• Pickpocket

2/4/24 (Sun)

I picked this 1959 film as a Bresson primer because it’s reportedly fairly straightforward for him and is just 90 minutes. The English word “pickpocket” turns out for some reason to be the original French title.

Michel, an ordinary man with no steady job, has taken to pickpocketing as a way of filling his days. He gradually comes to enjoy the thrill of the game and turns down opportunities for legitimate work, ultimately joining with a team of thieves who work in tandem under the guidance of an expert crook. He holds the firm belief that a certain class of superior man should not be bound by the same laws as the common flock (I know the type). He sends money to his sick mother but refuses to see her despite his insistence that he loves her “more than myself” (though that may actually be true given how he despises himself).

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