The Cinematheque

“Certainly the rarest of Bresson’s films—see it now or never—Four Nights of a Dreamer has a dreamy beauty unparalleled in the rest of his work.”

James Quandt, TIFF

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,” Four Nights 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 (Isabelle Weingarten), from plunging into the Seine in despair over her rejection by an avoidant lover (Jean-Maurice Monnoyer). Jacques compassionately attempts to reunite Marthe with her beau, but his feelings for his new friend soon become less 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. —Janus Films

In French with English subtitles

“It is shockingly beautiful, and I can think of nothing in recent films so ravishing as Bresson’s strange romantic vision.”

Roger Greenspun, The New York Times

“Pulsing with electric mystery … An essential film.”

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader