Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971)

Robert Bresson's "Four Nights of a Dreamer"

Robert Bresson's 1971 "Four Nights of a Dreamer" is the second adaptation I've seen of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's short story "White Nights." The other was Luchino Visconti's 1957 film. Of course, Bresson's version is very...well...Bressonian. 

The film centers on Jacques, a depressed and alienated Parisian artist who meets Marthe - a woman pondering suicide at the edge of Pont Neuf. She spends her nights awaiting the return of a past lover, who has yet to come and see her. Jacques spends the next four nights with Marthe, comforting her while waiting. The two eventually fall in love. However, on the final night, Marthe's lover returns.

In Visconti's version, the story is told through a more romantic lens, even its final melancholy. But, in pure Bressonian fashion, "Four Nights of a Dreamer" is a far more cold, clinical imagining of Dostoyevsky's work. That being said, the film is a much lighter affair than Bresson's other work. There are definitely traces of romanticism to be found even still.

To put it in Bresson's own words, the film is primarily about people falling in love with people they do not know and cannot see, while rejecting the love of people they can see. This sentiment paints the canvas of the film with a certain sense of modern alienation. The characters feel so distant from one another, even when they are together. Their passions are unsatiated, unfed. 

I would not say that "Four Nights of a Dreamer" is one of Bresson's more notable works. The film feels more like a quick visit with Bresson rather than an opus or an elevated piece. It is still a completely affective and enjoyable work all the same.