The Devil, Probably

The feel-good film of 1977

Rating: 16/20

Plot: Details the final three months of existential angst as fatally disillusioned Charles tries his best to feel something in a world he despises. His pals try to show him pictures of baby seals being clubbed to death to make him feel better about the world he's not sure he wants to be a part of, but he decides to kill himself anyway. The end.

Geez. This wasn't just depressing; it was profoundly depressing. Being thematically depressing is usually enough, but this is stylistically depressing as well. As I've learned to expect with Bresson, I didn't quite grasp everything after one viewing. This is thickly symbolic. Like with Pickpocket, we've got lots of open and closed doors, and I think there's something going on with transportation. The way the characters are displayed on screen is very odd, lots of characters shown walking slowly from the neck or even waist down for extended periods of time. The camera sometimes lingers on, well, seemingly nothing at all a lot of times. At first I thought it was the product of a director who's apparently lost his mind, but I think there was something deeper going on there, too. The narrative feels incomplete, drained of anything that feels vital, and the emotionally detached acting makes it difficult to connect to the characters. The actors seem completely bored with their roles. But am I allowed to say "in a good way" following that? I really think Bresson's refusal to allow the audience to emotionally invest in anything actually helps what's going on in the protagonist's head to go on in the viewer's head. By the time one of the final scenes (involving classical music and a television) comes along, you're about ready to lose faith yourself and off yourself right along with Charles. That's a great scene. So is the final scene, a scene on a bus when the title is spoken by a guy who barely gets his name in the credits, and a conversation with a psychologist. This isn't the most fun movie I'll watch this year, and there's absolutely nothing that will dazzle you about Le Diable Probablement. It's difficult and heavy stuff, but I'm really glad I saw it.

A Winter Rates recommendation.

Pickpocket

1959 pickpocket movie

Rating: 17/20

Plot: You can pick your friends. You can pick your nose. But you can't pick complete strangers pockets. Superman Michel disagrees and gets his thrills lifting cash and wallets from the unsuspecting at race tracks and on trains. His dying mother's nurse is kind of hot and seemingly interested in Michel, but she doesn't have pockets and is therefore of no interest to the titular pickpocket.

So I've seen a few Robert Bresson movies now. They've all been great--intriguing, thought-provoking, auteuristic. They've also all frustrated me because there's always a depth that I feel I'm not reaching, something heavy and spiritual. I've always felt that I needed to see them again to "get" them. Pickpocket is no exception. It's stark and realistic, but it still feels like a fantasy or at the very least a parable. It's a simple story, like Crime and Punishment without an ax, and it makes you wonder if Bresson picked Dostoevsky's pocket. And like Dostoevsky, there's a philosophical density that almost makes your head hurt. It definitely doesn't seem like Bresson, or his pickpocket protagonist, likes the world very much. Bresson uses non-actors in this as well as an almost stubborn refusal to have any style whatsoever. It forces you to focus on the story's fringes--the stone-faced expressions of Michel, the knowing glances of his victims, the opening and closing of doors. There is one terrific montage scene where Michel and his cohorts work together to pick pockets at a train station. Perhaps I need to think about it more, but I'm not sure I like how Pickpocket ended. Maybe that just means I need to see it again.

I've got another recommended Bresson movie coming up soon.