Pickpocket (The Criterion Collection)
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DVD details
Actor: César Gattegno, Kassagi, Marika Green, Martin LaSalle, Pierre LeymarieBrand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 75 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-11-08
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion Collection
DVD Reviews of Pickpocket (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: Pickpocket Brilliantly Dissects the Human Psyche in the Shadow of Morality...
Summary: 5 Stars
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.
Description of Pickpocket (The Criterion Collection)
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