PICKPOCKET (1959)

Before French filmmaker Robert Bresson became a scold, as if he were too pure for the medium, there was a brief series of all but untouchable masterpieces, this reimagining of Doestoyevsky’s CRIME AND PUNISHMENT last of the three.  (Bresson’s later films also very great, but largely for the cinematic hairshirt/self-flagellation crowd.)  Raskolnikov is now Michel (Martin La Salle*), again a poor student/author manque who believes he’s above the rules of society, but here Bresson swaps out murder for theft as ‘crime.’  Something even a French Catholic intellectual (or the simple honest girl who hopes to reform him) would likely have less trouble forgiving.  This change in criminal magnitude ought to lower the conflict to misdemeanor level (mais non?), yet it doesn’t.  Instead, Bresson’s emotional austerity and technical severity raises stakes on every action/reaction in the film’s 76 compressed minutes of faultless, intensely emotional moviemaking.  So powerful in affect and effect, entire audiences stay in their seats during the playout music by Louis XIV favorite Jean-Baptiste Lully after the screen goes to black. Great for repeat viewings as Bresson, with agogic editing rhythms and narrative ellipses, plays possum, whipping out his formidable technique only as needed.  The pickpocket setups and execution gasp-worthy.

SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY/LINK:  *As usual with Bresson, cast with non-pros*, though some went on to active acting careers, including lead Martin LaSalle with over 80 credits per IMDb.  And why not when you look like the missing link between Henry Fonda & Montgomery Clift.  (Or do from certain angles.)  Mere coincidence that these two starred in Alfred Hitchcock’s most overtly Catholic films: I CONFESS/’53 and THE WRONG MAN/’56?  The latter one of the few Hollywood films to physically look as if Bresson might have been involved.  (Exec producer?)  And three years before PICKPOCKET.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2014/03/i-confess-1953.html    https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-wrong-man-1956.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *Professional sleight-of-hand artiste Kassagi, definitely not an amateur, plays teacher/mentor to Michel and leader of the pickpocket ring.  He was also technical advisor on the film.  The Criterion edition has a clip of his nightclub act showing him in action as a magician whose apparent trick is really just a setup for an astonishing display of picking pockets, purses and wristwatches.