJl rndi rdLn' rorhedaughrrnowatmo*i. k*s, andi final
1,, o'U $inilak a d€'isive adion' m*c rt
,lh|( [y a formlhi.h.animpt
'{],i lrror irinro{*s.
!! Lll" i!lf
t-
d€ep,contad i( tory emorion andta.s foln ir inro an exple$ion
of somerhing unined,pqman€nt,tan*.de.t.
Thedecisive adion-rh€ mnadeoI th€k*-htr liitle
nemhg in iceu but Rrva rdproverie innsrh of thefon. Thd
hinndd.nbl nlle, lile thev*e, i5a lom Nii.h erpre$E
sonerhinSdryerthrnisclf,thcinnerunityofill dings.TfrisG
rdi{icult hut absolutelycruchlpojnt,tanft nd€nhldylc k a
fom,ndtan€rpdi€n.eThepuposeofhan{en,l.ntaldyh is
norb geirle !ie*e b shre Hnayama!re*5,btt topr6e thok
kaE andhregrd. rh€niotoI LIge
n*s,can €n.omPass m!ny emorion
somdhiryBreatrthrn thos emoiio.s(I don'tmon to diri inb
e{rnEdviewwhthb.e thc ineftabilityhrc,b(au*lb€lieveihatthh"purgingof tas"is
6$e't by solid, phenomenologica I
I rc#ons i but, rgain, prererto
holdoft th dis.usionuntilI.an writefromrhewider
peBpedive ol Bn$ont filhs.)
Theevsydayanddbprity rk expetntial,how€v{;
ih.y irunt and teassrhe sp€daror'se
fomaltri.r n in.oqor*6 thos enotionsinb a la€s tofl Tle
€edtdayanddGpxilyprsnranobiade.ouEerd rhe
cnotions:th€yundcminetheview.it .unomarilyro.k{ol id
hiihinhisfeelings,hopdullybrin8in3himtoih€pointwhre
heis willin8 io a(€Pl and appre.iat€in id€adI lif€ id wIi.ll aU
mo rions,holever .ontadnbiy, haveno posei in rhemselv6
btrt aie only par oI a rdldsr forn wArh erpre*e5 ih€ he!
unityafev?ryph€nohdon.shsis,byrhdsingadnt,qrt{.nt,
organized scens, nifoi6 rhL new
ru(E! {ul, daeis kanslom s erpi thy inrd a.n he6. apprt.ia rion,
.xp&rnceinro€1pr$ion,emotions inio Iom.

Thcdisrindionher$eln lohand€xpeden.ef not

p.,lanricbri fundimeDhl:a fon .an €:pE$ rheTnnrendenr,
in .xp.ii.nG raNd. A fon car erpre$the.ommonSroundin
w[nhill rhings,h{€.An€xpqienc€canonlyexpresan€ mant
r!(bn to rhd common groundBorhfom ind €ip?ridft (an
lLiJ iiqt'd.n.e,Iowevd Tl'nlonundrunpelhaps c,nbe
tr,nir(r [y rhir!gu€n.eof po$iblcevens:a.4bin Iom (hc
N,' .. i w,! odshrille)qPr$e
rtr!! I f)1 I Ll,'pprt.iaihsrhr fo.m,undqgos rrn crpden(
 rn blt.r $! boOrul hrditlonrl sen* of d..oruh rnil.od.N I
litend. He r.lb lir frLnd.x.dly hou he feltr hi! Indd b ddo!! ol Y.tu'rb ozu D.IEV6 iward rh. d.rnM wr$
.nA ldndy ud, brt d€r not she rhc sp.rle/i huehddi '1h..6dr
li! rfiitod. ot rh. ho.t tow:ra A. ge*s, Conv!fl.ly, th.
f€€lbgi. I. orda [' rus64dry indue tffi6d.nr. h hlt
.hm.t E ol Odt nlD !4.v. rls.l!6 .5 rl rhry w.r. lusb
frihd,.h. vlde wld hN. h:a to eslom lts L.lnlll hto r
tcu(6 teqddt l.ryl.ilo6) hatidr his fri6dsuld (nd h
CdEid.e.l a h:epd.f hrsd.nd.rth
Fciw &Ttd.Mdd,'d rnaFiau t:tlgndac.
oayd.y,.ho h rhdt),lEfr,Imblity Iw o5v1o6 rmnlrL.
Ttuar@,n itp6.lbl. b /n /rkm Afia@' 6. rnntrn
kfil nlitioui,t b Iny.dtlG. riidric frobllt 15th.
b aEi6e tu,6dtna n ffi, f.r th. li.mr In tlE
'il d.n l.rlrd. ol Sdde iotanplg 6 mn a ?dalrlw Wsr
rhard ro.rpdi6.? rBGJGn G,rkl ry[nn, db.tlttut
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I[ I]rcsson
 - ,'

I
'l'hc films of Robert Bresson exemplify the transcendental
style in the West, but, unlike Ozu's, are estranged
from their culture and are financially unsuccessful. In a medium
which has been primarily intuitive, individualized and
humanistic,Bresson'swork is anachronisticallynonintuitive,
impersonal, and iconographic.
The transcendental style in Bresson's films has not been
unchronicled. Am6d6e Ayfre, Andr6 Bazin, and Susan Sontag
lr.rveall written perceptiveanalysesof Bresson's"Jansenist
,f ircction," "phenomenology of salvation and grace," and his
"r,piritual style." The qualitiesof transcendentalstyle have also
I'r,r'nchronicledby Bressonhimself . Bressonis a rarity among
lrlnr-makers:he apparently knows exactly what he does and why
lrc tkresit. The many statementsBressonhas made in interviews
.rrrrldiscussions,properly arranged,would constitute an accurate
,rrr,rlysis of his films (a statementwhich can be made of no other
lrlrrr rrrakerto my knowledge), and any study of Bressonmust
l,rl r. into accounthis astute self-criticism.
llresson'soutput has been meager: nine films in
trv.rrly scvenyears.Bresson'scareer,like Ozu's, has been one of
l lrrrcrrrt'nt, but, unlike Ozu, he servedno lengthy apprenticeship.
I f r,.lr,,t filn, Les Affaires Publiques (rgl4, has apparently been
l rr,.r, "I r r r this second,LesAnges duPdchd ( t g+l) , displayedwhat
rrrrr.r I rli, , ,rllt'da "vision almost mature,"r After Les Dames du
lt,'t..,lr' llr rrlrrtnd (tg++), a film which found Bressonsomewhat at
,,' 1,1.,rr . r t lrlr i, ,nr at er ial,Br essonent er edint o a cycleof f ilm s which
l ,r," ,r'ntt lr r .t r , r nr ; r 'endentst alyle at it s pur est .The f our f ilm s of t he
l ,r t,,,, . , 1, ,l, , lr ', r l
wit h t he quest ionsof f r eedomand
Irrr1,1 l ., r r r r r r . nt , , t rin
, t heologicalt er m s,of f r ee will and
1' rr,l ,. t 'r r r . 'n "All of Br esson'sf ilnr shave a com m on t hcm e: t hc
r,r ,r'r',1 ,,1 ,,,1111111' 1111'
ancntl l i l rl r ty ," l i rrs an S orrtal ' w ri tt' :;. "1' l rt
i ttr,rt , r ,.1 tl ,, Ir,l rf i 6rr., V 11t.rl i prr .rrr,l pl t ri l 1r..tt(' 1,,r' rl
;r' i rrtl y .
 BR ESS O N 6t
6o TR A N sC E N D E N TAsryLE
L

Both lcad to'the cell.' "2 All of Bresson'sprison cycle films Transcendentrepeatedlyfor large
and varied numbers of people.
concernspiritual release:in Diary of a Country Priest (Le Iournal Bresson'sstatement,o.nh i s a rt-is"also
appl icable to religiou's f;;;.
d'nrr Curt de Compagne, ry5o) this releaseoccurswithin the and rituals: "The subject of a film
i, o"ty a pretext. Form much
confinesof a religious order, in A Man Escaped(Un Condamnd d more than content touchesa viewer
anielevates him.,,s
Mort S'estEchapp6,r956) it concurswith escapefrom prison, in SusanSontag has gone so far as
to say that Bresson,sform
Pickpocket (Pickpocket,agjil it concurswith imprisonment, in "is what he wants to sayi;s a
statement which is somewhat
T h e T ri a l o f l o a n o f Arc (L e P ro cdsdel eqnne d' A rc,r96r),i t ambiguous becausewhen a work
of art is successful the content is
occursboth within the confinesof religious belief and a physical indiscerniblefrom the form. It would
bu *oru helpful ," ,"f in"t'
prison. Bresson'slatest three f\lms.-Au Hasard,Balthazar (:.966), in Bresson'sfilms (and in transcendental
style) the form is the
Mouchette ftg66), and Une FemmeDouce (lg6fl-,have explored operatiae element-it ,,doesthe
work.,, The subject matter
and expandedsome of his traditional themes,but do not as yet becomesthe vehicle (the ',pretext,,)
through which the form
seem(it may be too early to tell) to have achievedthe resolution The subject matter is not negligille;
:1"r"::r. Bressonhas chosen
nrs subrectsvery carefully, as the
of th e p ri s o n c y c l e . term ,,prison cycle,,indicates.
Bresson'sprison cycle provides an excellentopportunity to But in transcendentalstyie the for^
the operative
study the transcendentalstyle in depth for severalreasons:one, element,and for a very iimple reason: ^ultbe
form is the universal
becausethe prison metaphor is endemicto certain theological elementwhereasthe subjeci matter
is necessarilyparochial,
guestions;two, becauseBresson'sstatementsclearup much of the having been determined ty the
particular culture from which it
ambiguity in which critics are often forced to operate; and three, springs.And if a work of art is
to be truly transcendent(above
becausethere are few cultural elementsintermingled with ,'ry culture), it must rely on its
universal elements.Appropriately,
transcendentalstyle in his films. In Ozu's films the transcendental set his priorities straight;,,I am more
*:::,lf occupiedwith
style had to be extricated from the culture; in Bresson'sfilms this language of the cinema than with the
subyectof my
has already happenedto a large degree:Bressonis alienatedfrom ;;;::,Tt",
his contemporaryculture. Both Ozu and Bressonare formalists
in the traditional
Like Ozu, Bressonis a formalist: "A film is not a spectacle, rcligiousmanner; they rrssform
as the primary method of
it is in the first place a style."s Bressonhas a rigid, predictable rrrducingbelief' This makes the
viewer an active participant in the
style which varies little from film to film, subject to subject. The r r cativeprocess-he must react
contextually to t'heform,
content has little effect on his form. Bressonapplies the same l(r'ligiousformalism demands
a preciseknowledge of audience
asceticstyle io such "appropriate" subjectsas the suffering priest 1','y.hology; the film-mak". know, shot for shot, how the
,,1'r't tator will react. ,,1attach-rrrt
inDiary of a Country Priest as he does to such "inappropriate" enormous importance to form.
I rrrrrrous' And I berievethat
subjectsas the ballroom sequencesin Les Dames du Bois de the form l"ais to the rhythm. Now
I lo u l o g n ea n d th e l o v e -ma k i n gseguencei nU ne FemmeD ouce.In t lrr.r hythms are all powerful.
Accessto the audienceis before
tli:;r'ussinghow accidentson the set can affect a director's style, rr,,r'ryt hing elsea matter of rhythm.,,e
l(,ryrnondDurgnat remarked, "It's no exaggerationto say that 'I
rrr:TTTIHsCENDENTAL
Sryrt: rrrr Evrnyoay
,.rr,lr .;tylistsas Dreyer and Bressonwould imperturbably maintain
t lr , i r , l r,rra t' te ri s tiscty l e si f th e enti re castsuddenl yturned up i n lr,'r'vcryday in films has precedents
in religious art; it is
rvlr,r| ,,r |, , I I v z, r r line scholar
f ll 1 ' l r' ,,,rrr,lw o o d e n l e g s ." a calls, ) sur f ace- aest het ics.A, , e
' ' l ' i r i l rra ls e n ti m e n tsh a v e often l ed to formal i sm.The l ,rrr.rrr, .rl . r t t r , r r t r ort o. rm inut e det ail
is evidentin Chinese
I ' t r rr1 'r' rl r.r,,,., l ry n rn s ,h a g i o l a tr y,prayers,and i ncantati onsare l'f ,t.,
r' .l .f
l ff l. . l. r r rrr. t r Pet s,and Byzant ine
ar chit ect ur e ( lt t loyt . t t il't
, l l t,,rrrr.rl r.,t i r rrrt.ll rtrtl ,,d e s i g n edto expressthe Transcendcrr l. ttr' l l l r' r, r t t 'r r "r "t ilt r '\r' n t he t r r ir t r ( ( 'r ) r r lr y
Ar cx. r r r t r r i. r1ir
r r r r oorI r r l
| , , ,r' r' rr' ,r,. .,l .rtr.rl
, .rrl i r,r,h a s the trni queabi l i ty to exprr' .,,, ,,1',1,,,1',, rr1r11111,Il r.(.t.l (,.l
tl rr. rrri .trl r.rk ,t.ri l . tl rr.
^t.tl l (.1.l
 DRESSON 63

By taking all fact as realiry, each fact

. with neither
-
significance or connotation, Bresson createsa surface
of rearitv.
The "surface,, is achieved, writes Ayfre,th..;h ,;;;;;il.
choice of details, objects und uc."rrories;
throfih gestuie's
charged with an extremely solid reality.,ltr
B."rfonYr,,."ulitv,, i, u
celebration of the trivial: small ,o,rndr, ^"
a door .r".il.r, ir,ra
chirping, a wheel turning, static views,
ordinary r."""ii, " U1""t
faces-He usesevery obiious documentary
method: actual
locations-Fort Monluc in A Man Escape-d
and the Gare de Lvon
in Pickpockef-nonactor s, and ,'live,,sound. yet -''
there ;;;,
desireto capture the documentary ,,truth,,
of an event (the
cinima-vdriti), only the surface.
Bresson documents the surfaces
()t reahtv.
t

Bresson'severyday stylization consists

of elimination
r'.rtherthan addition or assimilation.
Bresson ruthlessly strips
'rrtion of its significance;he regardsa scenein terms of its
fe*"st
1'',ssibilities. A seemingtrivial-anecdotemay iilustrate
,,frooting a scene this: whire
in Diary of a Country priest Bressoninstructed
The everydayin A Man .rn assistantto have a man without
a hat walk through the
Escapecl: "The supernaturalin l',rtkground of the scene.When,
a short time later, the assistant
film is only the real rendered Iold Bressonthat the bareheaded
man was ready, Bresson
more precise,"Bressonsays. , ,rrrcctedhim saying that he
"Real things seencloseup." didn,t want a bareireadedman, but
,r rrr,rnwithout a hat.raBresson
definesreality by what Aristotle
, ,rllt'd"privation,,, by the
Alexandrine exegetesbelieved that mystic meanings could only gualitiesthat an ol;".t, tu.k, y"t hu,
be reached through concentration on each detail of the text. l,.tt'ntial for. Water, for example,is definedas potential
steam.In
In film, "surface-aesthetics" is the everyday/ and is llr r,',r;.n'sfilms the bareheadei
man is potentially a man with a
lr,rt,,rnd the everyday is potentially
practiced by Bresson: "There is a nice quote from Leonardo da stasis.A reaiity defined bf
Vinci which goes something like this: 'Think about the surface of ;'r tv'rtirn is as desolateand without significanceaeone
defined by
nrl rrl r., r n,
but it is alsopr edicat "d. lpor lu change.
the work. Above all think about the surface.' "r0 Cinematic To use a
ri'I rl'tur.rlmetaphor, a
attention to the surfacecreatesa documentary or privated urri.*r"rr"groaneth and travaileth
l ,rr rl ,,Polent ial.
rluasi-documentaryapproach.Concerning A Man Escaped,
lJressontold a reporterr "I really wish that it would almost be a llrcsson admits that the everyday
is a sham:,,I want to
tlot rrmentary.I have kept a tone bordering upon the documentary 'rrrl, rr(lr,(,(1, do make myself u, of a realist as possible.usinz
,r1ly 1l;,'r.rrv taken from -.r.i.,
rrrortler to conservethis aspectof truth all the time."lr A screen real life. But t ;;i'Jl;i
rr,rl r,,rrt rlr . r tr'raterial
, ,. <lt sim ply, r ealism . , , , 15 ".rdtup
t r fl r.rtr,\ N 4 n n Es c a p ere d a d s :" Thi s story actual l yhappened.I set The r ealist icr u. f u. u, ; ; ; ; ;
ttr.rt .r ', r r rt . r r, , and t he r aw
r t , 1 ,' rv rr
rv i tl ro u te rn b e l l i s h m e n ts."
S i mi l arl y a ti tl e at the m at er ialt aken f r om r eal lif e is t ir e
r,l\' r r . r tr r r .r l o l l l r c Tr a n sce n d e n t.
1, ,1 .,' r,rrrrr1 ttl ,l l r," I ri trlo fl o a n o f A rcreads," Thesearethe
, , r rl rrrrtr, tr.\1 ,," I rl .r. tl tc A l e x a n dri neexegetesB ressonbel i eves, l l r r .,..,y1 1r',, r :;r ,e f th s e ve r y.l ,r y i s n o t d e r i ve cl
fr o r n a
, " r , r r r , t,,r r ,,.r l l i f r .,,,
| 1 ,, rrl ,iI n ,rtrr.rl rr' l rl rn i s o n l y the real renderedmore prct-i sr,. b tr t fr o n r ,r r r ( ) [r l ]( ) .;i l i o nl <r l l r r . r o r r l r .i vctl ,
r l r r r r r r t r , , , r r l ,. r vl tr r l r
| , ,l ll,,r ' y.. r, r, lr ,.r tt1r "r :' l o r r ,..r l l r l r .l r l r to vi t.,, | 1 r r .,.,,
1 r ,r r ,t,
 BR ESSO N 65
64 TRANScENDENTALsrYLE
Iimits the ways in which he can manipulate
his audience.Even if
emotional constructs-plot, acting,camerawork, editing, music- he toys with the plot, confusing the uiu*..,,
emotions,he
are "screens." "There are too many things that interpose nonethelessrestricts the result to the emotional
themselves,There are screens."r6ScreensPrevent the viewer from level. ,,As f ar as
I.canI eliminate anything which may distract
from the interior
seeing through the surface reality to the supernatural; they drama. For me, the cinema is an exploration
within. Within the
supposethat the external reality is self-sufficient' mind, the cameracan do anythingJ,reThe
This is why Bresson'swork seemsso perverseto the internal drama is in the
rnind, Bressonseemsto say, and Jmotional
uninitiated viewer: Bressondespiseswhat the moviegoerlikes involvement with an
cxternalplot "distracts" from it. (There is
best. His films are " cold" and "dull"; they lack the vicarious emotional involvement
with Bresson'sfilms, but it is the emotional involvement
excitementusually associatedwith the movies' Bresson,Sontag which
lollows recognition of form.)
writes, "is pledged to ward off the easypleasuresof physical
Bresson'sfilms, of course/are not entirely
beauty and artifice for a pleasurewhich is more Permanent,more " plot" ; each has a succession
devoid of
edifying, more sincere"lT _-and the averagemoviegoeris unlikely of events which h"ve u rise and f all,
.r tensionand relaxation,however slight.
to relinquish these"easy pleasures"easily.What are the By the term ,,drama,,;
Irrrwever,Bressondoesnot mean simlly
"screens" and "easy pleasures"and how doesBressonward the manipulation of
lvcnts, but the appealto the emotion, th.orrgh
them off? the manipulation
ol cvents'This sort of drama is something
imposed on films; it is
Plot' rrrt en6lsrljgto the cinematicform: "Drairatic
storiesshould be
llrrown out. They have nothing whatsoever
Like Ozu, Bressonhas an antiPathy toward plot: "I try to do with cinema.It
q.r'r's to me that when
more and more in my films to suPPresswhat people call plot' Plot one tries to do something dramatic with
hlrrr,one is like a man who tries to hammer
is a novelist's trick."ls The plot "scleen" establishesa simple, with a saw. Film
rv.s1l1l hsvs been marvelous if there hadn't been
f acilerelationship between the viewer and event: when a dramatic art to
spectatorempathizeswith an action (the hero is in danger),he can 1,et irr the way.,,2o
liter feel smug in its resolution (the hero is saved).The viewer Act ing.
feels that he himself has a direct contactwith the workings of life,
Bresson'smost vehement denunciations
and that it is in some manner under his control' The viewer may ,rrlrrli: "lt is for theater,a bastard
are reservedfor
art.,,2tThe acting processis
not know how the plot will turn out (whether the hero will be ,'rr,.ol simplification; the actor
modifies his personal,
savedor not), but he knows that whatever happens the plot ,,'1.rI lr.rnable complexitiesinto relatively
resolution will be a direct reaction to his feelings' ri_p'", demonstrable
, lr,rr.rttt'ristics."An actor,
even (and above allj a talented actor
In Bresson'sfilms the viewer's feelingshave no effect on
11,,t.o simple an image of a human being,
the outcome. A ManEscapedwould seemof all Bresson'sfilms ',ti'r.,. /lWe
l,rl',r'rrrr.rl't'."22
and therefore a
are complex.And what tile actor
the most plot-oriented; it is about a prison break' But the title l l t'l r i l tnl ) l (' X . / ' 2 1
p.";;;;;,
dispenseswith any possibility of suspense-Un Condamni i A rr .rrtor is primariry concerned
Mirt S'estEchappd(a man condemnedto death has escaped)' ln . with the characterof the
rrr,rrr l rr,I'. r lr . ays.Br essonis concer ned
'l'lrr Trial of I oan of Arc the viewer, of course,knows the endin1l, wit h how he can use t hat
4'lr.r r. { { \/('|y.r reality which
l,rrt irr gaseof any doubt the English guard repeatedlyreiteratcs 'r is not limited to any one character.
I l rr',r,r, , r r r r o, ,convenientl
". appr oacht o a char act eris
t lrr' l,rt t "She will die." "She must burn." The events are
' 1' ,' 1,1r,,1,1, , 1,. r, r r , lllr essondespises
psychology: , , 1do not like
and beyond-seemi nl " l v
l ,rr' ,l r" ' l i rrt' db, e y o n d th e v i e w er' scontrol 1,., 1' l ' ,,1 , , r1 . , r r , I t r y t o. avoidit , , : r 't 'r y. nolJgical
llt r ",' ,ott"i- act ing
l ,,i t,,,,,, , . r lr r ', . p11il1r .,r, l, goot l, .
1, . , 1, r 1, , i*l ( , v( , nql( ) r . ( ,
at . t ir r 1,
l o l to e v o k eaudi enceempathy,a dramati st
Ity rr,,i rr1p,, 1, . , y,

so than "poor" psychologicalacting. Bresson,Bazin pointed out,
is "concerned not with the psychology but with the physiology
of existence."25
Psychological acting is the easiestand most appealing of
all the screens,and therefore Bresson must work the hardest to
avoid it. If not properly restrainedan actor will exert a creative
force in a film-and in a Bresson film, Bresson is the only one who
does the creating. "You cannot be inside an actor. It is he who
creates,it is not you.""u
In order to reduce acting to physiology, Bresson carefully
instructs his actorsin nonexpressiveness. He forces the actor to
sublimatehis personality, to act in an automatic manner: "lt is
not so much a question of doing'nothing'as some people have
said.It is rather a question of performing without being aware of
oneself, of not controlling oneself. Experience has proved to me
that when I was the most'automatic'in my work, I was the
most moving."27
Bresson'streatment of actorsis remarkably similar to
Ozu's, and for the same reasons.*Both strove to eliminate any
expressionfrom the actor's performance.Neither would give the
actor "hints" or explain the emotions that the actor should
convey,but would give only precise,physical instructions: at
what angle to hold the head, when and how far to turn the wrist,
and so forth. Both used repeated rehearsalsto "wear down" any
ingrained or intractable self-expression, gradually transforming
fresh movement into rote action, expressiveintonation into bland
monotone. Bresson's instructions to Roland Monod, the pastor in
A Man Escaped,explain both the method and rationale behind
this theory of acting: "Forget about tone and meaning, Don't
think about what you're saying; just speak the words
automatically.When someonetalks, he isn't thinking about the
words he uscs,or even about what he wants to say. Only
t onccrnctl with what he is saying,he just lets the words come out,
" ( r r r r r lr .r r r ' . l.r r r .r .r r nple, Ozu' s s tatem ent
llr r ..,..r ur ' ,. ,,l.r ltr r r r .r r l,. .r lxr r r t clr ama and a, l i ,r 1'. " 11" . r 'r 'r y c tts y ," O z u s ai d,
l,' ..lr or v r .r nr r lr ' r r r r r ,lr .r r r r ,r ; lhe ac tor s t ty or l ,'r r 1'l t .r tr r l l l r i s c onv ey s s ad
l( ' llr . .r r r li( ' Il( ( ' . Br r t l l r r ', r ', nr r 'tl c r 1'1.111,111ot't-
"r lr .r 1' 1' y 1,,.1r r 1...
1,1lly ;,' ,r lt.r y.r r r r ,r tr ' .1"t.,( ) r r .r lily.r ttr l ,l r l 'r r r ty
i,.,,,t r ,,r ' ,.,1,r ' ;,,,' l' 1. l,,lr vlr ,r t
.,..1 1," r , lt r r ,,' ,' ,' r r /r r ,r !( ) /r r
XR ES5 O N 67
66 TRANScENDENTAL STYLE
r;imply and directly. When you are reading, yortr.(,ye j rrst s I r i rr1..,
t.gether black words on white paper,set out tilritt,
'cutr:rlly 'rr
thc_page. It's only af ter youhave read the words rhar yotr [r,1,,in
I. dre ssup t he sim ple senseof t he phr aseswit h inr o. at it r r r. r r r r l
rrreaning-that you interpret them. The film acto. shoulclt..tr.rrl
lrimself with sayinghis lines. He should not allow hir.scll r., r,lrrw
thath e alr eadyunder st andst hem . Play not hing, explain . . t lr ir r 1, .
A text should be spoken as Dinu Lipatti plays Bach.His
wonderful techniquesimply releasesthe notes; understar.rclirrl,
.rnd emotion come later."28
Camerautork.
A tracking shot is a moral judgment, Jean-LucGodard
.tnceremarked, and so, for that matter, is any camerashot. Any
l)ossibleshot-high angle, close-up,pan-conveys a certain
.rttitudetoward a character,a "screen',which simplifiesand
i.terprets the character.camera anglesand pictorial composition,
Iike music, are extremely insidious screens; they can undermine
.r !;cenewithout the viewer's being aware of it. A slow zoom_out
or a vertical composition can substantially alter the meaning of
tlrc action within a scene.
Bresson strips the camera of its editorial powers by
.
lilniting it to one angle,one basic composition.,,I changecamera
.rnglesrarely. A person is not the sameperson if he is sien from
.rn angle which varies greatly from the others.,,2e Like Ozu,
llressonshootshis scenesfrom one unvarying height; unlike Ozu,
wlro prefers the seatedtatami position, Bressonplacesthe camera
.rt the chestlevel of a standing person.As in Ozu,s films, the
r rrrnpositionis primarily frontal with at least one characterfacing
tlrc camera,seemingcaught between the audienceand his
crrvironment.Again and again,the static, well_composed
.rrvironment acts as a frame for the action: a characterenters
the
lr.rnre,pcrforms an action, and exits,
llrt'sson'sstatic camerawork nullifies the camera'seditorial
abotr t l al r Autum n w i th
l,rr.r.l',,rliv*s.When each action is handled in essentiallythe same
n()n(.\l){. r , , , , r v( '
r nanner ,t he viewer no longer looks t o t he angt e
.trttl, ,,r r t 1, , , . , 1lrfolr
or "clues" t o t he a<. t ion.Like all O f Rr t , : ; son, s
C an w e
I'y .r 1'1'r ',1l i n;' to em oti ons ? r' \/('\/,l.
! yr t r . rlr r r it ilr t 's,
his cam cr awor . kyr ( ) : ; t pontcr
, sr r olior r . r l
lilr .r .. l ,l , r ,r l l r ,,r r l ,l r 'l l tt'.tti ngdr am ati c ups
Itrvol v,r i r.rt ,l l tl ri s s tagetht,v i trv r.r ",t(((,1)l s ,, l i rr.,,,,orr,.,.,l ,rl r,
l l ', l 'l l ,, \tl l .1r 5) .

68
compositions,yet is unable to understand their full purpose.
Similarly, Bressonavoids the self-serving"beautiful"
image. "Painting taught me to make not beautiful imagesbut
necessaryones."30The beautiful image, whether attractive like
Eloira Madigan, or grosslike Fellini Satryicon, draws attention to
itself and away from the inner drama. The beautiful image can be
a screenbetween the spectatorand the event-the pictorial
imagesof Adalen 3r tell the viewer more about Widenberg's idea
of revolution than all his rhetoric. Bresson,on the other hand,
"flattens" his images: "It you take a steam iron to your image,
flattening it out, suppressingall expressionby min'retismand
gestures,and you put that image next to an image of the same
kind, all of a sudden that image may have a violent effect on
another one and both take on another appearance."srAndr6
Bazin pointed out that the pictorial sumptuousnessof Bernanos'
Diary of a Country Priesf-the rabbit hunts, the misty air-is
most vividly conveyed in Renoir's films.32Bresson,in his adaption
of Bernanos'novel,rejectedthe obvious interpretation,
emphasizinginstead the cold factuality of the priest's
environment,
Editing.
Bresson'sfilms are edited for neither emotional climax nor
editorial information. Climax cutting, whether in serviceof a plot
or self-sufficient, elicits the artificial sort of emotional
involvement which Bressonstudiously avoids; metaphorical
editing, whether subtle or obvious, is an editorial rather than an
emotional screen,a totally artificial argument imposed from
without by the film-maker. Both "interpret" the action of screen.
Like Ozu, Bressonprefers the regular, unostentatiouscut.
He once described A Man Escapedas "one long sequence" in
which eachshot, each event, led only to the next.33Bresson's
cditing doesnot pose any artificial comparisons;each shot reflects
.nly its own surface."The form in Bresson'sfilms," Miss Sontag
rvrilr'.;,"is ant i-clramatic,though strongly linear. Scenesare cut
..l r.r| , ,,r,t< ' rrrIto c rrrlw i th o u t o bvi ous emphasi s.Thi s method of
r ,r r.,r| | rr trrrl 'tl, rr..,to ry i s m o s t ri gorousl y observedi nThe Tri al of
/,.,rrr,,f \r, I I,,.l rl rrrr,,,o mp osedofstati c,medi umshots of
1 ,,,,1 .1r.,l, l rrr1 .,. l l r, ,.,r.n r.,,,rre t he i nexorabl esequenceof Jo.rrr' ,,
r rrr,,r,,g .,rtr,' rr..
l l ,,' 1 ' ,rr,,rl ,l to ft' l i < l i rr1' ,.tnecdotal
rrxrr;soN 69
TR A N sC E N D E N TAsryl
L E
r ,rrriedto its extreme.There are no interludes of any sort. It is a
v.ry deadpanconstruction which puts a sharp brake on emotional
Irrvcllvement,"sa
The Soundtrack.
Music and sound effectsare the film-maker,s most subtle
Irrrls-the viewer is seldom aware of the extent to which his
lr,r'lingsare being manipulated by the soundtrack.The soft beat
ol clrumsor the blare of Mexicali trumpets give the spectatora
tr.xtbookof information. "The ear is more creativethan the eye.
ll | <an replacea set by a sound I prefer the sound. This gives
lr tt'dom to the imagination of the public. This phenomenonhelps
yorrsuggestthings rather than having to show them.,,35
In the everyday Bressonusescontrapuntal sound not for
'rlit.rializing, but to reinforce the cold reality. The sound track
, orrsistsprimarily of natural sounds: wheels creaking, birds
, lrirping, wind howling. Theseminute sounds can createa sense
,,1cveryday life that the cameracannot.These ,,close_up,,
sounds
,rrr.fikethe close-upshots of Michel,s hands \npickpocLef :
they
r"'l.rblisha great concernfor the minutiae of life. And because
tire
r',rris more creative than the eye, they createthis concern best
rvlrr.nthe camerais at a distancefrom its subject.
Bresson,keenly aware of the emotional and editorial
I'otcrrtialof music, doesnot use it at all in the everydav, but
lrr,,lr..rd restrictshimself to common, ,,documenta.v,,,ourrdr.
Alrrrostany music artificially induced into the everyday would
be
d '.(r (.cn;every pieceof music carrieswith it certain emotional/
r'rlrt.r'ialintonations which would interpret
the scene.(Bresson,
Irrrv('ver,does use music as ozu does,in the decisive
action and in
,,t.r,,i,,. When Bressonusesmusic as decisiveaction, like the use
of
Mrrz.rrt'sMass in C Minor in A Man Escaped,itis not
.rlrt.ri.rlizing but like ozu's coda music is a blast
of emotional
rrrrr,,ir wilhin a cold cont ext . )
lrr tlrc everyday Bressonreplacesthe ,,screens,,with
a
l l r rrr lly , lr , r wingat t ent iont o it self , t he ever ydayst ylizat ion
r* rrrl " r lr , 'r 'r . wer 'snat ur al desir et o par t icipat e
vicaiiously in t he
,rrl r' rr .r r . . rr r . r 'n.Ever ydayis not a caseof m aking a
viewer sce
Itl r' ,,, ., , r r t . ur rr v. r y,but r at ht , rpr t . r , r , nlinghim f - nl st , cir r 1,
i1 . 15
Ir,'r,..',, ,r..l ,,rrrr.rl i .. The v i erv t,r rl r..,rrr..;t, [rt,,,rl i rtr.rr
l .tl ,' (i rr
l l rr".',,,,, t, rrrr,,),.rrr,l rv i l l
materi al i ,, l r' ' rr'
11o l o y rr..rl l l rr1,l l r., l o l rrr,l .r .,r r(.(,,1
 rl t !,r ;oN 7L
70 TRAN9CENDENTAL STYLE

.r*s€ what sato caileda "break in the geometrical

which will allow him to interpret the action in a conventional balance,,to
manner. The viewer doesnot want to confront the Wholly Other ' I r..rtedisparity. Ozu also makes ui" of character
,lrrbivalencethan Bressondoes (possibly -or" becauseof Ozu,s
or a form which expressesit.
l'.r.kground in light comedy), but both employ irony.
The everyday blocks the emotional and intellectual exits, Bresson,
rrrrlikeOzu, uses"doubling,,, an overemphasisof the
preparing the viewer for the moment when he must face the everyday, to
r r..rtedisparity. Both, however, createdisparity
Unknown. The intractable form of the everyday will not allow the by glving'thelr
r lr'rr.rcters a senseof something deeperthan themieiu", J.d th"i,
viewer to apply his natural interpretive devices.The viewer
a
becomesaware that his feelings are being spurned; he is not called 'rrvrronment/ sensewhich culminatesin the decisiveaction. All
tlrr.tcchniguesof disparity cast suspicionon everyday
upon, as in most films, to make either intellectual or emotional reality and
lrr111;est a need, although not a place,for emotion.
judgments on what he sees.His feelingshave neither place nor
Bressonoveremphasizesthe everyday through what
purpose in the schema of the everyday. "The effect of the Miss
rr'rrt.rgcalls"doubling,,,
Through the use of repeate-daction and
spectator being aware of the form is to elongate or retard the
emotions."36 ;'llonasticdialogueBresson,,doubles,,(or even,,triples,,)the
,rrlion, making a single event happen several times
But movie-goers love emotional constructs, they enjoy in different
rv.rys.For example: in PickpockefMichel makes a daily
emotional involvement with artificial screens,and one can only entry into
lrt,,tliary. Bressonfirst shows the entry being written into
sympathize with the viewer who storms out of Diary of a Country the
rli,rry,then he has Michel read the entry over the
Priest for the same reason he storms out of Warhol's SIeep-it's soundtrack, ,,I
o,rtin the lobby of one of the great banLs of paris.,,
Then
iust too "boring." Although the irate viewer's attitude is llr r,.;sonshows Michel actually going into one of
understandable,his perceptionis poor. He has mistaken the the great banks
everyday for transcendental style, and has only seen a fraction of 'rl l"rris and sitting in the lobby. The viewer hus expuii"r,cedthe
r,rrn('cvent in three ways: through the printed
the film. The viewer who stays recognizes that there is more than wori, th. spoken
rvo11l, lnd the visual action.
the everyday, that Bressonhas put a strangely suspiciousquality
Bresson'sfavorite,,doubling,, technigueis interior
into his day-to-day living. The viewer's emotions have been
rr,rrr.rtion.ln Diary of a Country priest, A Man Escaped,
superficially rejected, but they have been simultaneously and,
l'tr l,1tp611sy the main characternarrates the on-screenaction
tantalizedby the disparity. in a
rlr"rtll'.rnnarration which is often only an audio
replay of what the
Srvrr: Drspanrrv
Tsr TnINscENDENTAL already witnessed.lnDiary of a Couniry'priest
'i.tv(,r'has the
I'r r(,'t t alls anxiously on the Vicar of Torcy. The holsekeeper
One of the dangersoI the everyday is that it may become
,ur.,rv(,rs, obviously informing the priest that the vicar is
a screenin itself, a style rather than a stylization, an end rather not at
lr,,rrr'. I-hedoor closesand the priest
than a means.The everyday eliminatesthe obvious emotional leans dejectedlyagainst it.
IVlr,.rrwc hear the priest,s voice,',Iwas so
constructs but tacitly posits a rational one: that the world is disappointeJ,I had to
l r,,rrr .r1'.p51
1f t he door . , ,I n A M an Escapedt he
predictable, ordered, cold. Disparity undermines the rational or ier is r ever sed:
Il ,,t I o r r l, r ir r cnar r at es,, , I slept so soundly
( o n s tru c t. t he guar d had t o
,rtv,r[. r'rrrrrr.."'f["t, the guard walks into hls celt
Disparity injects a "human density" into the unfeeling and says,
( ,r .1 ttt r
,.vcrytlay,an rrnnaturaldensity which grows and grows until, at
I r r l'r r ur . nar r at ionis cust onr ar ilyused t o
tl rl rrro u rc rrl o l tl c t i s i v ea c ti o n,i t reveal si tsel f to be a spi ri tual br oadent he
\ l r.r' ,. r' . I r r ,
,l , n ,.rIy Irr Il rl u ri Ii .rls te p so f di spari ty Ozu and B ressonuse 'r 'l. t lgc or f eelings. r [ r . ut an event .I n O phuls, l. cft r , r
I r' tt r t rt r r l l t r l , r t,, ro r t LU otnott.rrrtl l .,.,rn,r; B ri rf E ttc tt
,l rl l ' r.rrt t, , l rrrr,l rrr'l ..o ,;rr1 3 gest a suspi ci ousand emoti onalgual i ty tr t, l ,,,, I rrr.
r r,rrrry'1, tl ,, l rr.l oi nc s l .t,t(rti l tl l l rr.rr rol l l .tnl i (.(,x l )(,l i (,l t(r.,,
rrrrl ,, ,,rl rl r.rrv rr,' rr.r' rl .l l c causeOzu' s everydaystyl i zati on i s l l rttl ttl ,l r
.,tt.rtr.,r, l rrr..t, l rr.r.,r. l l rc t.r,l l r., l rr.,..rrrrl ,,r,tr.,i l i v r.
r r r tlr , tr .r ,lr littr ral Zcn l l ti nner than B resson"',()ttr l .l rr.rl r.r,.,i ,,.,l ,
' ,i,r r l,,,lr t.

72 TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE
used as a counterPartto the harsh "male" world of action. The
contrast between "fema\e" and "male," sound and sight,
narration and action expandsthe viewer's attitude toward the
situation. Bresson,however, usesinterior narration for the
oppositereason:his narration does not give the viewer any new
information or feelings,but only reiterateswhat he already
knows. The viewer is conditioned to expect "new" information
from narration; instead,he gets only a cold reinforcementof
the everyday.
When the same thing starts happening two or three times
concurrently the viewer knows he is beyond simple day-to-day
realism and into the peculiar realism of Robert Bresson'The
doubling doesnot double the viewer's knowledge or emotional
reaction,it only doubleshis perceptionof the event'
Consequently,there is a schizoidreaction; one, there is the sense
of meticulousdetail which is a part of the everyday, and two,
becausethe detail is doubled there is an emotional queasiness,a
growing suspicionof the seemingly"realistic" rationale behind
it," If it is "realism," why is the action doubled, and if
"u".yduy.
it isn't realism,why this obsessionwith details?
"The doublings," Sontag concludes,"both arrest and
intensify the ordinary emotional sequence."37 That statement,like
many by Miss Sontag,is both astute and baffling, and the
p"r."ptiu. readerwill immediately ask "How?" and "Why?"'
qrr"raio.r.which Miss Sontag doesn't attemPt to answer' The
above descriptionmay partially explain Miss Sontag's
of the
perceptions.The "emotional sequence"is arrestedbecause
it
stylization (the blocking of screens), is intensified
"u".yiuy
bccause t-hedisparity (the suspicionthat the film-maker may
of
rrot be interestedin "reality" after all)' The viewer's mood
I' r,to rn c sw a ry , e x p e c ta n t.
Tcchniqueslike doubling cast suspicionon the everyday'
.,,' ,1l l r,' n t' rt s te p o f d i s p a ri tygoesfarther: i t tri es to evoke a
'., r..r' t,l r;<rttt<'lhing Wholly Other within the cold environment'
| ,' n ..r'rv l ri ,l r 1 ' ,r.r,l trrl layl i e n atesthe mai n characterfrom hi s
. r ,rr11 '11,
,,1 ,,|1 ,,,,,rIrrrn\\' rIIri rrtl ree v e ryday'JeanS 6mol u6has
, I r I rrr1rr.r' .1rr' |, | l ' ,,, 1 ,' r' r' lor;f such al i enat\oni n D i ary of a
t,,,tt,,1 l ' tr' t I r l ,r, l .rrr" ,s:thepri estandhi sbody,(z) soci al
, !,r,,.1 , tl ,, 1 ,,,, I rl ,l l rr' ,l ,a ri shi oners,(1) sacredsol i tude: tl re
i tr, | ,' ,' l tl ,, r' ,,,1 ,1 ,,1rrr' " Il ' t' y,,,,tt1' ,pri csti strnabl etotr' l ' rl c
fffu.sso N Zt
to .rny of the elementsin his environment; evcn nature, which
rlrrcsnot figure in S6molu6'sschema,seemshostile to the suffering
pricst as he collapsesunder the gray sky and tall, dark barren
trccs.At this level Bresson'stheme would seemto fit his
l's('udodocumentaryeveryday technigue: the unending conflict
lrt'tweenman and environment is one of the cardinal themes of
rl ocument ar yar t ,
But the conflict is more complicatedthan it at first seems.
I he sourceof this alienationdoesnot seemto be intrinsic to the
pr icst (his neurosis,misanthropy, or paranoia) or to his
lrrvironment (antagonisticparishioners,inclement weather), but
',r'r'msto originate from a greater,external source.The priest is
tlrc frail vehicle of an overwhelming passionwhich in the context
ol L)inry of a Country Priest is calledthe holy agony (la Sainte
,'lronie).Little by little, as if moving down the Way of the Cross,
llrt'priest comesto realizethat he carriesa specialweight, a
rveightwhich he finally accepts:"It is not enough that Our Lord
have granted me the graceof letting me know today,
"hould
through the words of my old teacher,that nothing, throughout
ltcrnity, can remove me from the place chosenfor me from all
r'llrnit/, that I was the prisoner of His SacredPassion."
As in Ozu's films, the passionin Diary of a Country Priest
r,,l',reaterthan a man can bear,more than his environment can
r lr cive. The young priest's crossof spiritual awarenessgradually
.rlicnateshim from his surroundingsand eventually Ieadsto
l ri :;deat h.
The levels of alienationdemonstratedby S6molu6are
.r.tually extensionsof the holy agony. In fact, what seemsto be a
rcjr.ctionby the environment is more accuratelya rejection by the
pr icst-and not becausehe wishes to estrangehimself, but
I'r',.rusehe is tlre unwilling (at first) instrument of an
ovt,rwhelmingand self-mortifying passion.
r . Sickness.The priest's illness seemsfactual enough: his
l r,.,rl t lrr , lowlywanesand f inally f ails him becauseof what is
cvcrrtr r , r lly , liagnosedas st om achcancer .But t her e is a
, r t r ( ) n:t he m or e ill he becom est he m or e adam ant lyt he
I' r r' ,.t r r 'lr r ', r '.t o, t ake nour ishm entor r est .He f eelshint sclf
,,,r,,1 , . , , , , , ,I.,,y1t lr t ,weight he nr r r sr[ r c. r r and , assot . i, r r rlr, ,i:, ; , r Polr y
tr,rtl rt l" , r ' t t lr (i, r l. t 1', onyof ( lr ri. , l i li, , r r <. ctlrl lr . r lor r r . r r r r . trlr r lr vr . , ,
l rrrrrl, , , ll r r r , , r lr lr r , r lior r . llt , r , , r l. , r , nlV, , r r r , r ll1, , r r lr or
l, t r . r, lr l
r . , ,
 f||{tsso N Zj

,lrppedin wine, an alcoholicparody of the sacrament.He ignores

tlrc needsof the flesh,exerting himself until the moment of death.
I lrt'physical pain seemsto be real enough, but its sourceis
.rrrr['iguous'is it canceror the spiritual malady?
z. Socialsolitude.The priest's ministry is a failure. He is
lrrnid and inept; his parishionersare antagonistic-or so it seems.
llut it is uncertain whether the priest is actually unfit for the
I'r ir:sthoodor whether his devouring passionblocks any attempt
,rt rninistry. At first the priest seemsunduly paranoiac;he thinks
lrir;parishionersdislike him. Then he receivesan anonymous
rrolc,"A person of good intentions advisesyou to requestyour
l r ,rrrsfer. . . ." But the premonition comesfirst: it is as if the priest
rvilledto be unwanted. The country community at first had no
rrrorehostility toward him than they would have had toward any
n('w young priest, but the priest's melancholy turns them against
lrirn.After an unsuccessfulcatechismclassthe priest enters in his
rli.rry,"But why the hostility of theselittle ones.What have I
rlonc to them?" His religious obsessionhas led him to believe
tlr.rtthe mischievouschildren are against him. The priest's agony
The sacredsolitude of the country priest: .rlit'natesthe community, and it is an agony which he seems
"What seemsto be a rejection by the environment is more accurately rrrr.rb le t o cont r ol.
a rejection by the priest-and not becausehe wishes to estrange 3. Sacredsolitude.The priest is unable to cope with the
himself, but becausehe is the unwilling instrument of an overwhelming rvtrrldof sin, either in himself or others. The normal recourseof a
and self-mortifying passion," ( lrlistian, prayer/ is not open to him. "Never have I strived so
rrrrrrh to praf i' he writes. And later: "l have never felt with so
rrrrrrlr violencethe physical revolt against prayer." He is able to
I'r irrgpeaceto others, yet has none himself . This is the miracle of
tlrc crnpty hands: "How wonderful that we can give others a
1','.r.' c which we ourselvesdo not possess.Oh, the miracle of our
.rrrpty hands." His holy agony allows him none of the temporal
nr('.ursof releasewhich Church, society,and body provide. None
ol tlrt' tcmporal metaphors can satisfy his passion,so he
l rrr)l 'r ( ', ; ( ,inexor
( '1; ablyt owar d t he m et aphorof m ar t yr dom .
( )rr t.achlevel the priest's alienation originatesin neither
l l rl l r r r , 'r r or r nt gntnor him self ,but in an over power ing,
Ir ,rrr', ,r 'r r , l, r'rl, rI passion.The m elancholypr iest ear nest lydesir es
t,' 1,, 1'l r . lr r . ,lr r . t 'r s( "M y G od, " he wr it es of t he Vicar of Tor cy,
' l l ,' r'. l r r , 'r 1l,1u1u1''
l t o have his lr calt h,his st abilit y") , br r t . r r r
rl r' I l rl ,l , l ,rt,r' tl ti v t' s hi l rr l rrrl l rl r ,rrrtl [rr' tl tt' r' .trv ,rV l t.ttt l l r' rrr
l l rl ', ,,,,i rrr,' l 1111,.
l tt,l y .r1' r,1r1 r., rrpl tr.rl rrr.tl (l rrrr,' .rr,,' t
r rri i l ! i r,ri l r,t.rl ), rl r' ,,tl Itr., r' .,,r1 5 .,rr1,r' rrr.rl rrr.rl

76 TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE
I rlisregardfor her personal safety-she is not respondingto her
,*
D i s p a ri tyi n T h e T ri a l of l oanof A rc:" h i s a shockw hen
]oan answersher corrupt inguisitorswith sincerity,
forthrightness,honestand completedisregardfor her Personal
safety-she is not respondingto her environmentin a r:r
ratio.Sheanswersher judgesasif shewereinsteadspeaking
to her transcendental'Yoices,'"
Bresson'sprotagonists,like the country priest, cannot find
rrrr't,rphors capableof expressingtheir agony. They are
, ,,rr,lcrrrnccl to estrangement:nothing on earth will placatetheir
r rr1 1 ,'1r,.1 .,,;i ol -re
n , c a u sth e e i r p assi ondoesnot comefrom earth.
I l rr.r.1 . rr,tl rt,yrl o n o t re s p o n dto thei r envi ronment,but i nstead
r ,, tl r.rt,,r,rr,,r' r,l tl rr' ()th e r w h i ch seemsmuch more i mmedi ate.
I l , rr,, rl rr.,l r,,1 ' rt1.rr ' ,Il rc Bre s sonprotagoni stl i vesi n an
,l l ,,,,l rr' .r' r' r.l rl . L r, trr,rl c n vi ronment,yet rather than adapti rrg
r,, rl r rr | ,r\ r(,.r., rrt l rr' rr' ,,p oyrds to somethi ngtotal l y sep;rr,rl r'
frfrrssoN 77
It is a shock when Joan of Arc answersher corrupt
inquisitorswith sincerity, forthrightness,honesty, and complete
crrvironmentin a t:r ratio. She answersher judges as if she were
insteadspeakingto her mysterious,transcendental"voices."
liirnilarly, in A Man EscapedFontaine'sdesireto escapesurpasses
.rnynormal prisoner motivation. He is nothing but an embodied
Will to Escape;the viewer only seeshim as a prisoner whose
cvcry breath strives to be free. Throughout the film Fontaine
lvcarsa ragged,filthy, and bloody shirt, and when he finally
r t'teivesa packageof new clothes,the viewer rejoices(or wants to
rljoice) for him. Insteadof trying the new clotheson, Fontaine
rrrrrnediately tearsthem up to make ropes.To Fontaine'smind (as
rk'linedby "privation") the packagedid not contain new clothes
.rt .rll,but potential ropes.Another prisoner, who had the desire
lrrrtnot the passionto be free, would have used the old clothesas
r opcs.penl4ine's obsessionis his definitive quality, and it is
1'rcater than the desireto be inside or outside of those prison
rv.rlls.The prison at Fort Montluc is only the objectivecorrelative
lrrr Fontaine'spassion.ln Pickpockef,Michel's pickpocketing has
llrt'samefamiliar obsessivequality; it is neither sociologicallynor
lrrr.rnciallymotivated, but insteadis a Will to Pickpocket.And
wht'n Michel renouncespickpocketing for the love of Jeanne,his
rrrotivationis again ill-defined.The viewer sensesthat Michel's
,'vtrburdening passionhas been transferred to Jeanne,but still
tlot':;not know its source.
In eachcaseBresson'sprotagonistsrespondto a special
, ,rll which has no natural placein their environment. It is
irr,r edible that Joan the prisoner should act in such a manner
1,,'lorca panel of judges: nothing in the everyday has prepared
llrr.vit'wcr for ]oan's spiritual, self-mortifying actions.Each
l'r()t.rlioniststrugglesto free himself from his everyday
.rr vir onlncnt, to find a proper metaphor for his passion.This
',lrrr1',1',1r. k'.rtlsMichel to prison, Fontaineto freedom, and the
l'r r(' ,,t
, r n( lf r r . r nt o m ar t yr dom .
I lr . vit 'wcr f inds him self in a dilem m a: t he envir onm ent
' .rtl ' ,1 . , r '. , t .r, r, 1,
r r r',t 'nt arryealism ,yet t he cent r alchar act ersuggest s
' .1'rrrt '. r l l, . r ',r'.rr n.This dilem nr , rI t r r t , lutcs an em ot ior r . rsl
l r air -:rt lr r .
\'r'rvr'r ri rrrt,. l o c rrrl l ;rthi z c w i tl r l tt,rrr (.tl ; ht' w orrl tl l or .111y
i rur,', rrl l ,' r,,l rt rrr ,r1' ofty ), y (' t l l r' ,' .' ,' r y ,l ,ty ,,l trtr l rrr,' tv ,1 rr,, l rr,rt
 BRE5SON 79
78 srYLE
TRANSCENDENTAL
commentaryon his characters.In A Man EscnpedFontainespends
that his feelingswill be of no avail. Bressonseemsacutely aware
every possiblemoment hiding and disguisinghis meansof escape.
of this: "lt seemsto me that the emotion here, in this trial (and in
When it appears that his cell will be searched,his plan discovered,
this film), should come not so much from the agony and death of
and he executed,Fontainesaysin deadpaninterior narration, "I
Joan as from the strange air that we breathe while she talks of her dreaded the thought of a search."
Voices,or the crown of the angel,just as she would talk of one of
Irony makes it possible for a film-maker to create disparity
us or this glasscarafe."3eThis "strange air" is the product of
over a period of time. If a viewer doesnot want to completely
disparity: spiritual density within a factual world createsa sense
acceptthe dilemma of disparity (and few do), he doesnot have to
of emotional weight within an unfeeling environment' As before,
reject it outright but can take an ironic attitude-which is
disparity suggeststhe need,but not the place,for emotions.*
essentiallya wait-and-seeattitude. Such a viewer can look at the
The secretof transcendentalstyle is that it can both
disparity from an ironic distance,seeingits tensionsand humor,
prevent a runoff of superficialemotions (through everyday) and
and doesnot have to commit himself. Like the disparity which
simultaneouslysustain those sameemotions (through disparity).
producesit, irony is a techniguedesignedto hold the spectatorin
The very detachmentof emotion, whether in primitive art or
the theater until the final decisive action-which does demand
Brecht,intensifiesthe potential emotional experience'("Emotion
commitment.
cannot be projectedwithout order and restraint."a0)And emotion
The decisive action is an incredible event within the ban
will out. The trigger to that emotional releaseoccurs during the
structure.The prescript rules of everyday fall away; there is a
final stageof disparity, decisiveaction, and it servesto freeze the
blast of music, an overt symbol, and an open call for emotion. The
emotional into expression,the disparity into stasis.
.rctdemandscommitment by the viewer (the central characterhas
Before the final stageof disparity, however, Bresson,like
.rlreadycommitted himself), and without commitment there can
Ozu, derivesironic humor from his charactersand their alienated
be no stasis.
surroundings.Irony, in f act, is almost unavoidable-Bresson/s
InDiary of a Country Priest the decisiveaction is the
characters are so totally alienated from their environment' The
priest'sdeath, when his frail body falls from the frame and the
country priest's paranoia is crucial, obsessive-and ridiculous' ( rmera holds on a blatant symbol: the shadow of the cross cast
When Olivier, a foreign legionnaire on leave, offers the priest a rrrra wall. ln A Mqn Escapedit is the nocturnal escape,with its
ride to the railroad station on his motorbike, the priest reluctantly
t oncomitant and all-important acceptanceof gracein the person
acceptsand then feels the exhilaration of the ride' He then states
oI Jost.InPickpockef it is Michel's imprisonment and his
to himself, with no hint of self-parody, that he has been allowed
irrcxplicableexpressionof love for )eanne.lnTheTrial of Ioan
to tastethe pleasuresof youth only so his sacrificewill be more ol Arc it is Joan'smartyrdom, when the cameraholds on the
complete.Bressonalso usesunderstatementas an ironic :'ymbol'of the charred stake,which is precededby the inexplicable
+ On e ca n n e ve r b e su r e o f a u d ie n ce reacti ons, but even E ri c R hode, i n hi s
r'ymbolsof the flying dove and three ringing bells.
, rr g r r m e n t a g a in st Br e sso n ' s r e lig io us phenomenol ogy, makes the same Before thesedecisiveactions there have been "decisive
l ,o in t: "T h e Na tu r a lism o f Br e sso n's moti fs puts an i rresi sti bl e P ressure nroments" which anticipatethe final act. In thesemoments,
o r r r r s lo e xp cct th e u su a l so r ts o f expl anati on for behavi our; but B resson lii'nrohri'writes, the "hero realizesthat he is right to desirewhat
. llr .r r il,n o r r s r n o live s, q u ite d e lib e ratel y' We never l earn w hy Fontai ne
r ' , r r .1 ,ri,,o r r ttl, wh y th e co u n tr y p r ie st i s snubbed by hi s pari shi oners, w hy
lrr tk',,irr',,,.rnd from then on identifieshimself more and more
l \tr r lr r ' l i., .r l,lr ' l,r l,o ,r b r o a d with o u t a passport' These are onl y a few of w i tl r lr i', l', t ", , ion. "ar ( The f inal decisiveact ion is m or e
r 1,,,1 1 1 .1 ' ,u n r ) lr v," r vr lh h e ld . Be ca u se of thi s unresol ved pressure, hi s heroes .rrr,l r, 'rrr',, 'r r lr r t t 'd:t he viewer m ust t hen f ace t he dilem m . of
,,,,,.,,1 , r .r 1 ' 1 ,'r r r r r ' .tsein m e." P reci sel y. R hode al so real i zes that
l l rr' 1, r r , 1. 1, ', ', r rAs ', t . )in O zu's ear ly codas,t hesedecisivcm onr cnt l;
,,,,,' .. ,,t l,' . r ,.r r .r ,1 ,,,,, v.r r r ish o n c e w e make the often unconsci ous l eap
i ,,r ,, r l,r ,r l r ,,1 ..,l,,r r 1 l' r ' . ltr r r ",," b r r t rei ects w hat he terms the "'hey pre:;to' .rrl r l r . r rr ' t . r r r r . r lby a blast of m usic.ln A ll4nt rl- : ; r , t 1, , 1',
', / 11
l1
I l,' 1 ,,, ,' l ll.,l' , I llo n ( lo n: Wei denfel d & N i col son, r9661, I't' rrrl .r l rr,l r r,l [\l rrz .rrl ' s N ' t.ts s i n (' Mi rrrtr Irc tonrt' .,.r rl r' , r..rt' r'
:

TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE
moment. As in Ozu's codas,there is nothing on screento properly
receivesuch a burst of emotion-inducing music. On ten occasions
Fontaineand his fellow prisonersrotely walk acrossthe
courtyard, emptying their slop buckets to the accompanimentof
Mozart's Mass. "ln A Man Escapedthere was no direct
relationship between image and music' But the music of Mozart
gave the life in prison the value of ritual."az joan's regular walk
back and forth from her cell, accompaniedby overloud
door-latchings,createsthe samesort of coda in The Trial of
I oan of Arc , as do the lyrical seguencesof pickpocketing in
Pickpocket.Each of thesemoments call for an unexpected
emotional involvement and prefigure the final decisive action'
Pickpocketis the only film of the prison cycle which does
not overtly discussreligious values,yet it is nonethelessa good
exampleof the role of the decisiveaction within transcendental
style. There is no invocation of the spiritual as in Country Ptiest
and]oan of Arc,no debateof graceas in A Man Escaped,yet
there is transcendental style, and the decisive action is the
"miraculous" elementwithin ir. Pickpockef opens with the
familiar everyday stylization: Michel is a pickpocket within a
cold factual world. He displaysno human feeling, either for his
The decisiveactionin Pickpocketz"How long it has taken me to
cometo vou."
uREssoN 8r
dying mother or for Jeanne,a family friend. He does,however,
have a passion:pickpocketing.His obsessionwith pickpocketing
1;oesbeyond the normal interestsof crime and questionsof
morality. In one of his discussionswith the police inspectorhe
t ontendsthat some men are above the law. "But how do they
know who they are?" the inspectorasks."They ask themselves,"
Michel replies.Michel's passion,in the ways previously
rnentioned,createsa growing senseof disparity. Then, in a
somewhatabrupt ending, Michel is apprehendedand imprisoned.
'fhe police had been lying in wait at Longchamp
for Michel for
sometime, and it is uncertain at the moment of his capture
whether he was capturedunaware or whether he willingly let
himself be captured.In the final scene,Michel, who has led
the "free" life of crime, is now in jail. Jeannecomesto visit him
in prison and he, in a totally unexpectedgesture,kissesher
through the bars saying, "How long it has taken me to come to
you." It is a "miraculous" event: the expressionof love by an
rrnfeelingman within an unfeeling environment, the transference
of his passionfrom pickpocketing to |eanne.
The decisive action forces the viewer into the
t onfrontation with the Wholly Other he would normally avoid.
I le is facedwith an explicably spiritual act within a cold
r.nvironment,an act which now requestshis participation and
.,1'1.,roval. Irony can no longer postponehis decision.It is a
"rrriracle"which must be acceptedor rejected.
The decisive action has a unique effect on the viewer,
wlrich may be hypothesizedthus: the viewer's feelingshave been
, rrrrsistentlyshunned throughout the film (everyday),yet he still
lr,r.;"strange" undefined feelings (disparity). The decisiveaction
tlrt,ndemandsan emotional commitment which the viewer gives
rrr,tinctively,naturaily (he wants to shareHirayama's tears,
Mit hcl's love). But having given that commitment, the viewer
rnrr,,tnow do one of two things: he can reject his feelings and
r r.lrr,,r'to t.rkethe film seriousl), or he can accommodatehis
tl ri rrLir r l't o lr is f eelings.I f he choosest he lat t er ,he will, having
l ' ,,,' " )"r ', 'r ,r r ocm ot ionalconst r uct sby t he dir ect or ,have
| ,n,,tr u, r , , l lr i. ,own "scr een. "He cr eat esa t r anslucent m , ent al
.,,| ,, r, t Lr r r r r 1,lr whichhecancopewit hbot hhis f eelingsand t he
l rl rl l l'r ". , r r ln nt , ly be ver y sim ple.I n t he caseof / ) ir/ , , Pr r r '/ rit'r 'f
,,' ul ,l l, , l', , 'l'1, ', , t rlrt . r : ;M ichcl . r r r r lf r '. r t r nchavr '. , f ir it , , r vlr itlr
 8z TRANSCENDENTAL
srylE

have deepspiritual connections,and they need no earthly

rationale for their love. In Diary of a Country Priestit could be:
there is such a thing as the holy agony and the tormented priest
was its victim. Bressonusesthe viewer's own natural defenses,his
protectivemechanism,to causehim, of his own free will, to come
to the identicaldecisionBressonhad predeterminedfor him.
Bressoncalls this the moment of "transformation":
"There must, at a certain moment, be a transformation; if not,
there is no art."a3At the moment of transformation all the
stripped, flat images, dialogue, camerawork, and sound effects
unite to createa new screen,the one formed by the spectator:"I
have noticed that the flatter the image is, the less it expresses,the
more easily it is transformed in contact with other images . . . it is
necessaryfor the imagesto have something in common, to
participatein a sort of union."aa
Music, as opposedto sound effects,is one of the vital
elementsof this transformation: "I use music as a means of
transformation of what is on the screen."45 Music, properly used,
"can transport us into a region that is no longer simply terrestrial,
but rather cosmic,I would even say divine."a6Music, the litasis:the final shotof The Trial of loan of Arc.
"miraculous" event, and the overt symbol are componentsof the "-fhecharredstakein Joanof Arc is still a
physical
decisiveaction, which can effect a "transformation" in the r.ntity,but it is alsothe spiritualexpressionof
spectator'smind. Io,rn'smartyrdom.In short,it is an icon.,,
This "transformation" doesnot resolve disparity,it
This static view representsthe ',new', world in which the
acceptsit. Disparity is the paradox of the spiritual existing within
,'piritualand the physical
the physical, and it cannot be "resolved" by any earthly logic or can coexist,still in tension and
rr.rcsolved,but as part of a larger schemein which
human emotions.It must, as the decisiveaction makes all phenomena
inescapablyclear,be acceptedor rejected.If the viewer accepts 'rr'('rnoreo_rless expressiveof a larger reality-the Transcendent.
l^ stasis,the viewer is able to crossinterpr"i b"t*""r,
the decisiveaction (and disparity), he acceptsthrough his mental what seemed
Io [recontradictions:he can read deep emotion into
t'onstructa view of life which can encompassboth. On screenthis the
rrrr.xpressive facesand cold environment, and he can read
i,, rr.presentedby stasis.
| 'rt trrality into the inexplicablespiritual actions.The charred
stake
TnauscruoeNTAlSTYIE: Sresls rrr/trrrnctfArc is still a physical entity, but it is also
the spiritual
i'\ r)r'('sqi()..f f oan's martyrdom. In short it is-as we shall see-
1il,r;isis the guiescent,frozen,or hieratic scenewhich
,tl l i ( ( ) n
,.r' r,.,' ,1 tl .,rl rl c t i s i v ea c ti o na nd cl osesthe fi l m. It i s a sti l l re-vi ew
I lrr.tt'r.nr"transcendent,,may seemto some an
,,t tl rr.r.rt,.rrr,rlrv .rr' l rl i n te n d e dto suggestthe onenessof al l
r.\.rl ,l '!r . r r ,, l r llr , t . r ipt ionof t he ef f ectof Br esson, s
I rr I I r,t t .t1t,I rr (- o rmtry Pri est i ti s the shadowof the cross,
| | ,i | 1 1 ..,. st asis,and
,rl l l r,' r r 1'l'
11r , . , , , , r1r 11 nails down his int ent ionst o any spccif ir .
r ever
i ,, L \ f,r,rl , ,t1 ,,,l rt r' , l l rc l o n g shOtOf the darkenedstreetw i th
I.r rr, rt . . r. r r r . , , Jr r il.cleart hat t heTr anscendentis r t , lr , r Il r .
i ,,,,r,,r,, .rrr,I f ,,. r r,,,,' ,l rrr1i n, t he di stance,i n P i ckpocketi t i s h, r sir r
i l . 1 ,,,,,rl ' rr' ,,,,,,1 1 .r,,.,i rr J' l rr' ' fri ttlof l onn of z4rci ti s tl rc ff rfl rrf lr r I Alr r r rI : , c, r lt t dI t r ict l t o r r r . r ket hc ar r t lit r , ,r , lr . r . l
t lr r . , , r .
! 'l t.r"r,l' r,,r 1 ( l utr,nl ., rv l ri t l r c rr.,l r,,l rtt l l rt.(,r.rnt.l n
1.,,,, 'l t' r r r l r ,l tlr ' Lr Ir ' l ,tr.,()n,, ()l l l rl

84 TR A N sC E N D E N TAsryl
L E
Resistance,the presenceof something or someoneunseen:a hand
that directsall."n7And again,"l would like in my films to be able
to render perceptibleto an audiencea feeling of a man's soul and
also the presenceof something superior to man which can be
called God."a8Whether that "something superior" is called
"extraordinary currents," "the invisible hand," or "God," it
transcendsimmanent experienceand may be called,if only for
practicalpurposes,the Transcendent.
The moment the viewer createshis own screen,the
moment he acceptsdisparity, Bressonhas accomplishednot only
the task of the artist, but the task of the evangelistand
iconographistas well. The evangelistis theoreticallya man who
evokesa conversionnot by his own sophistry but by bringing the
listener into contact with the divine. The transcendentalstyle,
neither magical nor ineffable in its technigues,hopes similarly to
bring the viewer into contact with that transcendentground of
being-into stasis.
But just "how" doesthis come about? Why is it possible
for a viewer, at one point, to " accept" disparity? These questions
are very tricky and to somedegreeunanswerable.It has, I think,
something fundamentally to do with the fact that disparity is an
emotional experience(an "emotional strain"), whereasstasisis an
expressionof the Transcendent.It is not really possibleto
" accept" an emotional strain (or else it would no longer be a
strain), but it is possibleto acceptan expressionwhich includes
tensionalelements.And for this reason the above questionsmust
be in the final account unansrarerable.It is possible to postulate
how the human emotions react to upsetting experience,but no
one has ever given a satisfactoryaccountof how the human
l',rycheperceivesa form of artistic expression.
I low doesexperienceturn to expressionand return to
r .\1 ,(.r i (' n (r' ?A l l th e a e s th e ti c i a nsw ho adhereto an expressi on
rlrr,,,ry ol ,rrt have addressedthemselvesto this question in one
r\ ,r\, ,,r .rn rtlr.r', .rnd I have nothing unigue to add to their debate.
ll rr L rrI tl rr,I r' n (r' l rto f tra n s c e ndentalstyl e i s more useful i f seen
l r " rrr \\ rl l rrrrl l rr i (!n l (' x to f p re e xi sti ngaestheti csystems;i t can be
r 1 ,,,' ,1 ,1,,t ,t ,r' ,l ,,rrrr..,y rn l ro lo, r expressi on.)John D ew ey, w ho
trr.l i r.l rl ,, , ..1 ,'rr' n ' r' r' rP1 p 55i sn-sxperi ence puzzl ei ndepth, fel t
rl i ,t , rrr,,tr,,l . , ' ,,1 t,,,.rt,rl yzeaestheti cexpressi on:" l n tl rc
, ' rr'l r1
, 1 , ,1 ,r.,,,,rrt,,1rrr," t,r,,,,,i v r' ;rr' l ,tl rct' rnoti onopcfatesl i kr' .r
lrnLssoN 85
rnagnetdr awing t o it self appr opr iat em at er ial: appr opr iat e
lrecauseit has an experiencedemotional affinity for the state of
nrind already moving."aeEmotions are vehiclesthrough which the
.rrti stmust act ; he t easesand t r ains t he em ot ionsunt il t hey ar e
transformedinto an expression"distinctively aesthetic."
This is pr et t y m uch, I t hink, t he way t r anscendent al st yle
works. Through everyday and disparity it concurrently flaunts
.rndtantalizesthe emotions,placing the viewer under a growing
crnotionalstrain which culminatesin the decisiveaction, Man's
natural impulse for emotional stability abets the transcendental
,,tyl ei n it s ef f or t t o achievest asis.The em ot ionsar e act ive;in a
tlt:sireto comprehendthe disparity they continually attempt to
.rrrtflankthe everyday. The decisiveaction is a carefully planned
. rrl-de-sacfor this emotional activity. It simultaneouslyappeals
to the emotions and makes the viewer aware of their futility. This
nccessitates a conscious,aestheticsolution to an emotionally
ir lesolvabledilemma. Once that aestheticperceptionis made,
lranscendentalstyle is no longer an experiencebut an expression.
l he emotionshave proved unreliable and the mind somehow
r t'r'ognizesthis. This purging of the emotions permits the
,rcstheticfacility of the psyche to operate.And it can recognize
tr.rnscendentalstyle for what it is- a form designedto express
tlre Transcendent.Then, after the expressionis completeand the
work of art has finished its task, the viewer can return to a life of
r,xperience, feeling the "new" emotionswhich result from
,rcstheticparticipation.
One can never fully answer "how" stasisis achieved.
( r itical method has pursued the ineffable as far as it can; Roger
I r y's "gulf of mysticism'/ yawns wide open. If transcendental
really is a hierophany, if there really is a Transcendent,then
"tyle
llrc eritic can never fully comprehendhow it operatesin art. He
, ,rrrrecognizethe Transcendent,he can study those methods
rvlrit'hbrought him to that realization,but that actual "why', of
l l r.rtrcalizat ionis a m yst er y.Br esson'spr ot agonist scannot r eveal
l l ror,tr'r
' '. r . , or rBr s:esson'schar act er s,Ayf r e wr it es, "even in t heir
nr(),,tr'\ t r r , r r r cr - onf idences, never r evealanyt hing but t heir
rrr1,,,ty. r lr kt , ( lod him self . " Br essoncannotr evealit : Af yr e
r orrI rrrr r r '. , . t' I r t , : , ear e peoplewhoseult im at e secr etis not or r ly
I' r' 1' ,'r , t, lr
1 , r r lr vr . r ', but beyond Br essonhim self . "t , ' l lr r 'lin. r l
,,l tr.rn..r l rrtl t' rtl al s tV l c i .;.r l rry r;l t' ry (,\,(,n t(r i 1.., rr.,tl or
 rfREssoN 87
86 TRANSCENDENTAL
sryl,E

"I wanted to show this miracle: an invisible hand over the prison, Bnrssox eNp Hrs PensoNerrry
directing what happens and causingsuch and such a thing to Consideredby itself Bresson's"personality" can be
succeedfor one and not for another . . . the film is a mystery."5l rnisleading.To some of Bresson'scritics, both admirers and
If successful,Bressonwould probably be willing, like the detractors,he is not only the consummatestylist but also the
traditional religious artist, to give co-credit to the divine. A consummateoddball: morbid, hermetic, eccentric,obsessedwith
spiritual artist can predict how an audiencewill react to a specific theologicaldilemmasin an age of social action. He is a cultural
form, whether it be the mass or transcendentalstyle, but at the reactionary and an artistic revolutionary-and the secret to this
moment of stasis,when art mergeswith mysticism, he can only, 1'aradoxlies somewherewithin his curious inner logic. Considered
in Sontag'swords, "be patient and as empty as possible."sz"The solely in terms of his personality,Bressonbecomesan obsessive
audience must feel that I go toward the unknown, that I do not rcligiousfanatic, a tortured, brooding, Romantic figure who
know what will happen when I arrive."s3 bccauseof religious training, prisoner-of-war experiences,or
In a successfulwork of art human experienceis liuilt obsessionis forced to live out his neuroseson screen.
transformed into human expression,both personal and cultural; This confusion resultsbecauseBresson,unlike Ozu, has
in a successfultranscendentalwork of art the human forms of bccomealienatedfrom his contemporary culture. His immediate
expressionare transcendedby a universal form of expression.The . ulture has had virtually no influenceon his work. Bresson's
static view at the closeof Ozu's and Bresson'sfilms is a .rsceticismis certainly at odds with the movie tradition which has
microcosmfor the transcendentalstyle itself : a frozen form which zealouslycelebratedevery aspectof the physical. And his concern
expressesthe Transcendent-a movie hierophany. | <rrspirituali ty , f ree will, predestination and grace is only an
obligue comment on contemporary French society.Bressonis
Pnrrrxrs today what Ozu will be in the Japanof the near future, an artist
Until stasisthe influenceof personality and culture are for .rlienatedfrom his cultural environment.
Bresson,as for Ozu, pervasive.Bressoncalls the subjectmatter a But Bressonis not simply a displacedperson,a suicidal
"pretext" for the form, but until the form is fully achieved in ttt'urotic,or an eccentricgenius; he is also, and more importantly,
stasis,the "pretexts" weigh heavily on the viewer's mind. Form is .r rcpresentativeof a different and older culture which may not be
the operativeelementin Bresson'sfilms, but it operatesthrough rrrrmediatelyobvious to the modern viewer but is not irrelevant
personality and culture and is necessarilyinfluencedby them. lithcr. This older culture had a well-grounded theology and
Transcendentalstyle is as much influencedby Bresson'scultural .rcstheticwhich provided not only for the role of the individual
traditions as it is by Zen culture. Transcendentalstyle is a .rrtist, but also for the function of art in a universal,multicultural
( ommon formalistic solution to similar problems in individual ,,plrcre.Seenfrom thesetraditions, Bressonis not neurotic or
r trltures,and before a viewer can appreciatethe solution he must ct r cntric, but a self-consciousartist who has assignedhimself a
r .x p c ri e n c eth e p ro b l e m s . rrr'.rr-impossible task: to update an older aestheticinto a
Thc remainderof this chapter on Bressonwill consider r orll1-6p6121y form.
. ,t,n rcr,l tl rt' " p rc te x ts " o f B re s son' sw ork: hi s personal i ty,hi s In the light of this older culture, Bresson's"personality" is
, rrl trrr' .rl
tr' .rrl i ti o n ,;,th e o l o g i c a laestheti
, c,and arti sti c,and hi s rrotrrr r it ; r ror r . im por t ant . Bot h O zu and Br essonwer e soldier s,but
. ,y rrtl rr' ,,i ,,,r1
tl r,,,,r' tr,rtl i ti o n s -Iti seasi erforaW esternvi ew erto ol l l rt' tr vt ' t t r r lyBr essonut ilizedhis war exper iences( as a
,. o fc u l tu re than ()ztr' :;.I Ie may fi nd the
l( r o l ' n r/(.l l rr' ,,' ,,,rr'rr,;t' l ,t ' ' ,or r lr) r r rlr is f ilm s,not just becausehe was dif f er ent f r om O zu,
, ,' ,,,,,1 ,.,'l l r, /,,, rn .l i ,,l i tr1 ' , tl i sh,rlItul
rl ,' ,l rr' l ..ttow or
s easi l y I' rrtl ' , , . r r r . , rt lr
. r . pr isonm et aphoris inher ent t o his t heological
' 7 ,,
r r r r ,l,.r ' ,1 .,r ' ,1, ll" n r ,r n r r ' ., o f llr ",l l r tt tl r, ,'1,t)'y ,rrrtl acstheti cs. In I r,rrl rtr, , r r llr r ', , , , olrnr ay be a suicidal,her m et icper son,br r l t hcsc
, ,, l, , ,,r ( | r r r r r ,l 1 1 r r ".,,o 1 1
r r lr lr ,'r'l l r, ,r l ,.tt,', l ri .rl t l tafaC tC ri sl i r.;, .ttr'.r1., , , lr . r r . rlr, , r i. , t it sof t he cult r lr cI e wor ks f r r r r r rivit lr ir r .
, , .1 ,,, ' i' 1 llr , t,r 1 ,, llr r r t , r ln r tn o n r'l r tu ttl l rrtttt | 1,, r,r,rtr..r t ri l i , real i z t' r, l l rr.,,,,ort' s tl rr.ol or,,,.,l ,trrrl

T R AN SC EN D EN T AL ST YLE
aestheticunderpinnings, the further he shiesaway from a purely
psychologicalinterpretation of Bresson's"personality." Bresson's
personality,like those of his characters,becomesincreasingly
identified with his passion (or in Coomaraswamy'sterms, his
"thesis"). At the closeof Country Priest the priest "gives up" his
body, metamorphosinginto the image of the cross; in a similar
manner it may be said that Bresson'spersonality is envelopedby
transcendentalstyle. There are many precedentsin religious art
for such an approach; religious artists were often required to live
out the virtues they portrayed. The Stoglav Council of 155l-
decreedthat the Russian iconographershould "be pure and
decorous."saFra Angelico, in his only recordedstatement,wrote,
"Art requiresmuch calm and to paint the things of Christ one
must live with Christ."55More recently JacquesMaritain stated,
"Christian work would have the artist, as man, a saint."56If
Bressondesiresto createsaintsin art, tradition holds, he must
become"saintly" himself, submitting his personality to the
transcendentpassion.In the context of his theologicaland
aestheticculture Bresson'spersonality has little value. Like the
country priest's it is vain, neurotic, morbid. It only has value to
the extent that it can transcenditself.
There is, however, another way one can speak of Bresson's
personality (without, as was previously stated,resorting to a
iungian definition), and that is as his personal contribution to the
culture from which he operates,his peculiar synthesisof his
theologicaland artistic traditions. This will be consideredin a
Iater section.
Tnr THtoroclcu TnentrloN: THEPnIsoN MrrepHon
The prison metaphor is endemic to Western thought'
LVr.stcrntheories,whether theological,psychological,or political,
.rr,, i rrc v i tl b l y c o u c h e di n te rm s of f reedomand restrai nt.On the
t1 ,,,,,h ,1,rl ,,ik<' v c l , th e p ri s o n m etaphori s l i nked to the
l n rr,l ,rrrr.rrt.rl l ' ,rtl y /s o u l d i c h otomy,a l i nkagew hi ch i s made by
rl ,, r.' ,.1 1 ,.1rrr1 r,l l V e s te rn th ought: both P l ato and the
,r ,.,
' ,, r rt' rrrr,... t l 1 ,l rr' l -o re h i s death S ocratesdescri beshi s body
.,,rrl" l' r,,r
.. " r" '
, rl ,, 1 ,rr' ,,,n l ' o S t. P aul the body of si n i s pri son; he
.,,' ,,r,,n ,.r;,1 1 r 1 1 1l o' l l tl l a w of si n w hi ch i si nmymenl l ' ,' 1" .
rrrefrom 1| 111' r' ,l y
,, r' 1 ,,,1rrr.rr,tl , ,t | .rrrrl W l rtt' ,l r,rl l r.l t' l i vcr
rfREssoN 89
of this death" (Rom. 7:23-24). (In Christianity, however, there is
redemption,after which the body becomes"the temple of the
Holy" [I Cor. 6:r9] and Paul becomesthe "prisoner of the Lord"
lEph. +:r].) The prison metaphor in Christianity is summed up by
Calvin's statementthat at death "the soul is freed from the orison
houseof the body."58
On one level the prison metaphor is a relatively
straightforward representationof the body/soul conflict. His
charactersgradually relinquish their bodies,much in the same
way Fontaineescapesprison step by step. The prison house of the
l,ody is the last impediment to the soul's emancipation.Joan of
Arc puts her faith in Christ and Saint Michael half hoping, half
cxpectingthat they will come to her aid, "even if by a miracle."
lJut when she realizes that the "miracle" of her escapewill in fact
be her martyrdom, she retractsher false confessionand chooses
death,stating, "l'd rather die than endure this suffering." The
night before her executionshe is given communion and
questionedby Brother Isambart."Do you believethat this is the
I'ody of Christ?" he asks."Yes, and the only one who can deliver
rne," she replies."Don't you have hope in the Lord?" Isambart
.rsksa short time later, and |oan replies,"Yes, and with God's
lrelp I shall be in Paradise."Joan'sdeliverancebecomesher death,
,rndher escapefrom prison is the escapefrom her body.
As the body becomesidentified with the prison, there is a
natural tendency toward self-mortification.The country priest
rrrortifieshis body and at the moment of death surrendershimself
irrtothe hands of God. ln Pickpockefthe metaphor is reversed;
Michel's prison is crime, his freedom is in iail. His is also a
,.clf-mortification,but it doesnot lead to death. Fontaineis
the
only one of Bresson'sprison cycle protagonistswho does not
,rttively persecutehimself, although his habits are rather ascetic.
'I
hc freedom of his body coincideswith the freedom of his,soul,
,rnd this unigue occurrenceis the result of grace,a theme which
llrcssonhandlesin depth in A Man Escaped,
Intcrtwined with the abjuration of the body in Bresson,s
l rl rrrr; i ,, t lr t 'vcxing pr oblem of suicide:I f t he body enslavest he
,' r' rrl rr
. '1r 1, r r otclgsllet t he body and be f r ee?St . Am br ose st at ed
l l rr,r.r. , r ', qr r rt tltc'ar ly: "Let us die, if we m ay leave,or if we be
,1,' rrr,l, l, , ,r , . . yr . tI et us die. G od cannot be of f endr 'r wit '1 lr llr is,
t\' l ' ,ri , ', u , r 't l lor . 1 r p1lt e'Cly, "l'{'.Ar
r r rrr13r
l r St in<'. rA,
r r1r
r l r ir r . r , ,
 90 TRAN5CENDENTAL STYLE D R ES S O N
9a
rushed to counter the argument. ('hurchandsuch
Marvin Zeman,in an essayon
suicidein Bresson,sfilms, has demonstrated , declam.atory statements as,,Shewill die,,and
that Bressor, "Don't forget, she
particularly in his later films, has come must bu.rr1,lrurr" ,,-o
to associatehimserf with rutcome'The onrytension, iuuraior",as to the
a radical wing of Christianity (including, asin predestinarianism, is whetheror
among others, St. rrotshewill chooseh".
Ambrose, John Donne, Guo.gu O".nunJr; p*l;r;;J;;;.;" Diary of
whicf, ."gurdr-*i.id" /'riesfthe priestrealize, a Country
as a positive good.60 t","-i,.,;p.ir."". ,n" i;'y"^;::;,i1",
hisagonyonly comesto ",
In the prison cycle the naturar culminationwhen he escapes
. suicidal extensionof the , rherprison, p from that
prison metaphor is already evident. ih" body.t" ir:i t'),rl.n
.hoo;",f;;;;y
Both the country priest and irnprisonment; in A i,4on ii,
Loan "give up,, their lives las Christ did on Erroprd F;";;;;" "chooses
the cross) but do not .scape:they are the freedom by
die by their own hand. A suicidein oppositesidesof the predestination/free
Couri)vpriesf presentsSt. will
Ambrose's case,a casewhich ftaradox. Each finds true freedom tl,rr"gl,
the acceptanceof a
Erows stronger in Au Hasard, predestinedgrace,within
Balthazar,Mouchette, andllie Femnte *ithr;;;;:;.
Dlurr,the countesshas Bresson,strea.tment ",
beencontemplating suicide,but of the prison metaphor justifies
lacks the courage.The country r;;;,;;ist.,,once his
priestin a longdarknightof thesoulbrings tabe.ling
whereupon she commiis suicide.The
hur"to ;:ll".l,:ji:::osuish
I.ontarne ", " replied, ,,Aren,t asked
was predestinedBresson ir
impf;cation is"i",n
clear: "'iia,
the llressonpredestines we all.,,6r
countess,having found salvation, his characterruf i#t"rring
was now,,fre",, to di". Upon t'eir lives; the drama the outcome of
learning of her suicide the priest himself is whether character(or the
feers the tu-ptuti-o'r, oi accepthis predestined ".;;;
suicide.although he has alieady chosen ::l^":l*ttt fate. gr.rror, treats his viewers
a more subtle course. rn the samewav a Jansenist
The prison mefaphor gains in complexity God treats his minions: ,,you
and depth as h'avethe spectitor free. must
Bressonextendsit to the theol-ogicar And at th" ,u*u ii^e you
pu..io* of predestination yourself loved by him. you must make
and free will. The body/soul .oifli.ii, must make t i^ tou" the
a dichotomy f", ;;;;;;., way in which
he prefers the soul to the body, even rhat is to say: ,hr;;;;
to the point of death; :::::11"'thlngs.
.rndthe way that you things in the order
whereasthe predestination/freewill love to seethem and to feel
confliit is a paradox, it them; make him
be resolvedby death but has to be j;::Il:*,'",f'u'il,jlg thumto hi;;";'y;,
seethemandfeel
:u"To, acceptedon faith. I lrcm yourself, and this
Predestination/ kee will is a complex while leaving f,irl u gruut
and contradictory concept, rnakinghim free.,,62 freedom, while
andBresson'sprison metaphor aiapts
to this complexity. Bressonhopes to make
Predestinarianism,astaught the viewer so free (by leaving
ylying degreesby Auglstine, rrncomm it t eddur ing him
Aquinas, Calvin, and Jansen,1o holdsiha"t *Jr,, h"uirrg blur,
ever ydayand dispar it / )
t hat t he viewer will
l,r' forced to make Biesson,s
;rrcviouslychosenby God, is now able to chooseGod of his pred"te.m,in.i.au.irlo., (during
own rf.cisive action). on the
lr t'r'will. Man becomes'-'ftee,'by,,choosing,, the ,"rf;.. B;"r;;;;"",
the pr"d"t"._ir,.J Iotally free; his transcendenc", the spectator
rvrll .f (lod. God is Truth, the Tiuth n"rir, poirrtl out, ,,is something
m"k"r"yo, free, and freedom r..rrtr of us is free to refuse.,,6s
r .,, l r.r,,,i 1 1C1o' d . It,s a n e a tj u n gl e -' ' ^' Brr;;.;;il'i,u*u.
of l ogi c * t i .f, ,.; r ornmitment,once makes the
| 1 r.;rrr,.tr.r()rr,j fro m th e o u ts i d e ;yet from the i nsi de, i l r*
u.." i ti .,gv ,,rr1,c,1ie1,,,thenhe,",:"'i:tli:;;i,:""ffi:,"j"Til1
he
' r l r ,rr tl ,,.,,l r,1 ,i t.rl g i v e ni ts i,s thenatural
l r1 1' ...1 1 1[)ri
thi ng to do.
'
;rr.1;leof predestinarianlogic. Or,.u,o.,
ti_,"
,n",
3 ' ,,s o nm e ta p horal l ow s for tf,i s ft,v.L'rflr.rl the outside inside,
" the arguments
compl exi ty.In
l, l ' l r,' , ,,,.rrr ,. ' l r r.r,rl o m,, c o n si stsof bei ng ,,pai ror," aof tha fra,f"*",i.'
' l lrr.rrrysterious,conciliatory".I "f
I ' ,' ,1 r rrl ,, r rl ,.,rr.r
;,1 i e 6 1 1 e rof thefl esh.Jo""anoi A .. seemi ngl y (' (
.
t(..,
I r rr . rI r . r r/ f r ee wi. llpar adox
elementin the
1 ,,,,,, ,,, r, r.,,,1 ,,111,1 u r Irr is gr ace.G r aceis t he cat alyst
pl rc r o w n freew i l l ,
yetthefi l m al so I.r r, l ri ,r , , r , r, ( ) m m it m "nt bu. uur ", ;
, ' l ,,r,,tt,rrrr1 ,l r.,,r.,r,,,tl r,rl h e rfatei spredetermi ned.Theoperri .l , i; ; ; wr it es, , , . f
r.rl rrrr., , l. r 1. , r . 11 t hc
l ,' ,r ,t' , rt wor k which is such , ho,
' , r,1 ,1 ,1 ,,1. l ,r.rrr,s po.;l l rrorl emreacfmi ssi on i rrto tl r., .t,l rr.r , t1, 1. . , . 111, , trt
I r vilh.
no, . r "", r , t l llr ir r l,1. 111
t he ait l, l ( i1_. 1,, ,,,,, ,I lr r lr l. , . (
, r l'ir r i. , r r r
 BR ESS O N gJ
qZ T R AN SC EN D EN T AL ST YLE

must chooseto receiveit. Man must clroosc

that which has been
Jansenismholds that "common" graceis nonuniversal; it is a predestined.Because,Fontaine has previously willed to h"
specialgift and not everyonecan receiveit. The comings and
can correctly acceptthe intervention of "r.up"
goings of graceare unpredictable;one must know both how to grace through Jost.
BecauseJoan wills to believeher voices
recognizeit and how to receiveit. "ln Jansenism,there is perhaps i,,Ho* did know that
it was an angel'svoice?,,she is asked.,,Because iou
this, which is an impressionthat I have as well: it is that our lives I had the will to
O:*r." it," she replies)she can realize
are made at once of predestination-Jansenism, then-and of grace in death. At the close
of PickpockefMichel.comesto an
hasard,chance."65 of gracein the
personof Jeanne,and he saysto her ".."it"r,..
The "chance" of graceis the theme of A Man Escaped through thjars, ,,How long
it has taken me to come to you.,, The culminant
whose subtitle, " Le V ent Souffle Oi Il V eut" ("the wind bloweth statementof
graceis by the country priest,whose dying words ,,All
where it listeth," from Jesus'conversationwith Nicodemus, are is
l',race.'/ If one acceptstranscendentalsiyle-,then all is grace,
|ohn 5:8), expressesthe unpredictability of grace.ln A Man bccauseit is grace which allows the
Escapeda prisoner-priestwrites out the subtitle/text for proiagonist and the viewer
to be b ot h capt iveand f r ee.
Fontaine.Fontainereadsthesewords to himself as his friend
Civen this theo-logicalbackdrop, Bresson,s,,pretexts,,
Orsini is being executedfor an unsuccessfulescaPeattempt (long
rrust necessarilybe different than Ozu,s.
shot of Fontainein his cell window, "close up" of interior In Bressonlsfilms, as in
(,'hristiantheology,
transcendenceis an escapefrom the prison of
narration and of the firing squad'sgunshots).Later Fontaine
tlrebody, an " escape"which makes one simultan"ourly ;,fr""
realizesthat Orsini's death has made it possiblefor him to escape. l rom sin" and a "prisoner of the Lord.,, Consequently,
His aging neighbor, Blanchet,says,"Orsini had to show you the
,rwdrenessof the Transcendentcan only .o^"
how." "How strangeit is," Fontainereplies.Blanchetcounters uftu, some degree
self*mortification,whether it be a foregoing ,,sins
that it is not strange,and Fontainereplies that it is strange that 'l of the oi the
lh':;h" or death itself. prison is the dominlnt
Blanchetshould say that. Earlier in the film Fontaineand the metaphor of
llrt'sson'sfilms, but it is a two-faced
priest have a similar conversationwhen a Bible mysteriously metaphor: hii charactersare
I'oth escapingfrom a prison of one sort
appearsin the priest's pocket. "lt's a miracle," Fontaine says."l and surrenderingto a
l,r r,,onof another. And the prison his protagonistsultim;tely
was lucky," the priest replies.Grace is making itself manifest in r",r.rf)cis the most confining prison
of lt, tt*" body. In u ,".,ru,
Fontaine'slife, and he is as yet only dimly aware of it' llrt"'son"mortified" his actors;he not
The crucial manifestation of grace in A Man Escaped only kiiledihem fictionaily,
I'rrl ,rlsoartistically, refusing to use an actor
occurswhen Fontaine,the night before his planned escape,is in more than one
lrlrrr.'The actor had been,,worn out,,; in
without warning given a cell-mate,a boy named Jost' Fontainc the next film there was
,rrrr.rv(but similar) actor who had to
must then decidewhether to kill Jost or take him along, and hc be mortified.
In contrast,Ozu did not feel the need
choosesthe latter. Only later, while in the processof escaping, to compare the
l.rr,,r.rrlrctweenman and nature, soul and
does Fontainerealizethat it takes two men to scalethe prison body, to ihut between
n l ,rt,,()rcr and a prison. Self_mortification
wall, that without )ost his escaPewould have been a failurc lt had iittle place in his
Itlnr,, I lrcrewere no chains,bars,
persecutions,self_flagellations.
was Fontaine'sacceptanceof Jost and the hasardof grace whi' l' I l rr, ' rr. r v body" was availableon ear t h;
his char act er siid not
allowed him to escaPe,even though it had been predetermint'tl fft'f'rl lr) rrrr,lr.r1lothe death of the old body. Ozuused a ,,f amily,,
f rom the beginning of the film (by the title) that he would t'r'''';"
In Bresson'sfilms graceallows the protagonist to at t r'1't
' l \'l r, rr .r.1 ,,1 rl hc w oul d us e
C l aude Lay du, the pri es t i n C ountry pri es t,
the parodox of predestinationand free will, and Ayfre qu()l("' af,,,l " f r', ,,"
' ,.1,l i t,tl ,,,N o.H ow c an I? Foi l ourrai I robbed hi m oi w hat
Arrg u s ti n eto d e mo n s tra teBresson' sorthodoxy at thi s poi rrt l l " 1 .. '1,.1 r,, 111.q1, 1. tl rc fi l m. H ow c oul d I rob hi m tw i c e?,, (qrroted
f f .,,r..,,, ( ,,. rrr.. ' l (obl rt in
I r .t'tlorn of thc will is not void through Grace,but is thcrcl'\' B res s on,,, f i bn euarterl y , X l l l , N o.
1 [S p1i 111,,
,',,.,1 | r
i t ti s n o t e n ough for graceto bc prescnl ,trt.rtr
r.,.t.rl ,l r,,l rl tl .' ' u ' Bu

94 TRANSCENDENTAL gTYLE
The beginningof AManEscaped and the end of
Pickpocket: "Imprisonment is the dominant
metaphor in Bresson'sfilms, but it is a two-faced
metaphor: his protagonists are both escapingfrom a
prison of one sort and surrendering to a prison of
another."
D R E S S ON 95
of actorswhom he did not "kill off" but put through the same
tensionsin film after film. For Ozu grace was neither limited nor
runpredictable,but easily availableto all. The awarenessof the
'franscendent
was for Ozu a way of living, not, as for Bresson,a
way of dying.
Tnr Atsrnrrrc TRADrrroN: Scnorasrrcrsu
Bresson'stheology, his formulation of the problems of
body and soul, predestination and free will, grace and
redemption,seemsobviously lansenist,but to infer from this, as
somecritics have, that his aestheticand artistic influenceswere
alsoJansenistis incorrect.]ansenism,like Calvinism, had little
feeling for aestheticsor art in general, and almost none for the
"visual arts" in particular. Certain art forms were favored by
Jansenismand Calvinism (church music and architecture),and
therewere maverick "Calvinist" artists (Donne, Revius,
Rembrandt),but neither of thesesectsdevelopeda positive
aestheticor promoted any movement in art. "lmages" had little
placein their logical theology,* a theology which could lead, in its
cxcesses, to iconoclasm.]ansenismcould give Bressonsome of its
leann.:ssand asceticism,but it certainly would have had no
sympathy for a work of art which sought to expressthe
Transcendentin a nonsectarianmanner through images-
particularly if that work of art consideredits religious subject
matter a"pretexl." Bresson,the artist, receivedno aid or comfort
from ]ansenism; he had to look elsewherefor his aesthetics.
Bresson'simmediate culture was also unable to provide the
aestheticsJansenismlacked.There has been little sympathy in
modern culture in general,and cinema in particular, for the
spiritual problems which troubled Bresson.There has been, of
course,a twentieth-century revival of interest in the relations
betweenform and inner meaning in the contemporary arts, and
Bressonhas been on the forefront of this. But in cinema this has
beento a substantialdegreeBresson'screation,not his
" tradi tion. "
* "A t l l r, r.rti ()nal i z i ng s tage of rel i gi on,"
H erbert R ead poi nts out, "w hen
rt'l i 11i ,' r,1,,,r,ntc r more than any thi ng el s e an affai r of phi l os ophi r:al c .rrrt' ' 1,,
.rn(l ol , ' r,l r\ r,l rr.rl rnc di ati on, then there i s bound to grow rrp.r l c r' l i rr11l l r.rt
rcl tl ',r,, ' ,,.nr,l r' l ' r' n\o w i th s uC h materi al i s ti C repres enl ,l ti ()....r.. rr,,rrk .,.l
.rrl " I 1 ' t ",t' l ' ,"' rr' l y l N ew Y ork : S c hoc k t' rr R ook s , t()r' r' l 1, ' ,,' 1

96 T R AN SC EN D EN T AL s r YLE
There have been,however, severaltraditions in Western
art which correspondremarkably to both Bresson'stheological
problems and his artistic solutions.And although one can never
be certain where Bressongot his aesthetics,some preliminary
researchrevealsthat although he is alienated,he is not sui
generis,andhis particular approachis part of a long, though
presently dormant in film, artistic tradition.
Ananda Coomaraswamywrites :
It s h o u l db e re me mb e redthat' E uropeanart' i s of tw o
very different kinds, one Christian and scholastic,the
other post-Renaissance and personal.It will be evident
enough from our essayon Eckhart, and might have been
made equally clear through a study of 5t. Thomas and his
sources,that there was a time when Europe and Asia could
and did actually understand eachother very well.07
The Scholastictradition, of which Dr. Coomaraswamywrites,
would have appreciatedthe films of Ozu and Bresson.Ozu and
Bressonhave little in com:non theologicallyor culturally, but they
both sharein the legacy of Scholasticism,the last major
pre-Renaissance aesthetic.
Neither St. Thomas nor any of the Schoolmenwrote a
specifictreatiseon aesthetics,but in Art and Scholasticism
JacquesMaritain extrapolatesa Scholasticdefinition of art as an
"intellectual virtue,"68a definition which correspondsguite
closelyto Coomaraswamy'sdefinition of Asian art as "a delight
of the reason."6s" Art seemsto be nothing other than a certain
ordination of reason," Aquinas wrote, "by which human acts
rc;rth a determinedend through determinedmeans."70Art for
l ,t,tl rth t' S c h o l a s ti cth e o l o g i a nand A si an arti st sought an i dea
1 l ,r' .ru tyn, .rtu re )w h i c h w a s b o th i n the w orl d and transcendedi t.
I lrt' St holasticaestheticprovides a common meeting place
l ,' r | .r' ,t,rrr,lWe s t, a n d b y e x tensi on,for Ozu and B resson.It w as
. , 1 r, rrrrrIrr' ,,.rr..,th t' ti cw h i c h h a d becometradi ti onal ,gatheri ngto
rr , l l .r r.rrr,,rr.rl i z l()rg tl a n o no f thought w hi l e retai ni ngi ts
rrl rr, rt, r!.1 ,r' 'I l o r rrry s te rYI.deal portrai ture changed:the
1 ,1 ,r,rrIr'|,,,r,r' r' t' r.u n ('a d i s e mbodi edi dea,but i t w as onl y a
, 1 ,,,,r,,r,,1 r1 .,rr r \V l rl l l rc r to t emori dea,theend of artw as
r, | ,r,' l ,,,t l ,,,rrrr,lIty ,rny ral i orral i zed,humani zed,or
, ,,1 ,,, ,,1 ,,,,,,,1 .r ,,1l rl ,' A l l .rrl ,l i l .,' ,rl l tl rctrl ogyandstri l ' l ' ,t,' ,
B R E S SON 97
are (to use Augustine's word) "vain"; they are the means to an
end, but not to be confusedwith the end. The artist too is a
means,and his end is not himself. This aestheticleadsnaturally
enoughto an art form, which, Coomaraswamywrites, could be
either abstractor anthropomorphic,but was not sentimentalized
or humanized.Bresson'suse of unsentimentalizedform, his
pursuit of "mystery" certainly seemspart of this tradition, and
would explain his stylistic, although not theological,affinities
with Ozu.
The Scholasticaestheticis also appropriatefor Bresson's
art becauseit allows a placefor the intellectualformulation of
ideaswithin the form. Logic was not opposedto mystery but just
anothermeans to appreciateit. The Schoolmen"attempted a task
not yet clearly envisagedby their forerunners and ruefully to be
abandonedby their successors, the mystics and the nominalists:
the task of writing a permanentpeacetreaty between faith and
reason."71 This aesthetic,which could serveboth faith and reason
in Eastand West, can also serve the seeminglycontradictory
gualitiesof Bresson'sfilm-making.
Scholasticism,Erwin Panofsky has demonstrated,found
its clearestexpressionin Gothic architecture.The Schoolmen
defineCothic architectureby its mathematicalunity rather than
its Iater expressionistfacade.Like St. Thomas' SummaTheologiae
the Gothic world sought to createclarity through organization,
synthesisthrough form. It represented,Panofsky writes, an
"acceptanceand ultimate reconciliationof contradictory
possibilities."T2Onthis level one could draw certain obvious
parallelsbetween Gothic architectureand Bresson'sfilms. Both
enclosedtheologicalparadoxeswithin a larger form, both favored
the anonymity of the artist, both sought to evoke the final
"mystery."
The Cothic cathedralmay be an appropriateaesthetic
rnetaphorfor Bresson'sfilms, but in artistic practiceits delicate
coalitionbetween faith and reasonbegan to break down, more
and morc producing not spiritual stasisbut sensualdisparity.
(lothir ,rrrlritecture,which guite literally forced faith and reason
to rl rrr , r urr r r r t lt 'rt he sam er oof , event uallycr ackedunder it s
i rrl t' rrr . r l. , t r . nn,. r ndit s pr eviouslycalm r at ional aest het icbecam c
(' \,rl ' l : , 'r , r t, ,l. l, illt ling t o cont or t edlines and dist r , r t t 't lf i1, . r r r t 's.

gB TRANSCENDENTAL gTyl-r,
Artistically, Bresson'sfilms bear more resemblanceto Byzantine
portraiture, an art form which lived out an aestheticsimilar to
Scholasticismbefore there was the need to createan aesthetic.
Tur Anrrsuc TnanrrroN: Byzlurrxr Icoxocupny
There undoubtedly are many major and minor artistic
traditions which have influencedBressonin one way or another,
but the most important, I think, is Byzantine iconography. It has
been a common thread in Western and Oriental art and influenced
the Scholasticaesthetic;it servesto further strengthen the link
between Bresson,Ozu, and the universal form of representation.
Like Oriental art, Byzantine iconography was an art of
fixed ends,and those ends were spiritual and ideal rather than
human and sentimental.The work of art was the means to an
ineffable end: "The adoration of the icon," St. Basil stated,
"passesto the prototype, that is to say to the Holy person
represented."?3
To achievetheseends Byzantine art was anonymous and
impersonal.Some icons were describedas pictures "made without
hands," formed, rather, by miraculous contact with the original.
To enforceanonymity Late Byzantine mosaicistswere enjoined
by ecclesiastical fiat to make their representationsof Christ
conform to certain requirements.This rule, one scholar wrote/
"was designedto promote, not the artistic merit of the mosaic,but
the honor of Christ; and sincethe majesty of Christ was the
transcendentidea, of which the mosaic was the material image,
this rule actually helped to draw the attention of both the
nrosaicistand the spectatorto the right quarter."TaIndividual
rrrflutnce was/ of course,discernible,but not peremptory; artists
(,rnr(,.ilrd went, Byzantine iconography stayed.
Ilyzantine iconography was a function of the liturgy. The
..r' ,( l .rl ()r' ,,.rtti tu d eto w a rd th e i con w as the sameas hi s atti tude
r ,,rr' ,r,1| l r rrr,r,;s T.h e i n d i v i d u al becameabsorbedi nto the
,,,11 ,,r r' r.,r rl rr . t h e c o l l e c ti v eorder hardenedi nto a form, and the
| ,,r . r r " l ,rr' ,,.,r'
| |r| rt' l ' r' a n s c e ndent. C onsequentl y,the i cons
1 , , ,,,,, . t1 1 ,..,' ,lr .r1 ' rtlh, i e ra rchi calfurther, and further apart from
r 1 ,,,,,r l , | ,' t' ,' r' ,rrri l rl rrd a e n d sensati on." l n the B yzanti neera
r l ,r , ri ,,, ,, ,,' ,,1 .,r.' ;' l ,y
l r,rc ls, l ow l y but surel y,cl i mbed aw ay from
r l ,. ,1 1 ,,,,,| .,,' i rl ,l ,' l tl r,' ,.(' n scs,soari ngeverhi gheri ntoarel i i on
uREssoN gg
of theologicalsymbolism and, through its images,carrying man,s
irnaginationto the transcendentrealm where imageshovered
l'retweenGod and man."75
The Schoolmenwere influenced,primarily through the
writings of the Neoplatonists,by Byzantine iconography and its
attitudestoward art. Aquinas'artistic contemporaries,the Late
llyzantine and Romanesguepainters, may have been aesthetically
influencedby Scholasticismbut they were artistically stimulated
by the Byzantine techniquesthey saw in imported icons and in the
work of refugeesfrom the Iconoclasticcontroversies.Byzantine
iconographyhas been a continuous influenceon Europeanart.
Long after the declineof Byzantium, its art molded painters like
Cimabue,Duccio, Cavallini, and Giotto; affectedQuattrocento
painterslike Mantegna; and was the basisof Carolingian,
Northumbrian, and Ottonian art. Byzantine art often functioned
in this manner, breathing fresh Easternlife into stagnating,
rationalisticWestern theories.Byzantine iconography may be
seento affect Bresson's films in the way it affected European art
until as late as the sixteenthcentury (and in some cases,such as
Ilouault and Derain, until the present); it brings the force of
specific,hieratic, "spiritual" techniquesto a rationalizedorganon.
Bressonusesmethods of representationvery similar to
thoseemployed by Byzantine painters and mosaicists,and for
someof the samereasons.Barth6l6my Amengual has already
noted,in passing,the similaritiesbetween Bresson'sfilms and
lJyzantineart. In both, he writes, there is the "dialectic of concrete
and abstract. . . the proximity, almost the identity, of the sensual
and the spiritual, of emotion and idea, of static body and mobile
mind."76The analogy can be carried even further; there are
technicalas weii as theoreticaisimilarities between Bresson's
films and Byzantine iconography.
Frontality, nonexpressivef aces,hieratic postures,
symmetric compositions,and two-dimensionality are common to
both. The Byzantine mosaicistconstructedthe nonexpressiveface
bccarrscCod himself was beyond all expression;similarly,
lllt':;r,<'rr ur,t'sthe nonexpressiveface to "deprejudice', the viewer,s
,rI I i I rrt lr ', ,|. n, . rr d t he Tr anscendentBr. esson'sst at em entabout
l .rl .i rr1', , r ',. rl,n ir on t o t he im age,"f lat t ening it out , " r . or r ltlr
l . . r vc
I,r.,.rr r' r r r r . 11lr y t hc st oglav Council which pr ohil, ir r . , tl lr t .
 Left to right: Elijah, from a
f ourteenth-century Novgorod
icon; FlorenceCarrez as Joan of
Arc; Christ, from a twelfth-
century Byzantine icon; Martin
Lassallein Pickpocket. "'I'he
long forehead, the lean features,
the closedlips, the blank stare,
"sensuality of heretics" in iconic portraiture.TTFrontality in
the flat light, these all identify
iconography was designed,Agathias wrote, so that "the man []resson'sprotatonists as obiects
looking at the ikon directs his mind to a higher contemplation. No suitable for veneration."
longer has he a confusedveneration."?8Bressonuses frontality
to createa respectful,noncommitted attitude within the viewer to B yza nt inewall paint ings,such as t he Ascensionm osaicat St ,
which can result in a stasisvery similar to that evoked by a Sophia: an agonized,lonely, full figure set against an empty
religious icon. cnvironment,his head hung to the left, wrapped body-obscuring
The long forehead,the lean features,the closedlips, the robes,about to succumbto the spiritual weight he must bear.
blank stare,the frontal view, the flat light, the uncluttered It is possible,but not profitable, to continue this analogy
background, the stationary camera,theseidentify Bresson's betweenBresson'sfacesand compositionsand Byzantine mosaics
protagonistsas objects suitable for veneration.When Michel's .rrrdpaintings. One might draw comparisonsto the Christ types
t crldface staresinto the camerain sceneafter scenein Pickpocket, in Byzantineportraiture, Christ the Pantokrator, Christ the King
llressonis using his face-only one part of Bresson'scomplex of Kings, Christ the Merciful, Christ the Suffering, and so forth,
lilrn-nraking-like a Byzantine face painted high on a temple wall. ()r one might comparethe "three-circle" method of Byzantine
l t ,.rrr:;i rn rrl l ,rrre o u selvyo k e senseof di stance(i ts i mposi ng, p,ri nti nl',t o Br esson'slight ing. But such com par isonswould
l rrc r.rti rtl rr,rl i ty ),rrrda s tra n g esensuousness (the hard-chi sel ed trvt.r' t t'rt 'nr lt he value of t he analogy.M ot ion pict ur esar e so
' .t, r rr l .r,,. .rn rr,l.r v ,r,;lmo s a i cor envi ronmentalpanorama)'A nd rl i l l t' rl r r l I r r r 111
11sg1i6s t hat any r : r com par isonwould be
r' ,l r.rr1 i r,..,,,,,nl ,r,rrl ' ,'tl, re re s to f hi sfi l m-maki ngabi l i ti estobear (
rtr,r( tr t , r lr ' lit ( '\ son'sf ilm s ar e m O r et han f ilm ic ada't iep5 of
,' . rl r rt l .r,r.. rt t.rl r,..rl ,,ri 1 ' ,h t fulpl acei n the l i turgy. )ust before l l 1,z.u r t r . ,r (. n. . , jt r stas O zu's f ilm s ar e m or e t lt ar r. , ,r t t r r vr 't . r ior r . ,
r 1 ,, 1 ,,rr,.r,,,l l ,r1 r', . rrrl .rlrl ' tl co n a barren hi l l ock, al most rrl
" tttttt , l ' , rrl rl t t t l ' t ; .
,,,,1 ,,1 ,,,1 1 ,1 1 .,.,1 ,1 ' ,.l ,.,rr,l ,l ,rl kl ,,tttt' tttrecs,therei si l l trrrJ" ' l rol
,,. f!,. ..rr | , ttttt,,, l'rrr" l tr'ltr, l, , tr'.tll's .t , o111;r11qi1tt,tt I tlttllt.rt
 B R E S SON ao,
TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE
To mold his modern-day saints Bressondraws on the
specifictechniguesof the long-standing tradition of Byzantine art.
Thesetechniguesnot only produce certain desired,tried-and-true
audiencereactions,but they also link Bresson,swork to a method
of representationwhich has its roots in the East and has been
successfullyadapted to dozensof cultures.Unlike his other
artistic traditions, Byzantine iconography ties Bresson to a
universalform which has been used by many artists, among them
Yasujiro Ozu. The common historical aestheticand artistic
traditions shared by Bresson and Ozu, even though seemingly
remote,setsthe stagefor their contemporary stylistic union.

A Synrursrs oF TRADrrror.r:IN,recoDsr
Bressonis a man of (at least) three traditions. Although it
is possibleto delineateeachof thesetraditions and analyze them
separately,in the courseof his films thesetraditions must
necessarilyjoin and disjoin, forming more or less lasting
syntheses.Thenecessityof cultural syntheseswas not so evident
in the study of Ozu's films because,although several
subtraditionswere noticeable( such as light comedy), it seemed
(at least to this Western mind) that he, by and large, adhered
to
one overriding tradition, Zen, with all its ,,theological,,,aesthetic,
and artistic implications.

\ .. tt irrtt tttrr .tt. .tl 'iol'hia and Claude Laydu in Diary of a

"r
| , , 't t , i | , , , I \1 . r l. ( ' r u. / ( , (lo
1n, ely full figure set againstan empty
,' ,' ,,r ,,' ,,,,1 l,' 1,, , , 1lr r r nl't o t h e I c f t , w r , r p p e d i n b o d y - o b s c u r i n l i
,1,,,,1,1.,,,,1t,, , , ' , , , nr l,lo ll r r '. , 1 'r r r l r r . r vl 1 r l 'l r ll r e m u s t b e a r . "
 1o5
ro4
life "3' The Western.Churchsaw in images(to th€ extentthat
on€ of the most inretestint of Bresson'ssynthesesis his
they werePermitted)only instruction,education,and edilication,
d€pictionof the Imate ot Cod.In;go Deiis the pivotalconceptin
' thr.Eastemchurch' on the otherhand' saw in imagesmyst€ri€s
any discussionof christirr' *t, .r,a nr.oor,', iJlratlng ot it
which ef{ectsalvation The EasternChurchnot oniy allowed
demonsrrates how he appseasyzantineconcefi;;;;"" *,"
imagesbut prescribed.the form they shouldtake'
Iansenisttheoloty. The very fact that an artis-t?;i;;;-
Viewedfrom the Romanor Protestant(which woutd also
involvedin the Imag€of cod conrroversyis aletermined, van der
--. .- , .
in-clud€theJansenist)PositionBressonentagesin theheresyof
Iaeuw contends,by the fact tfrat fre tfrinr<srustori"t;-
rhe lmasoDeidilemma
In Cr,,i"tr"nity tr,"w".iii" '
transcendentally.?o :::l;i'jo"'c'aPhv
Ttialofloanof Arc'"the inquisitorasksJoan
comes
uPin rfte
Transcendenr "^a tt'" R"i""^"r,both cod
i5 ffxedin u.;r'gt" per"o.', ifherfollowers had

;*.Tilil,iff;i:i;'t*vi'u'tp""on-*trethecruciar ['i::llllilffi:::;1,:li::';:il:*H:'i';1,;'"]:Xfr,?".
If loanpermitsher,follo$/ersto venerateimat€s of her sheis
Hirtodcalty, therehavebeentwo interpretarionsof lmago
" .om mi tting a doublesift blasphemy(serljnt herselftp against
Dei, Ih€ Easrern Orthodox and the protesrant, wj th the Roman
churchstraddlingtheareainberween.Both start from a common $avehimates Joananswerswith
tyPicalambituity' "l sawone " Bresson,with his own ambituity,
point: the originil unity of God and man when God createdman
in his imaee("Gen.I :0, 27).one camp,which is exemptifiedby j::":*t'aPhk here€vinto th€ th€ologvof the
l:,l:::tj":f
vvesternLhurch was not
',oan only a saint in thPRorhanCatholic
the Protesiantchurches,rakesas its text Exodus:o:3 which
*"'.t"""""onized), that is a?ersonwhos€life otrers
prohibitsany gmven image.The unity had bee; +"i ly rr'" lilii fh"
"'"a ed;Iication to thosewho conterhPlate and emulaleit; butshe was
iu[; sir,-dorniiut"d,r,ur,iould not possiblydepicr th€ Holy.ihis
also'B'essonsugge-sts, animageinthe Eastemsense-an icon to
viewwas erpressedasear\ asthe secondceffiufcr",ri*t oi
pr*.ryro.uiaa** r i','.,i."
hasbeen
Arerandria,'..rt j tTs ontoPosir aneve'mor€ insidious
n€resy-tnatJoan t*'?l
ii,lll"'il-':,T a sPiritua/icon in a Codlessunivers€, that
dec€privearti for theproph"t s!yr,'Thou rh"lr not nak€ the she-should 's
be veneratedforher ability to transcendherself'
likenessof anythin' that is in Heaven,or in the e;;,h;;;,h.' ^" therebyexPressrng an undefined"Transcendent"which is not
This notionhis enjiyed continuou5favor,beihg arriculatedby -' anysPeciffc"God"
the eithth-cenrurylcon"a*", *p.t*o ,. *..t" *"a"t""
B,::t:o"'""1:t be tied down to any onehetesy'he is a
degreesby Anselm,Luther,and calvin, and ir assumedits most ,heretic
- ,. all his own His techniqu€sof
virutent forI,' when Cro-w"1t ru.it,n" s^o"i;-a^d;;; Portraiturecom€from
Bv^zantium' his theologvof predestinition,free will and gace
relitious statuary.The protestantshavetak;; a;*iX,1.i.""a rromJansenism'his aesth€ticsrrom scholasticismTo each
,t*ninsrreligiousimagesof uny so.t luttt'o..gii;;;;;;.;;";1ui,' - tradition he btings the virtues of the other, and to cinemahe
,nr11s havebeentolerated),whereasthe Roma;';;;;;h-
;;;;i;;",;:;;;;;;;;;;'J.i""g".;"i",;.;,;.Jpp"a-
['J.Tf"T:'i::::.:ii*fi.5*'.."":Il,:":P,:"r"",
tilms; they hav€n'tlitured out what sort of her€ti" tt" i" y"'t.
( ),, I t!, olher hand,the Eastemchurch takesas its proof
r' . r l l,,l,t't".,'r! -':6,which emphasizesthe incarnation,the fact BEyoNDPRErExrs
I l,,r, .,.1,."'x,1,'wn"takint the form of a seryant, beint born in
,,-,,,,,,.,,,,,,,.,n,,rheEasternviewhordsthatasciristis
.,,,,,,,,i,ili*::"3,::"T::i;Tii:f#Ll;ll,:f*:::
,r,,,,,,,), 'r ,.,r1..,'l,c(anbeworshippedthroughimages-The 1,,)lir!t,.,r.,,uldbecalledh,stradition_;curiousamargamarnx,
'', r'rr,,'1r,,r,,,)l,lltizedthisposition,de.]""]1t_,!* ,,riv,,.r,, ,,,.t,.l,.rons. y"t tr,i" i. ;rr..rr... rh.
l ' , l ,l q h ow - . chri stoutGod i n H i s "y"tr,*i. ".if "
,,,tr,,,. , t , 1. , , r . , , r . , t ] . cqconf indseaci. st r owor kwir l,r r ! a. t r , . , o, , t v
r ,..,,, l ,,,.,,,rt,,r,r" n r.,v | \.rr rni nd.dofhi si ncarni ' "
 ro6 TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE

natural for the elementsof Bresson'shistorical traditions to

coalescefor they must PrePareto meet a f ormidable oPPonent: ,#,
the "new," s"ns,rul, individualistic art of cinema, which with ifs
traditions has tried to squashthe spiritual gualities out of art. The
resulting conflict pits the two traditions against each other in a
bizarre time-machinemanner: Scholasticaestheticagainstmovie
aesthetic,ideal portraiture againstindividual portraiture' spiritual
refinement against drermaticdevelopment' (The implications of
the expression of the spiritual occurring on film, of course' are
somewhatinvolved and will be consideredin the Conclusion.)
Out of this struggle comesa new form: transcendentalstyle' It is
the old aestheticin the new medium. The aesthetic is familiar, but
the style is new'
On the surfacethere wouid seemiittie to link Ozu and
Bresson;neither of them could make films in the other's country
without experiencing"culture shock'" They shared,anancient
Christian/-Oriental aestheticheritage which had fallen into
their common
generaldisrepair,especiallyin motion pictures' But
iesire to the Transcendenton film made that link crucial;
"*p."r, form' The
eachtook the old aestheticprinciplesinto a new art

Transcendence in EastandWest, Ozu'sLateSpringand Bresson's,

Th e T ri a l o f l o a n o f Arc :" E o rO zu,the aw areness ot the transcenoent
for Bresson, a way of dying'" aestheticwas the same,the medium was the same,and not
was a way of living;
surprisingly, the resultant style was remarkably similar.
Transcendentalstyle, like Byzantine art, is a universal
form becauseit can accommodatedifferent artists and different
cultureswithin a common structure.Byzantine art could reach
from England and Franceto the Far East; transcendentalstyle can
reach to wherever men make movies. The differences which seem
so culturally unbridgeablecan both function within
transcendentalstyle: frontality can be both Pantokrator
hierarchismor it can beZen "politeness"; disparity can be both
.rlienationbetween man and nature and man and God; stasiscan
botlr [rc a quiescentview of nature and the symbolic icon.
-f r.rrr,,,r'n.lcntalstyle can expressthe endemicmetaphors of each
. rrl Irrr , r t i. ;like t he r hount ainwhich is a m ount ain,doesn'tseem
Io I' t' . ' r r r , r r r r r t . lin,
t hen is a m ount ain again; it is alsolike t he
l )ri .,rr rrrr r r vlr r ,
lr nr anis involunt ar ily enclosed,yet f r or r rwhich
tl rr' rrr ', lr. , , l. r r l ni1', htof t he soul hc can escn[ r ( t',lr o. ', ir r 1'r nr ; t r ', r t l
 1O8 T R AN SC EN D EN T AL ST YLT

to enter a"new" prison. In sum, transcendentalstyle can adapt to

both culturesbecauseit expressesthe Transcendent,which knows
no culture. It i5 not a metaphor which is restrictedto its
antecedents;it is a form which is universally appreciable.
At the moment of stasisthe "pretexts" f all away, the Way of
Introspection and the Way of Unifying Vision yield to each other.
At such a moment (if it is fortunate enough to occur) the
transcendentalstyle in films is unified with the transcendental
style in any art, mosaics,painting, flower-arranging,tea
ceremony,liturgy. At this point the function of religious art is
lll. I)r'cru'
complete;it may now fade back into experience.The wind blows
where it will; it doesn't matter once all is grace,
I

,ft
T ',

ffi,
"Tll;,,*
rl
'l'hnlU$ttltft
persistent, overriding
this
essay has
there been
one
:i assumption: that the transcendental style is the proper method for
.l
conveying the Holy on film. This has been assumed,but is it
necessarily so? Why do austerity and asceticismstand at the gates
of the Transcendent; cannot the Transcendent also be expressed
through exuberanceand expressionism?Why is Ozu preferred to
Mizoguchi, Bresson to Resnais,Dreyer to Bergman?
JacguesMaritain writes, "There is no style reserced to
religious art, there is no religious technique. Anyone who believes
in the existenceof a religious technigue is on the high road to
Beuron."* Is not this essay,with its insistence on "transcendental
style," on that high road?
This alleged "unique" quality of the transcendental style I
have defined should be examined in the light of two pertinent
considerations: one, what forms have spiritual expression taken
in the past? and two, how do these forms relate to the "new" art
of motion pictures? This central question (and its incumbent
considerations) inevitably raises theological and aesthetic
Rocksand Bamboo,Wu ChEn,Yiian dynasty' problems beyond the scopeof this essay,and my intention here,
as throughout, is not to pretend any "new" aesthetics,but rather
to situate my concept of filmic "transcendental style" within some
previous theories.

*
Jacques Mari tai n, A rt and S c hol as ti c i s m and the Fronti ers of P oefry (N ew
Y ork: Charl es S c ri bner' s S ons , 196z ), p. ro5. B eurones e art, dev el oped i n
thc rnorr.rs teryat B euron i n the r86os , w as one of the earl i es t "modern
arts, .rrr rlw i th i ts pri mi ti v e qual i ti es anti c i pated the pai nti ngs oI C .rugui rr,
( t'z.rrrr ,,. ,rurl K andi ns k y . B eurones e art, how ev er, l oc k ed tht' r' rprt' r;"i < ttt
ol .,1,rrrtrr,rl rl yrrrto a s i ngl e form, al l ow i ng no room for rl t.rttl ' ,r' .tttrl
r.rpcrrrrr.rrl .rl r.rr C ons i deri ng i ts i ni ti al l y i nnov ati v c s ty l t i l l ' .' ,1 r, rtr.trl .rl ' l y
l rttl l r',,1' .,,I i ' r' .l r((c e(l i ng art forms .

a52
THr Sprnrruer rN ARr
There are many ways to present the Holy in art; no artist
or style has corneredthe transcendentalmarket. Although, as
Maritain states,there is no specific"religious technique," he also
goes on to say that "It is true that not every style is equally suited
to sacredart."1 In any given art some styles are best suited to
expressthe sacred,others the profane; and in film no style is
better suited to expressthe Holy than transcendentalstyle.
What sort of generalconclusionscan be drawn from the
checkeredhistory of sacredart? What do the various expressions
of the Transcendenthave in common: West African sculpture,
Zuni masks,Byzantine ikons, Zen gardens,illustrated medieval
manuscripts,Gothic architecture,seventeenth-centurymeditative
verse,morality plays, Rembrandt'spaintings, Henry Moore's
sculptures?Is there anything in the history of transcendentalart
which can be extracted,abstracted,defined,and then set against
the relatively new medium, motion pictures?What distinctions
between the Holy and holy feelings have been made in other art
forms and do they apply to cinema?
The primal, most irreduciblemetaphor for the sacredin
art, as I said in the Introduction, is the expressionof primitive
religion through primitive art. Many of the technigues which have
been used throughout history to exPressthe Holy in art
originated in primitive art. Sacredart has often seemedto favor
primitive technigues: two-dimensionality, frontality, the abstract
line, the archetypalcharacter.
As a distinction between the Holy and holy feelings,
however, the primitive-classicaldichotomy is, at best, only valid
in principle; it cannot be applied to either a specifichistorical
1'r'riodor specifictechniques.RecentanthroPologicalstudies
rcvt,.rlcrlthat there was a good deal more social convention
irrlr.rlrr.rsorr,rl intention in primitive art than its first exPonents
l h a t c l a s s i c aal rt, fo r al l i ts natural i sm,coul d al so
r r r r,rl ,i rrr' ,l ..rrrrl
l, r ' rrrtr.rr,,r,lr,.l y i 1 ,i o rrs T .h e p ri m i ti ve-cl assi cal
nd one must be carefulnot to
r ilr l ' (,rr.i l r(r' .r,,.r t' (' n (' i r' (rl i z a ti oan,
u . r ' rl .r...rn 1 ' l l rrn 1 rrro
' , rr'Ih a n th a t .
I' J .rtl r.r, .rrrl l rr' l ,ri trti l i v t'-tl ,r' ,' ,i.rl
, ,l i , l l rttrtmybe di rectl y
, l . l l,,,ltir .r r lr ' .1 r , l,,lttr tr lttt",. lt' , 1'rr,,Ir,
r ' , r ! ,r r r ' , ,,.,,,,,1 ) rrl lt,r t' t' 1 ,,' ,,' ,,,,,
CONCLUSION 453
T R AN SC EN D EN T AL ST YLE
(secular)purposes.In the long run of history no individual
technique can be ascribed to either the sacred or the profane.
There are no religious techniques.Byzantine art, for example,
maintained that the Holy was revealed through artistic
compositions with one focal point, so that the viewer's attention
is fixed on the face of the saint; Wassily Kandinsky in his
apologia for a "new" primitive art 9oo years later wrote that the
spiritual could be revealed through a composition with many
focus points, so that the viewer could appreciatethe "inner
relationship" of separate,individual shapesand colors.2In
another example, seventeenth-century meditative poetry
maintained that verse could express the sacred through a didactic
proposal, rich description and elaborate metaphor; contemporary
poets, on the other hand, who desire to reveal the Transcendent
prefer the "split line" and the disjointed metaphor. When applied
to film, the question of "religious technique" becomeseven more
thorny. The abstract, expressionisticline which works so well in
Gruenwald's Isenheim Altarpiece may have a completely different
effect in a feature-length film; an architectural structure which is
effective in three dimensions may fail completely when used on a
two-dimensional movie screen.When compared to cinema, these
earlier forms of transcendental art, as I stated previously, can only
function as metaphors.
Becausethere are no religious techniques,aesthetic
generalizations become important and necessary.A technique or
form can only be described as "religious" (or transcendental)
when defined in a highly restricted context (Byzantine
iconography, sumi-e painting); in order to apply the lessonsof
these individual works to another medium one must rely on
generalization. Conseguently aestheticiansand theologians have
have
continually revised the original primitive-classicaldichotomy,
and
eachadapting it to his own circumstances,eachattempting to
keep that important distinction alive and meaningful. Worringer
describedit as the distinction between "naturalism" and "style";
di chotomy has great van der Leeuw as the distinction between "naturalism" and
"asccticism."To Aldous Huxley it was the differencebetween
" tratl i tion" and "individual st yle"; t o Benjam inRowland, I r . , it
w .rsl l u ' rlrllcr cncebet ween"t r adit ional ar t " and "r r ( ) nlr ', r clit i( ) n. r l
r',,rrrt.rl l yascri bctl l tr
at t-" An, l r r r t. r t lr lon. Eachof t hesedist inct ionsir ; lo , , r , r r rtl lt . 1'. r 'r , t .
.l rrl l y rr',t'cl ftl r.l .,"',r,.tl
 coN cLUS TON a5'
154 T R AN SC EN D EN T AL ST YLE

man who used abundant meansonly to sustain his sparsemeans,

limited becausethey use artistic techniquesto comment on and who, when his sparsemeansapproachedtheir end, gave up
universal principles; the aestheticianmust be continually on both temporal means.
guard; the technigueschange,the principles do not' In attemPting Similarly, it is possibleto say that sacredart usesboth
Io correlrte the forms of the spiritual in art I prefer a totally abundant and sparsemeans.The abundant means sustain the
nonartistic metaphor, one which doesnot rely on artistic viewer's (or reader'sor listener's)physical existence,that is, they
techniques,but instead refers to types of "good works'" maintain his interest; the sparsemeans,meanwhile,elevatehis
ln Religionand Culture (rSlo) JacquesMaritain described soul. The abundant meansin art correspondto Worringer's
two types of "temporal means," and although they apply "natura]ism." These meansare sensual,emotional,humanistic,
primarily to good works, he also usesthem in referring to artists individualistic.They are characterizedbysoft lines, realistic
and theologiins. By extensionthey can also refer to two general portraiture, three-dimensionality,experimentation; they
artistic for*s, sacredand profane' The first of thesetemporal encourageempathy. The sparsemeans in art correspondto
means,the abundant means (moyens temporels riches),are those Worringer's "style." The sparsemeans are cold, formalistic,
which "of their nature demand a certain measureof tangible hieratic. They are characterizedby abstraction, stylized
success."s This type of good work sustainslife in a depraved portraiture, two-dimensionality, rigidity; they encouragerespect
world: "lt wouli be absurd to despiseor reject them, they are and appreciation.These opposing meansare not segregated
necessary,they are part of the natural stuff of human life'" The categories;they are both presentand interwork in any piece of
abundant means are the meansof the soldier, laborer, and art, particularly sacredworks of art.
businessman; they are the means concernedwith praticality' The artist who wishes to expressthe Transcendentcannot
physical
^ goods,and sensualfeelings. neglecteither the abundant or the sparsemeans,but he must
The secondmeans,the sparsemeans (moyens temprels know their priority. The abundant meansmust serve to sustain
/tTheless burdened
pauures),are"the proPer meansof the spirit'" the sparsemeans,the sparsemeansmust yield to a spiritual
they are by matter, the more destitute, the lessvisible-the more awareness.In a Byzantine church the abundant meansare those
effi.uciousthey are.This is becausethey are Pure means f or the which enclosespaceand facilitate the liturgy; the sparsemeans
virtue of the spirit." The sparsemeansare not ordered toward are those which, like the vertical line and iconography, demand
tangible successbut toward the elevation of the spirit' Being the veneration.Within the Byzantine ikon itself, the abundant
"p-p., meansof wisdom," they are the means of the poet and means are the variation of color and realistic gesture of the
p-hllosopher:Mozart, Satie,Rembrandt, Dante, Homer' subsidiarycharacters;the sparsemeans are the gold background
St.Thomas. and frontality of the central character.The ratio of abundant
"lt must be understood," Maritain writes, "that there is an to sparsemeans/of course,varies greatly from one art form
rrrder and hierarchy of thesetemporal means'" And the sParse to another.
nr('ilnsarc higher than the abundant means: "the world is The ratio of abundant and sparsemeans can be a measure
1,r,ri.;hin1', of dcad weight. It will recoverits youth only through of the "spirituality" of a work of a.i. The more a work of art can
1, ,,r,,' rry o l l l rc s p i ri t." Al th o u g h both meansare temporal ,the successfullyincorporate sparsemeans within an abundant
1. ,,.,,,,,' rI rr' ,r are necessari l ycl osert< r
rr' ,,l ,,r' ,.rk i n g ta n g i b l esucces5, society,the nearer it approachesits transcendental" end." It is not
t 1,,'I l ,,l1 ' I rl .r' I r.rrr' ,tt' n tl e n ta la rt, the sP arsemeansare means a v('r.yl)recisemeasure,of course,but at least it is universally
. r l' l ' r' ,.r,l ,' rr1.rrr,'
' rr,l" l h c c l o s e rone gets to the essenceof the appl i ,.r l'lr ' lt can r elat et o any hum an act ivit y, ar t ist ic,social,or
lt' tttlr or il nl r " r l t.; r 'r r r l tl oy t'tl i n i ts s er v i c e
'; r r r lr r ' r l lltt ttt"tt
' l' r phi l t' ,, , '1'lr i, , rllefL or e applying t his clum sy m easur {'I of iI nr ,
l 'r tf tr tr t t't1tr 'l l : the abuntl ar tt
,1 ,,,,,r ,r ' lr lf,,llt tr r r ' tlt' ,.11( ' ll( ' r ( """llY how r.r , ', r , r t r vill be helpf ul t o m ake som egener . r sl. l r t lr r r lr r l.,,r lr or r l
ll" t'r n f'l t'r ''r l I
,,,, ,,, I r r 1, 1f,, l' ,,,11"r 1r It",r r llt.l t 1" r r " r 'r r r r " l l l r ; I l rt,r t,r r l'. r . rI r\ , ( .nat r t r eof m ot ion pir .t r r r c. i.
,' ,,1 l' lt,r lr r tr ttr tll,l,1r ",,r r l' r ' llr t ( r l r " {r 'r tl r l tYPIi r " 'l '"
tl ,,

t
 CONCLUSION 457
a56 TRANSCENDENTAL STYLf

purely psychological,namely the duplicarion of the world

CINn"re AND THEAnrs: Two Ovsnvrrws outside."sFrom their beginningsthe graphic arts demonstrated
In his study of the Holy in art, Gerardus van der Leeuw both theseambitions: one, the primarily aesthetic,in the
traces the history of the major arts from their origins in religious Byzantine ikons, the other, purely psychological,in the Egyptian
practice to the present secularizedstate' At its beginnings each art death-masks."Great artists,of course," Bazin adds, ,,huu-"-ul*uy,
form was one with religion but throughout the centuries been able to combine the two tendencies."
progressively suffered a "breakup of unity." The ceremonial Like van der Leeuw, Bazin felt that the spiritual in art
religious danceevolved into the sacerludus,lhe sacerludus gradually succumbedto the "duplication of the world outside.,,
subseguently subdivided into bourgeois drama and liturgy, the Although the "purely psychological" had always existedit did
liturgy in its progressional turn became popularized; throughout not come into dominanceuntil the Renaissance.,,perspective,,,he
history the constant trend of art is from the sacredto the profane. writes, "was the original sin of Western painting,,, and from that
The Renaissance,with its emphasison naturalnessand individual time on the spiritual guality of art steadily diminished.
effort, usually takes the rap for the "breakup of unity," but van Eachoverview, whether monistic like van der Leeuw,sor
der Leeuw points out that this trend Soesas far back as "the great dualisticlike Bazin's,holds that the spiritual guality in art suffered
heretic Akhenaten" who gave Egypt's gods the sculptural faces of its declineat the expenseof "realism," the duplication of either
his family.a Only rarely in the history of art, van der Leeuw external or internal reality. Art has always been excitedby the
contends, have talented artists been able to resist the trend challengeof realism: the bison came off the walls and became
toward secularizatioriand return to the religious origins of art' sculptures,the sculpturesbecamephotographs,the photographs
Van der Leeuw doesnot discusscinema in his study' It is moved. Eventually the artist, in his desireto imitate life,
quite crucially the only major art form which does not fit into his attempted to reproducephysical existenceitself, not like the
schema.Motion pictures were not born in religious practice,but Greeksjust to portray the highest sensualform. Victor
instead are the totally profane offspring of capitalism and Frankenstein'smad dream was a Gothic extensionof a dream
technology. If a religious artist in cinema attemPts to go back to shared by many artists of his age: to artificially recreate human
his origins, he will find only entrepreneurs and technocrats'* life and its external surroundings.The urge to duplicate the
When the Holy tries to enter into the cinema,the intrinsically externalworld was accompaniedby an urge to duplicate the
profane art, there are bound to be some unusual consequences- internal world. The romantic artist scrutinizedand dutifully
consequenceswhich van der Leeuw did not anticipate' recordedhis own feelings;he was accountableto no other realitv
In his essay"The Ontology of the Photographic Image," than his own. The myth of the "artist personality,,came into fuil
Andr6 Bazin,unlike van der Leeuw, contends that there never w'r" bloom, resulting in both the psychologicalpicturesgueand
an original unity between religion and art, and that art (in this impression,romantic verse and the psychologicalnovel. Sypher
.ure, puinting) has always been torn between two ambitions: has noted the similaritiesin nineteenth-centuryrealism anj
"on", the primarily aesthetic,namely the expressionof spiritual romanticism; the romantic work of art, though verging on total
rr',rlitywhrereinthe symbol transcendedthe model; the other, fantasy,was only realism turned outside in.6
. I lr r . csic1 , o f th e o r ig in a l u n ity of art and rel i gi on has been so strorrl ; In their pursuit of reality the arts openly covetedeach
Pr
t n . r | ( r itir isn r th a t so m e wr ite r s ca te gori cal l y refused to admi t the other. The arts of spaceenvied the arts of time and vice versa.
i nventi on of moti on
l , , r ,,,.r l,r lr tVo l ,r 1 ,r r > { ,r n ea r t. T we n ty years after the Ho1i.rrt h t'rcatedsequentialpaintings to simulate time; Balzac
ari se and
l . t i r *r ,., Al,"...,r r r ,lr ol) r ' lla Se ta wr o te: "A rt w i l l then never u:;t' tlrrr. lr rr r louspaint er ly descr ipt ionst o evoke space.Eachar t
, 1 .r.tr ,1 , .r n r r ' r ,t'u * n tr r r ltr s il h a s a foundati on i n rel i gi on. A rt absol ul cl y
taste of the spect'rtor rl r' .,i r,.,I t 1, , ". r 'r '. r lismanot
" herdim ensioncould of f er , : r . d t he
1 , , 1 r r r r r n r ,r tl' ,r , .r r l l' r ,ttr lo sa tisfy the aesl heti c
i.. ilil,,Ir ,, r r ..r l,lr .r r r lIr r I,ilr h isto ry arrtl l r.r,, .rl ,.,ol rrtel ynever exi rl Itl torrl rrrr r r r r',l'r ', urh f or an ar t which could be r eali: ; li,ir r l, . llr : ; P. rtt.
r',,, ll,,r r ,l,' r r l. l.lJr r w i rr. r'1r,11,1' 1''1.
' .",,' ,,1 .' \r r
 I CONCLUSION 459
l-58 TRANsCENDENTAL
srylE
l Spiritual cinema has had to continually draw away
! and time certainly engenderedthe arts' progressiveplunge from its
I into reality.
potentials; being "abundant,, at birth, it had to diicover
the
'l' "sparse."
Cinema, the duplicatory art in spaceand time, changedall
this. Sypher's cursory contention that cinema threw every other
TnexscevorNrer Sryre ; Aauuoersr eruo Spansr
art into the twentieth century and remainedwoefully in the
nineteenth itselfTis a crucial idea in the history of film and Seen in this historical perspective, the techniques
of
transcendentalstyle come into cleirer focus. Transcendentar
contemporary art, and one which has yet to be fully explicated. style
differs from the previous forms of transcendental
Motion pictures have the immediate senseof reality that the arts art in ,h";;;;
way cinema differs from the previous artistic media.
had so often prostituted themselvesto obtain; their axioms were
Transcendentalstyle adapts the theory of abundant
the unattainablegoals of realism.Although there still are realistic and sparse
means to cinema.
heights to attain (holographic cinema,for example),cinemahas
at least temporarily halted the artistic lust for likeness.If the Transcendentalstyle, quite obviously, operatesin
time; it
original sin of painting was perspective,Bazin writes, then "it was must sustain the viewers,sinterest from one to
ihree hours.
redeemedfrom sin by Niepce and Lumiire. In achieving the aims Conseguentlytranscendentalstyle is not a fixed relationship
betweenabundant and sparsemeans like sculpture,
of baroque art, photography freed the plastic arts from their but a fluid
interaction creating a temporal as well as spatial rhythm.
obsessionwith likeness.Painting was forced, as it turned out, to It
gradually can use iess abundant and more ,purr.
offer us illusion and this illusion was reckoned sufficient unto art. means,
Photography and the cinema on the other hand are discoveries drawing the viewer from the familiar world to the
other world.
Transcendentalstyle, therefore,has three steps;
that satisfy, onceand for all and in its very essence,our obsession it is a
wit h r ea l i s m ." s progressionalrelationship.It can have the sameeffect
as that
upon a viewer who walks through a Byzantine
Cinema short-circuited the desire to duplicate external church, moving
from the abundant to the sparseartistic means.
reality-no longer would a painter or novelist strive for the In cinema,
however, it is the art which moves past the passive
realism cinemainherently offered-and plunged the desireto viewer; it can
take him from abundant to sparsemeans. O^" raluy
duplicate internal reality into a deeper,more complex level. to determine
the "spiritual guality,, of a cinematic styie, therefore,
Cinema was also,as Hauser wrote, "the final step on the road to is to
examine the manner in which it disposesof its
profanation."eIt canonizedthe human, sensualand profane: it inherent abundant
meansand substitutessparsemeans.
t clebratedthe realisticpropertiesof the nineteenth century while
thr'other arts went on to explore the twentieth. From its outset The transcendentally-minded film_maker finds
himself in
a unigue position: he must properly disposeof
t irrcrrr.rexemplifiedthe abundant means.Imitative, a surfeit of
abundant means (cinema,sinh"ru"t ,,re"lis*,,;.
r'' l, | {',,{'nt.rI ional, experiential,it could produce instant empathy. He cannot ignore ---
or neglect these means, but must turn them to his
I lri,;pccrrliarhistorical perspectiveof cinema-its advantugel
cinema may have freed the other arts from
l, r rrl . rrr r ' ,,ri f i rr.,,-c a np ro d u c ea s e n seof " chronol ogi calreverse." their desire to imitate
life, as Bazin and Sypher contend,but it did
I r ' | 1, , . ,. r.,r.r' l I rl rrr-rn a k e rs
l i k e O z u a nd B resson,ci nemadi d not not free itself. In fact,
Bazin writes, cinema thereby acguirednew
1, , , , , r r , ,l ,r,' t:r,..,,.i v r' l y p ro fa n e ,i tb e cameprogressi vel ysacred.
In chains to the
"o[,scssionwith reality,,, This unique
r l, , l, r r,' r1 ,' l l rl rrrl l rr' .;s o nc a me a fte rD reyerw hocameafter allianceof media and
alrrrrrrl.rrrt meanshas its advantagesas well as its drawbacks.
i1 | , , , , , , ,, , 1 rr .r' ,rl rrrtl rr.l ri s to ryo f p ai nti ng the B yzanti ne
, 1, 1,, . . r r r r , . r lt r . r t lr t , ( lot hic ar <l r i t r . t t w h o c a m e a f t e r
rrrr' l r' rrr'l
i l st' l l
"I ir it ual cinem awas f r eed f r om t he need t o pr ost it ut e
rlr . rl( ) achievea senseof , , r ealism . , ,
Bef or et ir e aclvent
On

il., ,,r1, l, , , r , , , r , , r r t r , , 1, , r , , . , i1, 1, ' 1p , , . r 1 'l l rl .l rr rl ', , , ; 6 n , w h o s c f i l r r r . ; ' 'r

(rf rrr,.rr,.', r , r t , r ir r r eligiousar t ist sat t em pt edt of ir st r r r , . r t r . t ht .
t. , i . r r r , , , , , , 1, , , , , 1 r , , , 1. , , r r . , I, , r r r r lr , . , l. r r , l r . r r r . l r c t lt h c w o r k o l
i l l rr,,r," r, 'lt lr . r r r nr ilncnt ,t hen br r , . r kt hai illusior r .
ll l lr . r r . l, v
t
-
I
rlr

ht
C ON C LUS I O N r6t

revealing the Transcendent.Brrt, ri;",""r, "reality" of everyday is so thoroughly

;;;:: stylized that it is
spent most of their energy unsuccessfullycreaiing the illusion ":::"- unreceptiveto the sortof empathy which
naturally follows a
which they never could successfully"break." Becausethe senseof comprehensibleenvironment. It
ill transcendentally-mindedfilm-maker already has the illusion at the proper use of abundant meansin sacred
is a textbook exampleof
art: the abundant
j'
his disposal,h".an go immediately to the next stage,attempting meanscreatean environment (on screen)
and an audience(in the
to break the illusion. However, the religious film-maker cannot theater)in which sparsemeanscan operate.
ignore the abundant in the way other artists can. A At the srageof dispariry the ctnflict between
. abundant
transcendentally-mindedpainter like Kandinsky, for example, and sparseartistic *uu:: becomesapparent_and
disturbing_to
could functionally ignore the abundant means.For him, the the spectator.This conflict i, p"rro.,ifi"d by
the protagonistihere
abundant meanswere given; they were the physical gallery is a product of abundant means,a man in
realistichuriun fo.m
where the spectatorstood.The canvasitself could be totally whose physical needsare like our own, yet
whose conduct is a
sparse,the interplay of abstractforces.Becausethe cinemais an model of sparseness. There is a disparity of artistic means: there
imitative art in time it not only createsthe abstractpainting but are abundant imitative techniques__the
protagonist and his
the gallery as well ; a transcendentally-mindedfilm-maker simply surroundings; and there is the cold, ,pu.r"
stylization which
cannot dismiss the abundant meansout of hand. supersedesthesetechnigues,Again, t.ans.erriental
style usesa
A motion picture, from its first frame, has great potential minimum of abundant meansto sustain a film
in which the means
empathy; one of the functions of transcendentalstyle is to use are becomingincreasinglysparse.
that empathy as potential and keep it at that level. The audience Transcendentalstyle theoreticallysubstitutes
sparse
has a natural impulse to participatein actions and settingson meansfor abundant; just how s,rc..srful it
is in this efftrt can be
screen;a film-maker employing transcendentalstyle can use these determinedby the decisiveaction. It is clearly
an abundant rn"unr.
given abundant means,this natural empathy, to hold the audience a dramatic or emotional action whlch cries
out for audience
in the theater as he gradually substitutessparsemeans for empathy. Yet, if transcendentalstyle is
successful,the film will at
this late point be so bare, ,o rp^rr" that -'
abundant. In transcendentalstyle sparsemeans are, to a large an abundant t".l,r,iqr;
degree,simply a refusal to use the availableabundant means. will have no context to relateio. In the transformed
order of
There is no great need to invent new abstract forms; sparseness artistic meansthe empathetic,dramatic
devicenow seemsout
can be achievedby gradually robbing the abundant means of of place.
their potential. Transcendentalstyle must always ride this thin Stasis,of course,is the final example of
sparsemeans.The
image simply stops.The abundant
Iine: it must use the given abundant means to sustain audience means have been shown to
have little purpose; the sparsemeans,
irrtcrcst,and it must simultaneouslyreject the empathetic now dominant, will soon
r .rI ion.rlcfor that interest in order to set up a new priority. And give way to the end of the film. The transcendental
style will
have, it is hoped, set the viewer in motion,
| ,r'(.rrr,.('t lrc abundant potential of films is so great, its rejection can moving from abundant
| ' r ' r ' r , r.rr if proceedingdown the aisteoT a Byzanrine
I' r' r,,rte r. ::-1llir:^T.u..r,,u:
cnurch. When the image stops,the viewer keeps
lrr .r filrrrof spiritual intent it is necessary,therefore,to going, moving
deeperand deeper,one might say,into
l, , , , . ur, r,,.rr,' ,l .ry ,rrrd a d i s p a ri ty; th ere can be no i nstant stasi s. the image. This is the
" nri r' ,rtl t" 'of sacr edar t . I f it
I l' , , 1 ' ,1 I'
.r1 r'
' tl r .rtl l re re to
s th e s u perfi ci al ," real i sti c" occur s,t he viewer f , asm oved p, 11, 1
' ,.r thc 1,oi 111 r vher eany, , t em por alm eans, ,( abundant
l. ' , ' l' , I trr.,.i l | r ' rr,' rrr.r ,rrrcsl i mu l ta n e OU slundermi
y neSthem. A or sl) . ) r , , , . ), r , .
,,,, of arr1,.rr jl'. r llc has m oved beyond t he pr ovince
" -;' r r I . rI.rrrr i rrrr)l o d i a te g rati fi cati onsfrom
afi l m: a of
I l r , . r l, oveschem a,of cour se, i, ier y ", t '
',,,,,{, rrtrrl ,l , r, rl rty , l ,rttrra ls r rrcty,,< trn1-rrchensi bl e r oul, lr; ir , l, , , , . ,11, , 1
.tl l or,,'l .r t lr r ' , , t r b1lsinlaaplay of . . , 1- r , , n, lan, , . i, . . t .
, ', t , i r ,r r ,, r ' t I r , llr , ..,,.rrrrrr,'r r ornpensati orr,,, l rrrt , ur ( r , rr,.,rl
' ,,,1 .r 1 , 1 ' 1 ,r vitlr ,., rvl ri ,l r, r,. , 1'1,
,, ! ., ,,' r
. llr r . llar r sccndent . ,ll, 1\ , 1(
1(, ) , , u, , l. ur .l,r r r |, , 1
tl' , , r ,r 1 ' r vlr r , lt r r ' ,"r l,l n,'rl rr.rl l l ',,rrr,ttt'. l -l r,'
' tl,;
 C O N C LUS I O N a63
7 62 TRANSCENDENTAL STYLE

real,"tt the courseof action for the religious

interest over a period of severalhours. But if transcendentalstyle propagandistwas
clear : he wouid simply put the spirituai on fiim. Th-e
is able to createthis movement from abundant to sparsemeans,it film is,, real,,,
the spiritual is " on" film, ergo : the spiritual is real.
has satisfiedat least one universal definition of spiritual art Thus we have
an entire history of cinematicmagic: the blind are made
within a "new" medium. It has set a spiritual processin motion.* to see,
the lame to walk, the deaf to hear, all on camera.
OvrnesuNoeNr Mtens: rHr Rrrtctous FIn"r A classicdemonstrationof this false syllogism occurs
in
Cecil B. DeMille's The T en Commandments(rg56) .In
If transcendental style represents the proper ratio of the title
sceneMoses is on Mount sinai and God is off-screen
abundant to sparsemeans,it stands to reason that there should to the right.
After somepremonitory thundering, God literally
then be films overweighted to either side of the ratio, films which pitches thJ
commandments, one by one, onto the screen and ihu awaiting
use either overly abundant or overly sparsemeans.The
blank tablets. The commandments first appear as small
"religious" film, either of the "spectacular" or "inspirational" whiriing
fireballs accompaniedby the sound of u.urhing wind, and
variety, provides the most common exampleof the overuseof the then
abundant artistic means. quickly-building in size all the while-zip acrossthe screen
and
collide with the blank tablets.puff! the smoke clears,and
Those interested in conveying the Holy on film were the
tablet isclearly inscribed.This sort of chicaneryapears
among the first to attempt to turn the profane medium to sacred in a
slightly lessridiculous manner in the low budget ;inspirational,,
ends. Lumiire filmed the PassionPlay at Horitz in Bohemiain
films.
fi97,Mllibs made a fantasy of Christ walking on the waters in
:89g, andZeccacreateda dramatic film titled The Prodigal Son In the Billy Graham feature, The RestlessHeart, for
example,the cosmicfireball is replacedby a miraculouscure
in r9or. Sincethen film-makers have continually attempted to set and
conversion. In casethe viewer may have missed the significance
the spiritual directly into film. The habitual failure of such
of theseacts,a cherubic child appearsto inform him tiat,
"spectacular" and "inspirational" films stems to a large degree yes,
God still does work miracles.Normally, the spectatordoes
from a logical but mistaken notion about the relation between not
have "faith" in either of thesemethods.The slapdashconversion
cinematicand spiritual reality. Accepting two assumPtions,one,
is just as unconvincing as the divine fireball. He knows
as Ayfre writes, that "the role of cinema . . . is to causein the that the
overhanddelivery of the commandmentswas not conceived
spectator. . . the illusion of the Sacred,"toand the other, by in
heaven, but in some film laboratory, and that the miraculous
Durgnat, that "just becausethe moving photograph satisfiesotrr cure
was not due to divine intervention,but to a heavy_handed
senseof reality, it is an ideal medium for making fantasy seern
scriptwriter.
With the exceptionof some of the more fraudulent
+ T h e r e a r e m a n y wa ys o n e m ig h t d e scr.i bethi s "spi ri tual process." I h'ri "'
DeMille-inspired sex-and-sandepics, many of these
u s e d M a r ita in ' s te r m s "a b u n d a n t" a n d "sparse means" because they l r'tr" films
a u n i ve r sa l va lu e . Be ca u se th e se te r m s can be appl i ed uni versal l y, how t'r"
genuinely hope to inspire religiousbelief. 'ihese religious
films,
t h e y l a ck p r e cisio n wl- r e na p p lie d to sp e c i fi c fi l ms D onal d S kol l er, i n 'tn Iike the films of transcendentalstyle, use a decisiveaction
to
a r t i c l e o n Br e sso n ' s film s, o ffe r s a m o r e fi l mi c descri pti on of thi s "sl 'i 'i t,','l crystallizetheir intentions.Abo,tseven-eights of the
p r o c e ss." He a lso d ivid e s Br e sso n ' s film s (i n thi s case, A Man E scnyt'11
way through
the "miracle" occurs, Lazarusplods from hi, .ulru, the
i r r t o t hr e e sta g e s wh ich r e ve a l a "p r o g r e ssi ve puri fi cati on of the vi r'tr'rl " music
l r r h i s tcr m s, th e sp ir itu a l p r o g r e ssio n fr om abundant to sparse m("rtr" r' soars;why is there no spiritual belief? The truth is,
of course,that
".r rt{ 1" thes<'filrrrsdo induce a belief; the weeping millions
l , ) lu n ( ' y th r o tr g h n a r r a tive , g r a p h ic, and fi nal [y pl asti c l evel s "'1' who saw A

I
. 1 ,| 1 r t1 1 1 1llr , r ' r o p h a se s o r zo n e s o f th e spi ri t, thcl rr"r'l vcs, throrrl 'l ' 1"rr''l l ' l Mnrr( rrllr'tl[,etcr can testify to that. nut this belief
, , r r i r r . r lr r n r r ) ( l,r litr ( ' s.Ile { [o r r ta ir r e ,th e p rot,rt',"rrr"tl l t,r"1l ol reItty"rr'l cannot
h.rrr' .,I l y I 'r .. *; tr ibed t o t he Wholly O t her ; it is
I ' r ' , , . r r r ,l.,| .r r l llr ttr .r r r a tivcr tr d g r a p h ir 1'l '.' , ,'l l rl rrr i trl o.t tr"rl trr m or e acct r r at ely an
, f,,,, tlrrnl'., ,rr, ptt ,r'ttlcrl irr llrt'ir ('1,',( tr,( l 1""" ," ,r ( ittt trr''lr' ,t[l i rrrr.r
l r \ r ' r r ', , 1) ( ) nse
t o a congenialcom binat ionof r ir r t . r r rlit ,r

L
t,',.,t l. rrr l,lrrr' l,y lr,,l'trt llrr"'r,rr.' I tttt)tt'|t ! l\. Nu I ll 'll ( ()rl f{r,
f .r lr t 1, . r r r"h<t
r l ly" f eelings.Ant l f or t hc nr . r r r 1,
""t'tl r \ , lr o, r , ( luil( .
, , ,1 rt' ':l
'
 n
u CONCLUSION
a64 T R AN gC EN D EN T AL ST YLE

thesefilms
no more from sacredart than an emotional experience,
are sufficient.
The conventionalreligious film uses a style of
amplifies the
identification rather than of confrontation. The style
viewer
abundant artistic meansinherent to motion pictures: the
empathize
is aided and encouragedin his desireto identify and
For an hour or two the viewer
with character,plot, and setting'
on screen; his personal
can become thai suffering, saintly Person
noble' and
problems, guilt and sin aie absorbedby humane'
the romantic drama'
purifying ilotiu"r. The spiritual drama, like
t".o^", escapistmetaphor for the human drama' A
"r, spiritual is avoided' The
confrontation between the human and
but the
decisiveaction is not an unsettling stylistic shock'
the film' It
culmination of the abundant means used throughout
spirituality can be achieved
fulfills the viewer's fantasy that
The
vicariously; it is the direct result of his identification'
abundant meansare indeed tempting to a film-maker'
especiallyif t
easehe can make
,t
he is bent on proselytizing' With comparative '
with the trials and agoniesof Christ
an ardent atheistsympattize
level' he has brought
But he has not lift;d tile viewer to Christ's
Christ down to the viewer's'
The film-maker intent on expressingthe Transcendent
eliminate the
must take the other courseI he must gradually
behind them' The
abundant means and the earthly rationale
if' at the decisiveaction'
moment of confrontation can only occur
If the "miracle" can bt
the abundant meanshave lost their power'
or sociologicaf
seenin any humanistic tradition, psychological
with the Transcendent' By
th" uiu*u. *ill avoid a confrontation
of time' cinema can cr("rlr'
rejecting its own potential over a period
It can set the abundant and sparsemc'rrr"
u ,*yl" o"fconfrontation'
seempreferable'
fu." to face in such a way that the latter
film is somethinli
This seeminglyself-evidenttruth about
van der Leeuw
which many aesthet-iciansand theologians'
Vatt der Leeuw backs tr1'l'i"
included,have failed to understand'
the deepestnaturt' ol
corrtcntionthat "rigidity better expresses ( ) v c r . r I 'r r r r .r
f r r Im e a n s: C h a r l to n H e sto n i n Th e Te n C o m m a n d m e n ts.
hi s onl y comntt' rtl.tt
llr ir r li sth a n d o c s Il o v e m e n t" b y s ta ti ng'i n " l l r t 'r 'r r r ',.r r tr ,r r r .rr el l i g i o u s fi l m u se s a styl e o f i d e n ti fi ca ti o nr a th e r
( r n, ' tn .r,l l r,rt " ,r(" ;th c ti c a l l ya n d h u m anl y' the puppet theatt' r.. , l l r . r r , , , r ,l r "' r ,rt r () n . l t fu l fi l l s th e vi e w e r 's f a n ta sy th a t sp i r i ttr a l i ty r :a n
that fi l ms w .rrl ' l l "
r . r ' 1" ,l ri l ' l r.t l l r.rtrl l rr' t i " tl ma ' " t' H e asstl mccl I r r .. r ,I 'r , t , ,l .r , .r rr r r r tsl y."
l t('( 'l l l "r'l l rcy rel l tt"'t rrl "l
rr l r r, lr ' ,l lo .r l' tltr ' l' r ttl ' r r lislit' n lciln c
lr r ' r l tltt' llir ttt' ;"ttu l l l ' rl l 'rl l 'l )1'1"' w i l l r tl r' rr
,, ,".,'
' l ; , ,,' 1 ,1 ,
 CONCLU9ION a67
766 T R AN SC EN D EN T AL ST YLE

that of the constantly self-restricting camera

sparsestylized faces,would naturally "rank higher." But just the which examines the
still view closer and closer. Bruce Baiilie's stirl
opposite proved to be true: becausecinema was so much more Life isa one-shot,
fixed-frame, two-minute study of what the
"abundant" than puppet theater,it could also be more "sparse," titre implies, a still life
consisting of a tabletop, a floral arrangement,
becauseit was so liberated in technique,it could be more stylized. and iome table
objects.Stan Brakha ge'sSong 27, M{Morntain
In cinema'sunique ability to reproducethe immanent also lies its isa 1o_minute
film study of a Rocky Mountain p"uli frorn
unique ability to evoke the Transcendent. various anqles. Sitnev
reports that Harry Smith orr." ,rrgg"rted to
Warhol thlt he fih j
Ovrnspens; Mre.us: rnr, Srlsrs Fnr"r Iengthy fixed shot of Mount Fuji,-ii which
caseone would have
a concrete caseof a transcendental style stasis
A good work can be of "oversparse" means if it fails to film_the isolation
and prolongation of an Ozu coda.
sustain life until the process of spiritual purification occurs. The
I don't want to condemn or belittle these films;
aesceticwho starveshimself to death out of repentancerather I would
simply like to suggest that, in terms of transcendental
than faith, the church which folds becauseit won't accePt style, they
empioy overly sparse artistic means. Transcendental
contributions, thesewould be victims of overly sParsemeans. styie buildi
a spiritual momentum, progressing from abundant
"Oversparse" doesnot mean "oversacred."These means,rather, to sparse
artistic means. To achieve this effect it uses
are not oversparsein principle but in particular: they are too and progressively
rejectscertain abundant movie devices:character
sparsefor the particular individual or organization to which they
have been applied.
In cinema, therefore, oversParsemeans would
I interaction,linear narrative structure. The stasis
this level of abundant means; they begin at
derineationand
films reject even
stasis.Transcendental
s.tyleinduces a spiritual movement frJm everyday
theoretically be those which cannot sustain an audience' to stasis; stasis
films reguire that that movement be arready
compreted.Earlier in
Oversparsemeansin this context should not be mistaken for lack
of popularity or small box-officereceipts;instead,oversParse
lr
,l
this essay I referred to Warhol,s static films (Steip,
Eat, Empire)
as everyday films; they may also be described
means are those which are too sParsetoo quick. An oversparse as stasis films. In
Zen terms, both everyday and stasis are
film doesnot allow the viewer to Progressfrom abundant to the ,,mountain.,,
Warhol's static films can be thought of as
sparsemeans.It reguirestoo much of him, demanding instant either everyday or
stasis films, brt, importantly,I do not think
stasis, and drives him figuratively (and often literally) from they .urri" t't o,rght
of as both, effecting movement from one to
the theater. the tther. And
movement from abundant to sparse means
lnFiIm Culture there has been a debateover a type of filnr is our working
definition of sacred art.
which might be called "oversparse." P. Adams Sitney originally In order to be effective stasis films reguire
describedwhat he calied "structural film," and GeorgeMaciunas a special
knowledge and commitment on the viewer,s
more accurately redefined it as "monomorphic structural film," part. Unless the
viewer has a knowledge of past achievements
in film and art, and
film "having a single simple form, exhibiting essentially one a commitment to explore the spiritual through
structural pattern."rs Within this general category of art, he .urr.,o,
appreciate the innovation or intention of
the-sefilms. stasis films,
.,.ronornorphic films there is a subcategoryI would call stasisfilrrr'. unlike films of transcendentalstyle, cannot
'l operateon a ,,cold,,
hc films, in terms of transcendentalstyle, are simply extendccl unprcpared viewer and take him to another
,,t,r,,ir;; level. It is in this
thcy examinea fro?en view of life through a duration serrsct lr.rt the overly sparsestasisfilms cannot
ol lrrttr..
sustain an
attdi r,rr,r. '
I lr c r r r o"l f . r t r t ot t sof t hes e "s t asi s f i l m s " i s M i c h a e l S r r t 't v
l,r rl l r,rrrt l Vr rr r r ' / r ' rrr,l / r , whic h is a 45- m i n u t e u n i n t e r r u p t e d z o o r r r ' A rr rr'1',,' r.r rt (l i s l i nc ti on mus t be made here:
thes e s l as i s [i l nr; .rrc onl y
(tv(t..1,.,,..,t,,tlrr.r.x tc ntthatthey fal l
.!, ,,r'. ..ur . r l, . lr lt r r . nl l, , lt . t lr c l"int o" a It l r t l l o g r a P h o f t h e s c 'r i ntothes amc c atc l ,()ry .r,, l rl rrr.,oI
It'rrr"" r"l '
"r 'l "ty l r" t w arhol ' s nev c r-fi rr.r' a I' ' j i y ,rrrr.r rrrrr r,.r,r,,rrr' l rr
r',,,,,,,1 lr ' 1l' , 1, , , t t ' . , 11 | lr t ' < , r ' t ' r li, lir , l' l t r r t v t 'l n e n t o f t h c f i l r r r r "
 coNclusroN 169
l68 T R AN SC EN D EN T AL ST YLE

for any less from film in general,

or the films of ozuand Bresson
A Frxar DrrturrroN or TneNsceNorNler Sryre in particular, underestimatesand demeans
them. Transcendental
There is an entire spectrum of abundant artistic means style can take a viewer through the
trials of experienceto the
leading to sparseartistic means,just as there is a spectrum <lf holy expressionof the Transcendent;it can
return hi_ to
feelings leading to a final transcendent attitude. If one did not from a calm region untouched by the ""p".i"r."
vagariesof emotion or
make this admissionhe would indeed be on the high road to personality.Transcendentalstyie can
bing us nearer to that
Beuron. Spirituality in art must have room to move, to change silence,that invisible 'mage, in which
the p"arallellines of ."itgt""
with the times and the arts. The best definition of spiritual art is and art meet and interpenetrate.
one that is similarly in flux. It is situated on the spectrum of
temporal meansand may from time to time mclveon that
spectrum.
In each art and age the transcendental finds its proper
level and style. Sometimesthat style usesmore abundant means,
sometimesmore sparsemeans.In film, at present,that level is
transcendental style. It represents that point on the spectrum at
which the Transcendentis most successfullyexpressed.If it used
more abundant means,it would be lessHoly; if it used more
sparsemeans,it would be solipsistic.
Spiritual art must always be in flux becauseit represents
a Breatermystery, also in flux, man's relationship to the Holy. In
each age the spectatorgraspsfor that specialform, that spot on
the spectrum, whether in art, religion or philosophy, which can
take him to the greater mystery. At present, no film style can
perform this crucial task as well as the transcendental style, no
films as well as the films of Ozu and Bresson.To expector settle

t o e v o ke th e sa m e a wa r e n e ss a s L a te A utumn, then i t w oul d have

n e c e s sa r ily fa ile d fr o m o ve r sp a r se n e ss: there si mpl y w oul d have been no
a t t e m p t to se t th e sp ir itu a l p r o ce ss in moti on. B ut most stasi s fi l ms, rather
t h a n be in g a n e xte n sio n o f tr a n sce n d e n tal styl e, are a di fferent breed of
l i l r n , r lto g e th e r . T h e b e st o f th e sta sis fil ms (those by Gehr, Landow ,
l r , r t t t r lo ll) a tte m p t, if I u n d e r sta n d th e m, to evoke a transcendental
, r r v . r r ' n ( .1 .,.in a m e th o d clo se r to co n te mporary pai nti ng than to the fi l mi c
I r . , r . . , . r r ,l, n t.r l r ;tyle . I th in k, fo r e xa m p le, that a fi xed-tri pod-zoom fi l m
l r l . , I r r r r ,. ( ,ch r ", licr e n e Ve lo city ( a
5 o -mi nute shot of a corri dor qui ckl y
r r r t r r r t t,,,r r \..r tr ,,r r rzo o m p o sitio n s) , woul d be better served rear_proi cr.l r.,l
'
, , , ' , , ,r r 1 .r lllr 1 ,' r lr o r n e ' th a n in a m o vie theater. Li ke K andi nsky, thesc
r , t , , , , ,,,1 1 ,r r l' ,..r l' r r n jsn t m e a n s as gi ven and operate onl y w i thi rr
t,,, ,,( , ,' ( lir ,. .' l,.r r r , is n o t to d e mean the fi l m-pai nter, but to
l , ' , , , ,,,, t, t,,,,, t,,,r ,, tlr r . lr lr r r m a ke r o f transcencl ent.rl styl e. Of al l th,,
r. t.1 ,,, ,r ,,1 , r f.lr , lr .r ,.l I' r r o w lt,r ,; t. onrr.r l o,,r'..tl o transcendcrrt,rl .,tl l ,.
, ,, r /, ,,,,11 ,, ,r ,.r \' r r r l,r r l l,r ,r .r ,,'l vrrry..rnr,!v l r.tnsccnrl rrrt.rl ..tr,l ,.
:, : !