Pickpocket
1959
Inspired by Dostoevsky’s 'Crime and Punishment', Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket tells the story of Michel (Martin Lasalle), a solitary young man who embarks upon a life of petty theft. Plying his trade on the city streets, racetracks and Métro system of Paris, Michel hones his sleight-of-hand skills to perfection and becomes .. Read more
| Starring | Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Bresson |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
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Pickpocket
Inspired by Dostoevsky’s 'Crime and Punishment', Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket tells the story of Michel (Martin Lasalle), a solitary young man who embarks upon a life of petty theft. Plying his trade on the city streets, racetracks and Métro system of Paris, Michel hones his sleight-of-hand skills to perfection and becomes consumed by his escalating addiction. But his activities alienate him from his few friends, while attracting the attention of a police inspector and a professional criminal (Kassagi), who recruits him into his band of thieves. Bresson’s use of non-professional actors, pared-down cinematic style and meticulously choreographed scenes of audacious robberies lend the film a remarkable and thrilling sense of authenticity. Emotionally restrained yet ultimately spiritually moving, many critics consider Pickpocket to be Bresson’s masterpiece.
| Starring | Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie |
|---|---|
| Director | Robert Bresson |
| Studio | ARTIFICIAL EYE |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 13 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, World Cinema |
| Language | French |
| Subtitles | English |
| Released | DVD: 25 Apr 2005 Production year: 1959 |
| Format | DVD |
Pickpocket (1959)
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Critics' reviews (5)
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A mesmeric sequence in which a young thief learns the tricks of the trade from a master pickpocket is the highlight of this exceptional study by Robert Bresson of obsession, desperation and guilt. Inspired by Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, the film follows a theme used several times by Bresson as lonely individuals lay bare their souls in the midst of personal torment. Martin Lassalle gives a performance of chilling restraint as the possessed “dip”, but it is Bresson's control over his cast, the Parisian locations and the austere black-and-white imagery that makes this extraordinary film so compelling.
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Released in the same year as Godards Breathless (1959) and filmed on the same sun-dappled Parisian streets,... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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13 out of 13 people found this review helpful
An emotional roller-coaster
When a film is by common consent listed as one of the greatest 100 films of all time, it must have something going for it. For those of you even looking to rent the film, I'm certain you already know where to look for far more eloquent critique of the film than I can ever hope to deliver. This synopsis therefore is my attempt at the purely emotional gut wrenching grip that the film excercised upon yours truly. I first saw this film back in 1959 when I was no more than a lad of 17 attending school. It was showing (for those of you old enough to remember) at one of the old chain of Classic cinemas. To this day, I can't even begin to rationalize what drove this soul night after night to catch a six mile bus ride to Hendon to see the film six nights in a row and feel just as much emotionally drained after the 6th screening as I was after the first. It's that sort of film and time hasn't dulled the edge. Ask anyone who's seen it.
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Most recent members' review
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2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
Worth Picking Up
This film conjured up vividly a scene from a school trip to Paris in my youth.As a 13 year old I spent an evening with my teacher and classmates in the delapidated room of a Frenchman and his wife who resided in the hotel where we were staying. Not being able to ascertain his occupation, the teacher later confirmed his suspicions that the man and his wife were pickpockets.The hero's room in the film could have been a carbon copy of that bedsit shrunk down to accommodate a single man. Bresson's 1959 work is an adaptation of Dostoevsky's 'Crime and Punishment' and has been called his masterpiece. Certainly there are many praiseworthy elements :-the 'pared down' cinematic style, Martin de la Salle's jaded intellectual in the Raskolnikov role and Marika Green, who conveys a sense of innocence and purity as Michel's eventual redeemer. Yet, in my view, the best element of the film is its fascinating depiction of the robberies themselves and the pickpockets' tricks of the trade. Less positively, whilst acknowledging that Bresson's use of amateur actors works better here than in his other films (for example,'L'Argent' a moralistic work adapted from Tolstoy, another Russian novelist), they do still come across as quite wooden on occasions. However my biggest qualm about the film is Bresson's use of petty theft as subject matter. Would this really be the 'rebellion of choice' of a self-declared 'superman' who believes himself exempt from society's rules?
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Inspired by Dostoevsky’s 'Crime and Punishment', Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket tells the story of Michel (Martin Lasalle), a solitary young man who embarks upon a life of petty theft. Plying his trade ... -