Merci beaucoup. Merci.

Having had the pleasure to avoid what passes for cinema despite an occasional foray to the theater every now and then for going on fifteen or so years now, I haven't the slightest idea of what went on at the Oscars last night.  Not having a television also helps with this.  That being said, I do watch films when there happens to be something that catches my attention. More often than not, it is a period piece or some foreign affair, or a period piece about an affair.  The King's Speech in particular is something I've been meaning to see, not just because it won (as that would make no difference) but because I have a weakness for English films and Colin Firth since his turn in Tom Ford's A Single Man was so extraordinary.

To make a short story (or, in this case, a brief blog post) even shorter, I thought of one scene from a documentary on Robert Bresson that was particularly attractive.  It was at Cannes, in 1983, and unfortunately I was not among the audience.  Thanks to the camera, there is a record of the incident.  Given an award for the film "Nostalghia", the master Andrei Tarkovsky approaches the podium and his entire speech consists of "Merci beaucoup. Merci," which says it all (and twice, in fact).  Most interesting is that another master of cinema, Robert Bresson, is already on stage, and he leaves with Tarkovsky after the award is presented and that's that for that.

The master directors Andrei Tarkovsky and Robert Bresson.