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Pickpocket
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Our DVD Price: £9.99 RRP: 
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Film Description
An undisputed masterpiece of cinema from Robert Bresson in which a young man is driven by his self-destructive compulsion for petty thievery. He abandons his studies in order to perfect his technique but draws the attention of both a police inspector and a professional thief.
Film Information
| Director | Robert Bresson | ||||
| Starring | Martin LaSalle
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| Genre | World Cinema
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| Country | France | Language | FRENCH | Year | 1959 |
DVD Extras
Interview with Robert Bresson; The models for Pickpocket - interviews with Martin Lassalle, Marika Green and Piere Leymarie; Around Pickpocket - discussions with Marika Green, Jean-Pierre Ameris and Paul Vecchialli; Kassagi cabaret performance; Trailer.
Technical Details
| Certificate | PG | Length | 73 mins | Label | ART-E | ||
| Cat No | ART295DVD | Format | DVD | Colour | |||
| Region | 2 | Aspect | 1.33:1 | ||||
| Subtitles | English. | ||||||
1 Still
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Share your thoughts and opinions - write a review
Review by Doug Cummings on 1st April 2005
Released in 1959 at the dawn of the French New Wave, Robert Bresson’s fifth feature, Pickpocket, established a link between the masterworks of the past and the cinema of the future. Conceived and shot in a matter of weeks, the film’s use of real Parisian locations (streets, cafés, depots) and subversion of traditional dramatic techniques helped set the tone for a new era of film experimentation.
Loosely based on Dostoevky’s Crime and Punishment, Bresson’s compressed narrative offers an incisive portrait of a troubled urban recluse, Michel, whose compulsion to steal propels him on an unexpected personal journey. As in Diary of a Country Priest (1951) and A Man Escaped (1957), Bresson records his protagonist’s narration, thus revealing Michel’s ambiguous feelings in a world of relentless physical precision, timing and ritual. A sequence depicting thefts at the Gare de Lyon is a veritable ballet of secret movements and gestures, its aesthetic pleasure emphasizing the intrinsically seductive appeal of Michel’s thievery as well as the practice and dexterity required.
Throughout the film however, a police inspector seems as interested in counselling Michel as he is in arresting him. Their sporadic conversations are spiked with suggestions - Michel claims certain individuals should be above the law; the inspector counters that an arrest could be made at any time, but teasingly hesitates.
Pickpocket is a shining example of Bresson’s fully mature, essentialist style. Nonprofessional actors, eye-level compositions, and an emphasis on sound combine with a perplexing approach to narrative construction (unexplained reversals and ellipses) that creates a carefully modulated viewing experience. Rigorous and subdued yet deeply felt, the film is a surprisingly romantic vision that builds to a profound crescendo, transforming Michel’s search for identity into a passionate proclamation of love.
View more reviews by Doug Cummings
Article - "Robert Bresson: The Cinema of Hidden Souls"
by Doug Cummings
Monday 9th May 2005
Some filmmakers are creative tyrants, using cinematic techniques to prescribe emotional reactions. Other filmmakers believe less is more, offering subdued, elliptical, ambiguous works that paradoxically elicit deeper and more enduring feelings. In this latter categor... View article in full
Article - "Bresson's lucid cinema: Lancelot du Lac and The Devil, Probably"
by Jonathan Hourigan
Monday 31st March 2008
Lancelot du Lac
Lancelot du Lac is a towering, luminescent achievement. Bresson’s eleventh feature, his third in colour and the first of three collaborations with the distinguished Italian cinematographer, Pasqualino de Santis, it is amongst Br... View article in full
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This film is part of the following Customer Film Lists
Mirrors, echoes, precursors and influences by Gavin Oakes
Every writer creates his own precursors, writes Borges. So too with filmmakers. These paired films are not remakes, but films that make me think of other films. Whether the film makers thought of them too I don't know.
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