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Pickpocket

One of the early images in Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959) shows the unfocused eyes of a man obsessed by excitement and fear. The man's name is Michel [played by Martin Lassalle]. He lives in Paris in a small room under the eaves, a garret almost filled by his cot and his books. He is about to commit a crime. He wants to steal another man's wallet, and he wants his face to appear blank, casual. Perhaps it would, to a casual observer. But we know him and what he is about to do, and in his eyes we see the trancelike ecstasy of a man who is surrendering to his compulsion."

"Or do we? Bresson, one of the most thoughtful and philosophical of directors, was fearful of `performances' by his actors. He famously forced the star of `A Man Escaped' (1956) to repeat the same scene some 50 times, until it was stripped of all emotion and inflection. All Bresson wanted was physical movement. No emotion, no style, no striving for effect. What we see in the pickpocket's face is what we bring to it. Instead of asking his actors to `show fear,' Bresson asks them to show nothing, and depends on his story and images to supply the fear."

"`Pickpocket' is about a man who deliberately and self-consciously tries to operate outside morality (``Will we be judged? By what law?''). Like many criminals, he does it for two conflicting reasons: because he thinks he is better than others, and because--fearing he is worse--he seeks punishment."

"Bresson films with a certain gravity, a directness. He wants his actors to emote as little as possible. He likes to film them straight on, so that we are looking at them as they look at his camera. Oblique shots and over-the-shoulder shots would place characters in the middle of the action; head-on shots say, `Here is a man and here is his situation; what are we to think of him?' "------- Roger Ebert

DVD - The Criterion Collection

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Audio commentary by film scholar James Quandt
• New video introduction by writer-director Paul Schrader
• The Models of "Pickpocket," a 2003 documentary by filmmaker Babette Mangolte, featuring actors from the film
• A 1960 interview with Bresson, from the French television program Cinepanorama
• Q&A on Pickpocket, with actress Marika Green and filmmakers Paul Vecchiali and Jean-Pierre Ameris fielding questions at a 2000 screening of the film
• Footage of sleight-of-hand artist and Pickpocket consultant Kassagi, from a 1962 episode of the French television show La piste aux etoiles
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• A new essay by novelist and culture critic Gary Indiana

Director: Robert Bresson
Black & White
75 minutes
Released: 1959
Rated: NR

Country: France
Language: French with English subtitles
Genre: Crime, Drama

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