Known for his ascetic approach, Bresson made a notable contribution to the art of cinema; his non-professional actors, ellipses, and sparse use of scoring have led his works to be regarded as preeminent examples of minimalist film.

[2][3][4] His works A Man Escaped (1956),[5] Pickpocket (1959)[6] and Au hasard Balthazar (1966)[7] were ranked among the top 100, and other films like Mouchette (1967) and L'Argent (1983) also received many votes.

[14] Later in his life, he said that he had stopped watching other filmmakers' movies in theaters,[15] although he later praised the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only (1981), saying that "It filled me with wonder ... if I could have seen it twice in a row and again the next day, I would have.

"[16] Critic Jonathan Rosenbaum, an admirer of Bresson's work, argued that the filmmaker was "a mysterious, aloof figure", and wrote that on the set of Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971), where Rosenbaum was an extra, the director "seemed more isolated from his crew than any other filmmaker I've seen at work; his widow and onetime assistant director, Mylene van der Mersch, often conveyed his instructions.

While a movie is in essence "only" filmed theatre, Bresson defines cinematography as an attempt to create a new language of moving images and sounds.

[19] His early artistic focus was to separate the language of cinema from that of the theater, which often relies heavily upon the actor's performance to drive the work.

For Bresson, "to think it's more natural for a movement to be made or a phrase to be said like this than like that" is "absurd", and "nothing rings more false in film [...] than the overstudied sentiments" of theater.

[19] With his 'model' technique, Bresson's actors were required to repeat multiple takes of each scene until all semblances of 'performance' were stripped away, leaving a stark effect that registers as both subtle and raw.

In the academic journal CrossCurrents, Shmuel Ben-gad wrote: There is a credibility in Bresson's models: They are like people we meet in life, more or less opaque creatures who speak, move, and gesture [...] Acting, on the other hand, no matter how naturalistic, actively deforms or invents by putting an overlay or filter over the person, presenting a simplification of a human being and not allowing the camera to capture the actor's human depths.

For Bresson, then, acting is, like mood music and expressive camera work, just one more way of deforming reality or inventing that has to be avoided.

[15] In his later life he stopped attending church services due to his dissatisfaction with the Second Vatican Council's transition to the Mass of Paul VI, explaining that while he still felt a sense of transcendence sitting in a cathedral, Vatican II's changes to the Mass made it harder for him to feel the presence of God.

"[15] In addition, an early scene in the film shows a young Catholic complaining that the post-Vatican II Church "run[s] after Protestants.

[28] Recurring themes under this interpretation include salvation, redemption, defining and revealing the human soul, and metaphysical transcendence of a limiting and materialistic world.

That the main characters of Bresson's most contemporary films, The Devil, Probably (1977) and L'Argent (1983), reach similarly unsettling conclusions about life indicates the director's feelings towards the culpability of modern society in the dissolution of individuals.

[15] Susan Sontag wrote that in his films, while a "religious vocation supplies one setting for ideas about gravity, lucidity, and martyrdom, ... the drastically secular subjects of crime, the revenge of betrayed love, and solitary imprisonment also yield the same themes.

"[15] Furthermore, in a 1983 interview for TSR's Spécial Cinéma, Bresson declared that he had been interested in making a film based on the Book of Genesis, although he believed such a production would be too costly and time-consuming.

[31] Bresson is often referred to as a "patron saint" of cinema, not only for the strong Catholic themes found throughout his oeuvre, but also for his notable contributions to the art of film.

Mark Cousins writes:[30] So complete was Bresson's rejection of cinema norms that he has a tendency to fall outside film history.

"[3] Bresson has also influenced a number of other filmmakers, including Andrei Tarkovsky, Chantal Akerman,[35] Jean Eustache,[35] Abel Ferrara,[36] Philippe Garrel,[35] Hal Hartley,[35] Monte Hellman,[35] Jim Jarmusch,[37] Louis Malle,[38] Michael Haneke, Olivier Assayas, Atom Egoyan, the Dardenne brothers, Aki Kaurismäki,[35] and Paul Schrader, whose book Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer includes a detailed critical analysis.

The Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman praised and admired Bresson's films such as Mouchette and Diary of a Country Priest, although he disliked Au hasard Balthazar.

[46] The Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni was influenced by Bresson's film Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne.

[66] Martin Scorsese praised Bresson as "one of the cinema's greatest artists" and an influence on his films such as Taxi Driver.

"[70] In his book Sculpting in Time, Tarkovsky describes Bresson as "perhaps the only artist in cinema, who achieved the perfect fusion of the finished work with a concept theoretically formulated beforehand.