His ideas on voice in the cinema are articulated in an interview with Jean-Luc Godard I have found in a book titled Robert Bresson, edited by James Quandt.

As someone interested in the concept of voice for performance, I found his ideas quite interesting. One way of counteracting this is his use on non-actors. Robert Bresson is known for his approach to cinematography and his dislike for employing theatre thinking and techniques in cinema. Here the sound is used in such a way that it helps recreate a feeling of heightened perception. Noise of a door opening and shutting, noise of footsteps, etc., for the sake of rhythm.’īresson’s movies often feature themes of entrapment (A Man Escaped, Mouchette). There is a particular emphasis on the creation of rhythm pattern: ‘The noises must become music.' His use of realistic sound has been compared to musique concrete. Sound plays a crucial role in Bresson’s movies: ‘I prefer to conjure up the image with the help of a sound, because each time I can replace an image with a sound, I do it. Writings on the subject are many and I will be referencing a series of essays from the book Robert Bresson, edited by James Quandt, as well as Notes on the Cinematographer, by the director himself. Robert Bresson is known as one of the first film makers to really focus on the use of sound.

Bresson notes on cinematography