Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.
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Reviews
Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
Absolutely amazing
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Michel (Martin LaSalle, the French equivalent of Montgomery Clift) is released from jail after serving a sentence for thievery. His mother dies and he resorts to pickpocketing as a means of survival.I freely confess I was not very familiar with the work of Robert Bresson. By which I mean I had not seen a single thing he did. This month (July 2013) that will be rectified, and this was the perfect place to start. Whether or not "Pickpocket" is a masterpiece is unclear, but it is Bresson's best-known work, and beautifully shot.I love how this film inspired Paul Schrader, who then used a scene not once but twice in his own work. That is pretty powerful. The film as a whole is great, with the focus on the hands and the use of great black and white (apparently Bresson's preferred medium, as he used it through the 1960s if not later).
THe story is about a very emotionally constricted man who has a compulsion to steal. On top of that, he's obviously read some Nietsche and feels entitled to steal, as he is superior to those around him and every time he steals, he proves this to himself.I know there are many folks out there that LOVE the French New Wave. As for me, I love some and I hate some--and I hated "Pickpocket". Now I understand that the director deliberately made this film as non-elegantly and non-Hollywood as possible. And, I know that the minimalist acting style was part of the mystique of many New Wave films. My problem is that I just didn't care, as the main character was about as interesting as a block of moldy cheese. No...moldy cheese is infinitely more interesting! It's is really a shame, as there WAS the basis of an interesting story here but the film was so muted and low=tempo that I literally found myself falling asleep as I watched it. It's a shame, as the scenes where the leading man shows off his skills at picking pockets are wonderful. Overall, you could find many things more interesting than watching this film...many.
Pickpocket is a film that apparently has serious flaws- from the very beginning it displays little to no emotion as the actors on screen just say their lines and the camera just follows them from a distance, with no close-ups or any other tricks.But what is unique about this film is that this very criticism is actually a deliberate attempt to cause uneasiness in the viewer. And it succeeds- the anxiety, as felt by the pickpocket in his everyday living, is also transmitted to us. So, to correct my previous statement: this movie does not lack emotions- it has emotions: anxiety, uncertainty, but these are delivered in an unconventional manner.From a personal standpoint, I wasn't sure if I liked it or not. It is hard to appreciate this dimension of the film at first. But after seeing some extras from the excellent Criterion package, I was able to understand better. How Bresson actually committed to cause these emotions in the viewer, how he re-shot several times various scenes until the actors just repeated their lines, until no trait of emotions were left. Michel's narration voice-over is flat, plain. These were non-professional actors set to work in a non-standard way, Bresson's way. And the result is this: a film somewhat off-putting, but still a great work of art.
And I'm not talking about any loot, but about the audience. You will either love or loathe the movie. And while comparisons to Taxi Driver and other "loner movies" might be right, it's also true that they are far better written (and in Taxi Driver also with "real actors", in contrast to the non-professionals at hand here).If that is something that might not put you off, than maybe a few weird scenes might do the trick. The narrative seems to be all over the place, an unlikeable "hero" and pretentious script writing. And still through all the flaws, there are a few good moments in between. The existential questions it raises, but also the wry humour in places. Though not as solid as (I) expected, it still has a few points to make, through all the flaws it has.