Critics have largely neglected the color films of French film director
Robert Bresson (1901-99). To correct that oversight, this study presents
a revised and revitalized Bresson, comparing his style to innovations in
abstract painting after World War II, exploring his affinities with such
avant-garde traditions as surrealism, constructivism, and minimalism,
and illustrating how his embodied style leads to a complex form of
intermediality. Through that analysis, Raymond Watkins shows clearly
that Bresson still has a good deal to teach us about cinema's
distinctive ability to draw on painting, photography, sculpture, and the
plastic arts in general.