Awesome Dance Sequences

This scene is from Meetings with Remarkable Men(1979), a film about the early years of G.I. Gurdjieff. It was directed by long-time Gurdjieffian Peter Brook, who was also a director of the Royal Shakespeare Theater Company. What is unusual about the film is the almost Bressonian even-temper of the actors, as if their personalities were somewhat repressed during filming. Even Terence Stamp, who was a supporting actor in this film, seemed unusually flat and opaque. It made me wonder if this acetic quality was something Robert Bresson himself knew from possibly studying Gurdjieff? Afterall, Gurdjieff described his "work" being partly derived from Christianity, Bresson's faith.

Overall, the film was hard to watch, if interesting in retrospect. These dance sequences, known as 'movements', were designed by Gurdjieff for advanced students of the work, and were the most fascinating bits of the film. I was especially in awe of the first sequence seen here.