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BAMcinématek presents a
week-long run of Bresson’s The Devil, Probably
in a new 35mm print
“By far the most punk movie ever made.”—Richard
Hell
Richard Hell in person
Part
of Bresson, a complete retrospective
The Wall Street Journal is the title
sponsor for BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek.
Brooklyn, NY/March 30, 2012—“My sickness is that I see things clearly.”
From Friday, April 20 to Thursday, April 26, BAMcinématek
presents a week-long run of Robert Bresson’s
contentious penultimate film, The
Devil, Probably (1977), in a new 35mm
print—showtimes below. The film screens as part
of the first complete retrospective in over a decade of one of cinema’s
most uncompromising directors (see separate release). Writer, punk
innovator, and movie devotee Richard
Hell will appear in person on Thursday, April 26 to
introduce the movie and then remain for a brief Q & A after the 6:50 PM
screening. Jon Dierenger, proprietor of the
invaluable Screen Slate website will moderate the Q & A.
A screed against modern culture, The Devil, Probably incited controversy for its
portrayal of five teens who grow disillusioned with society and
religion—one of whom, misanthropic student Charles (Antoine Monnier in his first and only role), has compulsive sex
while plotting his suicide. Made when Bresson was
nearly 80, this deeply personal manifesto is a chronicle of the modern
world as a spiritual wasteland, with “the air of something out of the 1960s
in that it recalls a time when dropping out was so fashionable it was virtually
epidemic among the young bourgeoisie. But Bresson
is not a filmmaker of fashion. Fashions rise and fall around him like tides
around a continent” (Vincent Canby, The
New York Times).
After premiering at the Berlin Film Festival in 1977, The Devil, Probably was lauded by
critics despite its provocative themes—British film critic Derek Malcolm
and German auteur Rainer Werner Fassbinder
threatened to resign from the festival jury if their support for the film
was not made public—and was crowned the winner of that year’s Silver Bear
award.
Richard Hell succumbed to Bresson in
1999 at the time of TIFF Cinematheque’s (then the
Cinematheque Ontario) first touring Bresson retrospective, and immediately found himself
enraptured by the director’s radically austere oeuvre. Hell has revisited
it continually over the years, even programming it in his own "anti-social" film
series in 2003. French auteur Olivier Assayas
(the subject of a BAMcinématek retrospective in
2010) is also among Bresson’s followers, and, as
a featured extra in the crowd scene of The
Devil, Probably, recalls disliking the film upon his first
viewing:
“I saw The Devil, Probably
when I was 17, which is the same age as the lead character; I can’t say I
liked it and remember thinking ‘What is he talking about?’ Then ten years
later I realized that I had been exactly that character, it was my world,
but I didn’t grasp it at the time because it was too close to me.”
The Devil, Probably also boasts an original screenplay by Bresson—his first based entirely on his own
material—and a sparse orchestral score by Oscar-nominated composer
Philippe Sarde (Polanski’s
Tess),
who had previously collaborated with Bresson on Lancelot of the Lake.
“Even though Bresson has painted a
dark picture of wasted youth and beauty, one comes out of the film with a
sense of exultation. When a civilization can produce a work of art as
perfectly achieved as this, it is hard to believe that there is no hope for
it.”—Richard Roud
“Objects, people, places—everything is seen with a clarity so
fine that his images achieve something beyond realism, as if clarity so
intense could distort truth, at least as we have come to accept it... No
other director I can think of has come as close as Bresson
to molding his players into what are, in effect, variations on a continuing
personality, much the way a painter might.”—Vincent Canby, The New York Times
“Bresson’s splenetic 1977 drama puts
the post-1968 world on trial and judges it unlivable. Both the world and Bresson’s cinema are in disarray, and the signs of his
inner conflict are deeply troubling and tremendously moving.”—Richard
Brody, The New Yorker
The
Devil, Probably press screening Fri, Apr 6 at 12pm
Press screenings held at BAM Rose Cinemas (30 Lafayette
Avenue, Brooklyn, NY).
To
RSVP or for press information, please contact
Gabriele
Caroti at 718.724.8024 / gcaroti@bam.org
Lisa
Thomas at 718.724.8023 / lthomas@bam.org
The Devil, Probably screens Fri, Apr
20—Thu, Apr 26:
Fri, Apr 20—Sun, Apr 22, 2012 at 2, 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
Mon, Apr 23 & Wed, Apr 25, 2012 4:30, 6:50, 9:15pm
Tue, Apr 24, 2012 at 4:30, 9:30pm
Thu, Apr 26, 2012 at 4:30, 6:50*, 9:30pm
*Intro by and Q & A with Richard
Hell
An Olive Films/Film Desk release | 1977 | 95 min | Color |
1.37:1
DOWNLOAD THE DEVIL, PROBABLY PRESS RELEASE
DOWNLOAD BRESSON PRESS RELEASE
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