When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best - that is inspiration.
Robert BressonRead
Cinema, radio, television, magazines are a school of inattention: people look without seeing, listen in without hearing.
Interpretation
Bresson critiques mass media for promoting superficial engagement with the world.
In this quote, Robert Bresson expresses his concern that various forms of media, such as cinema, radio, and television, contribute to a pervasive culture of distraction and superficiality. He argues that these mediums often encourage individuals to consume content passively, leading to a lack of true understanding and awareness of what is being presented, thereby numbing their senses and critical thinking.
In practice
In a discussion about media consumption, this quote highlights the importance of being mindful of what we engage with.
When you do not know what you are doing and what you are doing is the best - that is inspiration.
In the NUDE, all that is not beautiful is obscene.
Make visible what, without you, might perhaps never have been seen.
The most ordinary word, when put into place, suddenly acquires brilliance. That is the brilliance with which your images must shine.
For me, film-making is combining images and sounds of real things in an order that makes them effective. What I disapprove of is photographing things that are not real. Sets and actors are not real.
The future of cinematography belongs to a new race of young solitaries who will shoot films by putting their last penny into it and not let themselves be taken in by the material routines of the trade.
I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian.
If we could but paint with the hand what we see with the eye.
I will turn human anatomy into roses and stars and sea. I will dissect the beloveds body in metaphor.
Music is my mistress and she plays second fiddle to no one.
You can't expect someone born into a family with no music... to understand when I'm conducting the Schoenberg Variations.
You can write any time people will leave you alone and not interrupt you. Or rather you can if you will be ruthless enough about it. But the best writing is certainly when you are in love.
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