L'Argent

1983 drama

Rating: 17/20

Plot: Counterfeit money wreaks havoc for characters in France.

A series of cause-and-effects that blossom from the misdeeds of a kid with a menacing unibrow, Bresson's final movie is a bleak and unforgiving look at the effects of money on human beings. As with all the Bresson movies I've seen, he leaves you with plenty of space to reflect on his characters and their decisions, and here, you reflect on how they're trapped by not only their decisions but the decisions of others. The combo of poetry and philosophy in this human drama, developing in a swift 80-some minutes, was a bummer of a nightcap for me as I couldn't get these unfortunate souls out of my mind when trying to sleep. Something about the way they almost somnambulistically moved about in this bleak little series of boxes that Bresson had trapped them in bummed me out. The kid with the unibrow, tempted by pornography glimpses; the unscrupulous camera store owner; his employee with a "fondness for fancy suits;" the unfortunate truck driver who feels compelled to make bad decisions after he's the victim of cruel fate. This is a movie where money, or maybe the more abstract emotions and desires that money creates, is the true villain.

Next time I watch this, I'm going to count the amount of doors. Bresson's camera lingers on doors throughout this thing. Characters enter through doorways, doors are seen being closed, characters close doors on other characters. It's a ludicrous amount of doors! There actually might be a door in every single scene of this movie. Unfortunately for these characters, they don't really lead anywhere.