Pickpocket is a 1959
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
Robert BressonRobert Bresson was a French film director known for his spiritual, ascetic style.-Life:...
. It starred, at the time, nonprofessional actor Martin LaSalle in the title role, with
Marika GreenMarika Green is a Swedish-French actress. She is mostly famous for playing in Pickpocket and Emmanuelle .-Life:...
as the
ingénue*Ingenue is a stock character in literature, film and theatre.*Ingénue is the second solo album by k.d. lang, released in 1992....
. It was the first film Bresson wrote the screenplay for rather than "adapting it from an existing text."
As in
Diary of a Country PriestDiary of a Country Priest is a 1951 French film directed by Robert Bresson, and starring Claude Laydu. It was closely based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. Published in 1937, the novel received the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française...
, some screen time is devoted to the protagonist's writings, and, as in
A Man EscapedA Man Escaped or: The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth is a 1956 French film directed by Robert Bresson. It is based on the memoirs of André Devigny, a prisoner of war held at Fort Montluc during World War II. The protagonist of the film is called Fontaine...
, the protagonist's voice is heard more in the voiceover than in dialogue.
Michel (Martin LaSalle) goes to a horse race and steals some money from a spectator.
Pickpocket is a 1959
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
by the
FrenchFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
directorA film director, or filmmaker is a person who directs the making or production of a film. Some also consider a film producer to be a filmmaker....
Robert BressonRobert Bresson was a French film director known for his spiritual, ascetic style.-Life:...
. It starred, at the time, nonprofessional actor Martin LaSalle in the title role, with
Marika GreenMarika Green is a Swedish-French actress. She is mostly famous for playing in Pickpocket and Emmanuelle .-Life:...
as the
ingénue*Ingenue is a stock character in literature, film and theatre.*Ingénue is the second solo album by k.d. lang, released in 1992....
. It was the first film Bresson wrote the screenplay for rather than "adapting it from an existing text."
As in
Diary of a Country PriestDiary of a Country Priest is a 1951 French film directed by Robert Bresson, and starring Claude Laydu. It was closely based on the novel of the same name by Georges Bernanos. Published in 1937, the novel received the Grand prix du roman de l'Académie française...
, some screen time is devoted to the protagonist's writings, and, as in
A Man EscapedA Man Escaped or: The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth is a 1956 French film directed by Robert Bresson. It is based on the memoirs of André Devigny, a prisoner of war held at Fort Montluc during World War II. The protagonist of the film is called Fontaine...
, the protagonist's voice is heard more in the voiceover than in dialogue.
Plot
Michel (Martin LaSalle) goes to a horse race and steals some money from a spectator. He leaves the racetrack confident he was not caught when he's suddenly arrested. The inspector (Jean Pélégri) releases Michel because the evidence is not strong enough; Michel says it's not a crime to have cash.
Michel continues stealing, refusing his friend Jacques's help in finding a job. Jacques even arranges a meeting with the police inspector, in which Michel presents a theory about "supermen" who are above the law (this Nietzsche -like conversation is lifted almost verbatim in
American GigoloAmerican Gigolo is a 1980 thriller film, written and directed by Paul Schrader. Schrader based the film on French director Robert Bresson's Pickpocket...
). Jacques is dismayed, and Michel is undeterred from his thievery. Eventually, he meets a more experienced thief (Henri Kassagi), who teaches him several tricks, including those involving more than one person.
Visiting his mother, Michel meets Jeanne (
Marika GreenMarika Green is a Swedish-French actress. She is mostly famous for playing in Pickpocket and Emmanuelle .-Life:...
) who begs him to visit his mother more often. Jacques goes on a date with Jeanne and invites Michel along. But after stealing a watch, Michel leaves Jacques and Jeanne at the carnival. The inspector asks Michel to show him a book about pickpocketing, and Michel goes down to the police station with it. Once there, the inspector barely glances at the book. Michel goes back to his apartment realizing that it was all just a ruse to search his apartment. However, the cops failed to find his stash of money.
Michel's mother dies, and he goes to the funeral with Jeanne. Later, the inspector visits Michel in his apartment, and tells him that his mother had had some money stolen, but later dropped the charges, probably figuring it was her son who stole the money. The inspector then just leaves, and Michel decides to leave the country.
Returning to France, Michel goes back to steal at the horse track, where he is caught redhanded by the police. Jeanne goes to visit him in jail.
Cast
- Martin LaSalle - Michel
- Marika Green
Marika Green is a Swedish-French actress. She is mostly famous for playing in Pickpocket and Emmanuelle .-Life:...
- Jeanne
- Jean Pélégri
Jean Pélégri was a writer and professor of literature. Of French descent, he was born in Algeria, but left as part of the diaspora of French colonists referred to as pied-noirs following the Algerian War....
- Chief Inspector
- Dolly Scal - The Mother
- Pierre Leymarie - Jacques
- Kassagi - 1st Accomplice
- Pierre Étaix
Pierre Étaix is a French clown, comedian and filmmaker. Étaix made a series of acclaimed short- and feature-length films in the 1960s, many of them co-written by influential screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière. He has won an Academy Award. Due to a legal dispute with a distribution company, none of...
- 2nd Accomplice
- César Gattegno - An Inspector
Scholarly and critical reception
The film is considered an example of "parametric narration" (in which the style "dominates the
syuzhetIn literary theory, formalism refers to critical approaches that analyze, interpret, or evaluate the inherent features of a text. These features include not only grammar and syntax but also literary devices such as meter and tropes...
[plot] or is seemingly equal in importance to it".
Roger EbertRoger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter.He is known for his film review column and for two television programs Sneak Previews and Siskel & Ebert at the Movies, which he co-hosted for a combined 23 years with Gene Siskel...
sees echoes of Dostoyevsky's
Crime and PunishmentCrime and Punishment is a novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky that was first published in the literary journal The Russian Messenger in twelve monthly installments in 1866. It was later published in a single volume...
in this film. "Bresson's Michel, like Dostoyevsky's hero Raskolnikov, needs money in order to realize his dreams, and sees no reason why some lackluster ordinary person should not be forced to supply it. The reasoning is immoral, but the characters claim special privileges above and beyond common morality. Michel, like the hero of
Crime and Punishment, has a 'good woman' in his life, who trusts he will be able to redeem himself. ... She comes to Michel with the news that his mother is dying. Michel does not want to see his mother, but gives Jeanne money for her. Why does he avoid her? Bresson never supplies motives. We can only guess."
Influence
Pickpocket exerted a formative influence over the work of
Paul SchraderPaul Joseph Schrader is an American screenwriter and film director. His influences include Robert Bresson, Yasujiro Ozu and Carl Dreyer, whose cross-cultural similarities he examined in Transcendental Style in Film: Ozu, Bresson, Dreyer in 1972...
, who has described it as "an unmitigated masterpiece" and "as close to perfect as there can be", and whose films
American GigoloAmerican Gigolo is a 1980 thriller film, written and directed by Paul Schrader. Schrader based the film on French director Robert Bresson's Pickpocket...
,
Patty HearstPatty Hearst is a 1988 biographical film directed by Paul Schrader and stars Natasha Richardson as Patricia Campbell Hearst and Ving Rhames as SLA leader Cinque...
, and
Light SleeperLight Sleeper is a 1992 film written and directed by Paul Schrader. It stars Willem Dafoe, Susan Sarandon, David Clennon and Dana Delany. Schrader's wife Mary Beth Hurt appears as a fortune teller....
all include endings similar to that of
Pickpocket.
In addition, his screenplay for
Martin ScorseseMartin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, actor, and film historian. He is the founder of the World Cinema Foundation, a recipient of the AFI Life Achievement Award for his contributions to the cinema and has won awards from the Oscars, Golden Globe,...
's
Taxi DriverTaxi Driver is a film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. The movie is set in New York City, soon after the Vietnam War. The film stars Robert De Niro and features Albert Brooks, Harvey Keitel, Leonard Harris, Peter Boyle, Cybill Shepherd, and a young Jodie Foster...
bears many similarities, including confessional narration and a voyeuristic look at society. Schrader's admiration for
Pickpocket led to his contribution in an extra in
The Criterion CollectionThe Criterion Collection is a video distribution company selling "important classic and contemporary films" to cinema aficionados. In 1984, Janus Films and the Voyager Company established The Criterion Collection as a privately held company concentrating exclusively upon the North American home...
's DVD release in 2005.
Pickpocket has been paraphrased by other films, such as
Leos CaraxLeos Carax is a French-born film director, critic, and writer. Carax is noted for his poetic style and his tortured depictions of love. His first major work was Boy Meets Girl , and his notable works include Lovers on the Bridge and the controversial Pola X...
's
Les Amants du Pont-NeufLes Amants du Pont-Neuf is a 1991 film by French director Leos Carax, starring Juliette Binoche and Denis Lavant. The title refers to the Pont Neuf bridge in Paris...
.Science of Sleep, written and directed by Michel Gondry (2006)
External links