Pickpocket

viewed January 17, 2000 on video

For full information about this film, click here

An oddly moving (in both senses of the word) film much in the vein of Crime and Punishment, sharing with the viewer the thrill of taking something from another person while standing innocently besides them.  The joy of crime and the feeling of omnipotence it brings has rarely been captured so viscerally.  In one brilliant sequence a team of pickpockets move balletically through a train car, weaving around people and taking their money as if they were invisible forces, like the angels in Wings of Desire.  However, the feeling of guilt is always present, and always being repressed by the protagonist, a lowly unemployed man named Michel who hungers for the power and glee that thievery offers him, and yet can't shake the feeling of suffering consequences.   However, it is not the law he fears ("Will we be judged? By what law?" he tells a police inspector), but his own conscience.  He has truly placed law and moral judgment in his own hands -- but can he overcome himself?

Robert Bresson's blending of efficient storytelling, energetic camerawork, and serious moral questions presaged Scorsese.  After seeing this film and A Man Escaped, I wish I had more time to study them.  Bresson's films demand to be seen repeatedly, to capture the nuance of their meaning and the mastery of their technique. 

Roger Ebert gives a fantastic review of Pickpocket here.

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