Activity

Whether that “something superior” is called “extraordinary currents,” “the invisible hand,” or “God,” it transcends immanent experience and may be called, if only for practical purposes, the Transcendent.

Stasis is the quiescent, frozen, or hieratic scene which succeeds the decisive action and closes the film

After an unsuccessful catechism class the priest enters in his diary, “But why the hostility of these little ones. What have I done to them?”

Through the use of repeated action and pleonastic dialogue Bresson “doubles” (or even “triples”) the action, making a single event happen several times in different ways.

In the everyday Bresson uses contrapuntal sound not for editorializing, but to reinforce the cold reality. The soundtrack consists primarily of natural sounds: wheels creaking, birds chirping, wind howling.