"Based on a novella by Dostoevsky, Une Femme douce (A Gentle Creature) is framed by a flashback, the oldest device in film narrative, but here used to novel effect by a New Cinema master. A gentle wife dies, a suicide. Her husband, an antique pawnbroker, sits by the bed on which her body lies and reconstructs the past, in an attempt to re-trace the paths which led his wife to this end. His attempts are foiled. He never knows. Neither do we. Bresson narrates the story of their relationship with his usual austerity and breathtaking economy of style. As the wife, Dominique Sanda displays a degree of sensuality which is totally unexpected, and which Bresson refuses to exploit conventionally. Une Femme douce is also unique as Bresson's first film in color, which is used subtly to stress texture rather than tone. As always with Bresson, the film is moving in a way that is as hard to explain as it is to resist." --Tom Luddy

• Directed by Robert Bresson. Written by Bresson, from a story by Dostoevsky. Photographed by Ghislain Cloquet. With Dominique Sanda, Guy Frangin. (1969, 87 mins, In French with English titles, 35mm, Color, Print from New Yorker Films)