"My movie is born first in my head, dies on paper; is resuscitated by the living persons and real objects I use, which are killed on film but, placed in a certain order and projected on to a screen, come to life again like flowers in water"

Robert Bresson’s evocative description of his filmmaking process beautifully encapsulates the cyclical transformation of artistic vision across different mediums. The creation begins internally, within the realm of imagination, where the film exists as a pure, unformed idea. This initial stage is characterized by boundless freedom, unrestrained by the limitations of physical reality. However, as soon as the concept transitions onto paper, through scripts, notes, or storyboards, it loses some of its ethereal quality, constrained by language and structure. The written form, though necessary for communication and planning, marks a kind of “death” for the pristine internal vision, as it must now conform to the linearity and specificity of text.

The process undergoes another transformation during filming, where abstract ideas are brought to life by actors and tangible objects. Human performers and real settings infuse the narrative with vitality, spontaneity, and unpredictability. Yet, this vibrancy is fleeting; once captured on film, these living moments are rendered into fixed images. The camera, by recording, strips away the lived spontaneity, freezing the dynamic world into a series of frames, another moment of ‘death.’ The actors’ breath and movement become celluloid shadows, their performances locked within the technical apparatus of cinema.

However, Bresson’s artistry is most profound in the final resurrection: the editing and projection of these images. Through meticulous ordering and sequencing, the filmmaker becomes an alchemist who restores life to what has been made static. The film, now projected onto a screen, regains a new kind of vitality, distinct from its original conception and the lived performances, yet uniquely powerful. Like cut flowers reanimated in water, the cinematic work emerges from a series of deaths into a new form of existence, evoking emotion and thought in the audience. Bresson’s metaphor reveals the paradox of film: its art lies in the perpetual motion between life, death, and rebirth, turning the inert into something living once more.