Part of Restoration Roundup
The rarely screened FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER is Robert Bresson’s great forgotten masterpiece, a stark yet haunting ode to romantic idealism and the capriciousness of love. Adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky’s White Nights, the film follows Jacques (Guillaume des Forêts), a lonely artist who roams bohemian Paris in search of the girl of his dreams. One night he saves a beautiful young woman, Marthe, from plunging into the Seine in despair over her rejection by an avoidant lover (Maurice Monnoyer). Jacques compassionately attempts to reunite Marthe with her beau, but his feelings for his new friend soon become more than platonic and his investment in her personal drama far from selfless. FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER has been called the French master’s “loveliest” work. With his signature minimalism, Bresson films the shimmering beauty of nocturnal Paris as it enfolds his characters in endless possibility — subtly capturing the wonder of unexpected connection and the mystery of fate.
Restoration by mk2 Films under the supervision of Mylène Bresson, at Éclair Classics (Paris) and L.E. Diapason, with the support of the CNC.
“The transformation of Paris at night into a dream landscape pulsing with electric mystery is reminiscent of Minnelli, although the economy of expression is clearly Bresson’s.” – Dave Kehr “Feels at once old and new…. This is a film that encourages the mind to roam. That’s a big part of what makes it engrossing — the feeling that it’s a nexus point for an art form…. It’s required viewing for any Bresson completist, and will prove fascinating to viewers with the patience for a nighttime drama about people who love foolishly, with all of their heart.” —Matt Zoller Seitz, rogerebert.com “Bresson moves Dostoevsky’s icy Russian cityscape to a sultry late Parisian summer. In the air is the palpable charge of revolution; the 1968 student strikes and civil unrest happened just a couple years before filming. With rich oranges, deep mauves and luscious viridians, Bresson’s film acutely conjures the feeling of a crush on a warm night where anything and everything could happen.” —Dylan Rowen, Guardian
