Customer Reviews

Pickpocket (The Criterion Collection)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"Pickpocket" never grabs us the way a standard movie does. The plot is difficult to extract, and the storyline is never as easy to understand as we might like. Minimalism is at play, although it never overtakes this complex film about a man's search for meaning in the bowels of his own soul.

Just as with movies like "Passion of the Christ," or "Clockwork Orange," my appreciation of the movie is not because I felt good throughout, but because throughout the movie, I was able to think about what makes humankind and the shape of redemption.

"Pickpocket" is an art house film, with its long vignette style, with Hitchcock-like shots and film noir-like shadowing.

Michel, the main character, develops a desperate fetish for pickpocketing. He learns to be good at the techniques of pickpocketing. He practices wrist watch stealing with the leg of a table as the arm.

No one is lonelier than Michel in his fetish. He knows it is wrong and is unable to face his own mother. His eyes are almost always downturned. They are partly looking for the next steal, and partly unable to face the real world.

All of Michel's relationships are void of passion and intimacy. The closest relationship is that with a police inspector who knows Michel is a thief but chooses not to prove it. He sees good in Michel and tries to steer him out of the lifestyle.

Throughout, Michel is selfish, even when he gives his mother money. That is to appease his guilt, not to lift his mother's finances or encourage her spirits.

Michel, unable to escape his fetish, justifies criminals at large by suggesting some, as artisans of their craft, should retain a kind of freedom to steal. However, he never describes the noble benefit, like James Bond's license to kill provides, which in Bond's case is to save the Queen, and, ostensibly, the world. Rather, it is by the merit of being good at his craft that he would thinks should be enough, but the inspector, nor Michel himself, are ever truly convinced.

Jeanne, the plainly attractive neighbor who often cares for his mom, is strangely interested in him. They have only a matter-of-fact connection, not sensual or romantic in any way. She represents a meaningful existentiality, living as the lover to Michel's friend Jacques (who she does not really love), and helping her elderly neighbor. Michel's as existential as Jeanne, but without the redeeming selflessness that makes Jeanne more human.

Michel dearly wants redemption, and knows his futile lifestyle can only end in despair. He wants more, and when confronted with the likelihood of being arrested, he leaves Paris for several years. When he returns, he learns Jeanne has a child of a long-gone lover.

The opportunity for redemption is clear to audience, but is it to Michel? And what would it look like for a man as obsessed with his own desires as he is, since redemption requires us to look outside of ourselves to live a better life?

I fully recommend "Pickpocket."

Anthony Trendl
editor, HungarianBookstore.com

Pickpocket is probably the most accessible of director Robert Bresson's films. Depicted with an almost clinical attention to detail, the pickpocketing sequences are amazing and beautiful. It's easy to sense the fascination and perhaps even the admiration of the director as he choreographs the movements of two and later three pickpockets working together on Paris trains and at a racetrack.

Bresson's subtle camerawork is also showcased. In one sequence, a montage of the thief Michel learning the tricks of his trade, we are shown how he stretches his fingers and rolls a coin between them to increase their suppleness. Then, in the same shot, the hand picks up a cup of coffee and brings it to Michel's lips. The shot begins as a continuation of the montage and then suddenly changes. This one shot goes from the representative to the specific, creating a subtle jarring effect. Bresson doesn't use standard movie devices to grab our attention. A simple tilt of the camera from hands to face succeeds in accomplishing what other filmmakers might use more flamboyant techniques to achieve. Bresson was truly a genius.

An added bonus is Paul Schrader's fifteen-minute introduction to the film in which he explains the subtlety of Bresson's technique. I've read Schrader's book, Transcendental Style in Film, three times and always find more in it. Yet in his fifteen-minute introduction Schrader explains the premise of his book as well as Bresson's unique approach with amazing clarity. Along with several other short pieces about Bresson and the actors (whom Bresson calls "Models") and a commentary by James Quandt, this is one of the best DVDs I've seen years.

All of Bressons films deal with some character who does not fit into society for some reason. His heros are all rebels like Dostoyevsky's hero's(Pickpocket is based on a Dostoyevsky story) and Camus'. They are stories about people who do not fit in and while studying just how and why they don't fit in Bresson also studies society itself. Some of his movies are just plain bleak but this one has an ending that makes this film unique among this directors work. I think it is rightly singled out as the best though that doesn't mean it's the only one worth seeing. His films are complex and the more of them you see the more his films makes sense. Bresson is a director who does demand his viewers think and he frames his scenes in a way that rebels against cinematic norms in the same way his characters rebel against societal norms but in that style is much substance. If you are only going to see one Bresson film this is the one to see but if you want to see more I would suggest L'Argent after this one. Diary of a Country Priest is excellent but I think best appreciated by those who have already grown familiar with Bresson's style. Each of his films are quite unique and one of my favorites is Lancelot of the Lake which is a most interesting re-telling of that famous legend.

Looking like a French movie but sounding like Russian literature with all the furniture cataloguing removed, Pickpocket is from the days when Bresson still drew more naturalistic performances from his non-professional casts rather than turning them into stilted and self-conscious mannequins (although Marika Green falls into the latter category, always looking at her feet as if her lines were written on her shoes in classic Bresson automaton mode), and combines the sleek look of a studio policier with a pared down moral debate from Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, with theft replacing murder.

Unlike Bresson's more obviously spiritual films (A Man Escaped, Au Hasard Balthazar, Diary of a Country Priest), there's no religious quest here: instead, there's a determinedly atheistic one, with Martin LaSalle's would-be Prince of Pickpockets pursuing an ideal of intellectual elitism as justification for crime against society's morality, failing to realise that he's just another of the thousands of petty egotist in the criminal little leagues. He simply has the ability to articulate his own notions of superiority, completely unaware that he probably works harder at his criminal skills than he would ever do at a proper job.

It's also possibly Bresson's most overtly cinematic work despite the underplaying of the dialog scenes. The fluidity of the railway station sequence, with its extraordinary display of tricks of the trade that seem more magic act than crime (the DVD also includes an extract from sleight-of-hand advisor and supporting player Kassogi's cabaret act) and the stylised nature of the sound that always keeps LaSalle at a slight remove from the world around him are much more exhilarating displays of technique than you usually associate with Bresson's more controlled and understated approach in his other films, as even he gets caught up in the LaSalle's addiction to the perfect high that only crime can give him. In that respect, it's the Bresson film you can safely recommend to people who hate Bresson fans without losing points with the faithful.

Criterion's DVD is a good one, boasting an excellent transfer of the film on disc one with several interviews - including a virtual interrogation of a faltering Bresson on French TV and a trio of interviews with LaSalle, Green and the articulate and intelligent Pierre Leymarie that are all to often broken up by the interviewer's self-indulgent naval-gazing - as well as TV footage of Kassogi's cabararet act.

Robert Bresson's genius rests in his awareness that actions often reflect on reality, as the action is something that physically affects its surroundings. By stripping the scenes from emotions and only displaying the actions with complete strangers, the audience gets a sense of genuine presence through the character's actions. To further the meaning of the action, Bresson displays a minimal amount of reactions to the acts taken by the characters such as facial expression or body language. It leaves the viewer with the cold atmosphere where the interactions bring out a true sense of what is taking place on the screen with a clear impression without misunderstandings. Thus, the deeds committed within the film tell the truth without the combination of acting and pointless gibberish of words that often blurs the situation through truths, half-truths, and lies.

Interestingly, Bresson opens the film with a shot of a hand writing down the beginning of self-confessional statement, which belongs to the main character. The initial statement remains enigmatic, as the film lyrically transitions the film into progression where the audience will learn what the main character has to confess. Through superimposing, the first scene with a pair of gloved rich female hands and a wad of money it allows the viewer to learn the truth of the confession. The gloved hands transfer the money to suited man who enters a line for on-site racetrack betting. Throughout the sequence, the hands are fiddling with the cash between the fingers, as the protagonist and antihero Michel's (Martin LaSalle) ogles the wealth switching hands while being within his reach. Bresson triggers a similar reaction that Pavol's dogs experienced when they salivated to the stimuli of the bell, as the fingers are fondling the money. It helps the audience to identify with Michel on various levels such as thinking about what the money could help provide. In this opening the audience learns the hands significance, as hands are what nurtures the protagonist's actions, which will inevitably lead to trouble.

At first, it seems that the internal desire is driven by greed, but shortly after Michel's first pick pocketing the emotional high of the possibility of apprehension due to the illegal act seems to be one of the motivating factors. Michel's voice-over statement strengthens this notion when he states, "I was walking on air, with the world at my feet." Clearly, he senses an emotional high, which also displays emotional arrogance nourished by his recent success. However, to Michel's dismay, he goes down in flames, as the police arrest him fleeing the scene, but they are forced to release him due to lack of evidence. In addition, his home seems to support the idea that wealth does not have a significant meaning to him, as he leaves all his doors unlocked for anyone to enter at any time.

Some of the motivating forces within Michel appear to be shame, guilt, and paranoia. These emotions seem to emerge through the Oedipus complex that he possesses in relation to his internal desire to pick pockets. He knows it is wrong, yet the desire overcomes his awareness of its immorality, which feeds his feelings of guilt, shame, and paranoia. At the same time, the exhilarating stimuli of succeeding, as he puts it "I was walking on air, with the world at my feet" is worth the risk of shame. These feelings remain throughout the film, but as Michel becomes a student of a master pickpocket he also begins to defeat his feelings with confidence. Nonetheless, the police remain in a not too far distance to remind him of his illegal activities, which allows for shame, guilt, and paranoia to linger throughout the film.

Pickpocket provides a fascinating tale of a man and his vocation, as it allows for the audience to drift into a deeply personal perspective on the motivations that drive a man to do what he does. With the help of Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment Bresson brings out the psychological and moral aspects of the story. However, he is far subtler, as he does not deal with the axing of a human. Together with the music and the scene framing the acts of the characters deliver several absorbing ideas in regards to how and why Michel acts in the way he does. The minimalism that Bresson is known for also helps highlight many of these vital aspects of the film, as it does draws attention to what truly is important - the acts of human beings.

Much has been made of Bresson's austerity, which is valid, yet what comes from that simplicity is simply one of the most emotional films in the history of cinema. There is no attempt to manipulate emotions in the conventional Hollywood style, Bresson lays it out for the viewer, in the filmic equivalent of the objective correlative, and what arises is awe and a longing for redemption.

Bresson was notorious for doing multiple takes, effectively stripping his actors of all energy and facial expression. The viewer cannot rely on the characters to express their feelings in the typical sense, he or she must pay careful attention to what is said and to gestures made in order to decipher the subtext.

The station sequence is the finest testimony for film in terms of seperating it from the novel. More often than not, what is done in film can be done just as well in prose, but not the station sequence, where the viewer is thrusted into a world of thievery. It's payoff comes from the observation of technique and the effectiveness of the montage, what you see leaves you speechless.

Bresson's film are an acquired taste, and require much patience. However, the payoffs are enormous.

"Pickpocket" is director Robert Bresson's simple tale of the unfolding of the emotionally withdrawn existence of a young man, Michel, who has adopted the art of pickpocketing as his bailiwick. Michel, played by Martin LaSalle, unable to find work resorts to stealing. While his clumsy initial efforts result in success, he is apprehended and brought in for interrogation. The paternal police inspector chooses not to detain him but puts him under surveillance.

Michel is then recruited by a team of professional pickpockets and is taught the finer details of his trade. He is so absorbed and obsessed with his illegal craft that he eschews relationships, including any contact with his ailing mother. A neighbor of his mother, Jeanne, an attractive young girl played by Marika Green has been attending to her. She is inexplicably attracted to Michel but he fails to recipricate, pushing her off onto his best friend Jacques played by Pierre Leymarie. Together Jeanne and Jacques are unable to dissuade Michel from pursuing his risky pursuit.

Ultimately the fear of apprehension forces Michel to flee Paris. He returns two years later to find Jeanne the single mother to a young daughter. Michel wants to offer his support but cannot avoid falling back into pickpocketing. He gets set up by the police and is eventually nabbed and incarcerated. While in jail, he finally is able to express his feelings of love that he has for Jeanne and with this, ultimately a chance for redemption.

"Predestination/free will is a complex and contradictory concept, and Bresson's prison metaphors adapts to this complexity." Paul Scrader -in his book Transcendental Style in Film.
Bresson is a formalist who avoids psychological acting, instructing his actors to be nonexpressive..like mannequins. He strips away all emotion and judgement (no tracking shots or camera angles..just straight on) He does'nt trust emotions, he's not documenting outer reality, he's documenting the reality behind the surface. He's a minimalist that strips down to bare form.
Set against this iconography, is the fluid dance of the pickpockets hands..so subtle - you would not even realize that you had beeen touched.

In his dismissal determination to keep out elements often thought fundamental to the medium--spectacle, drama, performance-- Bresson has followed an incomparable personal vision of the world that stays consistent whatever the nature of his subject matter...

In "Pickpocket," a petty thief understands life's mystery only when his conventional wisdom is violently shaken and embraces humanity through his newfound love... Most notable, however, is not the emphasis upon redemption attained through communication and self-sacrifice, but the high-purity of Bresson's style...

The camera keeps out pictorial beauty to create an abstract timeless world through the detached, detailed observation of hands, faces, and objects; natural sounds rather than music to satisfy the need... In thus rejecting conventional realism and characterization, Bresson manifested a fascination not with human psychology but with the capacity of the soul to survive in a world of pain, disbelieve, and restriction...

Loosely based on Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment," this spare, understated character study by French auteur Bresson boasts a unique filmmaking style, with minimal dialogue, precise editing, and severely restrained acting from the cast of non-pros--the signature approach of the director. Yet slowly and gracefully, especially in the beautifully composed sequences in which Michel practices his nimble art, the spiritual dimension of Bresson's artistry emerges. The influence of "Pickpocket" on Paul Schrader was huge, too: He employed the film's confessional voiceover technique for his own "Taxi Driver."