Pickpocket

The thing I remember most about "Pickpocket" is the faces; I watch it and become convinced that an interesting face is all you need in a film, the rest is all filler. The protagonist of the film is Michel (Martin La Salle), he doesn't do much with his face, it's there, but he's not meant to emote. He's left mostly as a mechanical presence, we are denied a real performance, a direct link of empathy, yet the face remains fascinating.

In the film, Michel plays a pickpocket, he lives alone in a small apartment, filled only the a few necessities. Michel is obsessed with becoming a pickpocket, while he's alone he tries out different maneuvers, he uses the post of his bed to practice taking a watch off the wrist of men's hands, he uses a suit to see if he can take out a wallet with a newspaper undetected. It is implied that Michel is probably suitable to have a regular job, and live a non-criminal life, but he chooses to remain a pickpocket. Later he falls into a gang of pickpockets who teach him new tricks, and together they pull off more elaborate crimes. Michel, who narrates the story says he doesn't become close with these men, they only talk of the next crime, and different pickpocket techniques.

Michel does have a life outside his crime one, he has a mother whom we are told is sick, she is dying. She is cared for by her saintly neighbor Jeanne (Marika Green), a young girl who who becomes prominent in Michel's life, she in fact becomes his one saving grace and his only chance for redemption. At first Michel chooses not to see his mother, it's never spelled out for us as to why he doesn't, to his friend it seems like a selfish act, but when he's questioned about his love for her, he answers "I love her more than myself".

Michel is an example of emotional detachment, he's alone in the world, he feels no emotion and we get the sense the only time he does feel alive is when he is stealing. There's a moment early on in the film where Michel is at the racetrack, he's close around a large crowd of people. We see a close-up of his hand as it moves through a man's jacket, Michel's face remains neutral yet there is the feeling of anticipation, and danger, of being alive. When Michel is close to obtaining the man's wallet, there is a small slight movement in his face, maybe a blink of the eyes, or an opening of the mouth, it's small but it's there. We can sense that pure exhilaration in Michel as he commits his crime, and suddenly he becomes less mechanical and more of an individual.

"Pickpocket" is the special kind of film, in that it doesn't act like a usual one, it was directed by the great french filmmaker Robert Bresson, who many people consider to be very spiritual and philosophical in his films. In the criterion version, filmmaker, and critic Paul Schrader, who does the introduction describes Bresson as being a rather perverse director, but it's only in the way he uses filmmaking not in the usual sense. Bresson plays with the audience expectation of what film is supposed to convey, there is not empathy or emotion in the conventional sense, Bresson takes this away by using non-actors. The actors are not meant to give a performance, they don't react, Bresson doesn't even give them the luxury of a close-up. With "Pickpocket", this technique becomes very useful to the story and transcends the film into something much more meaningful.

It's the face of Michel that we remember, it says nothing, and does nothing, he looks bored, lifeless, it's as if his whole being has been sucked away; it becomes easy to identify with him being someone who steals just for the shear thrill of being alive. The only close-ups Bresson does give us are the hands of the pickpockets as they move rhythmically, and seductively through various people's jackets, it becomes a very erotic thing. The most thrilling sequence comes through a montage of thefts while at a train station, Michel and his cohorts steal from various people while the camera shows off their skills, it's a thing of beauty all edited together seamlessly. Bresson is capturing the poetry and the elegance of the art of the pickpocket, and it's here where I felt direct empathy with Michel, he must feel the excitement of it all as we do, which is why he does it.

"Pickpocket" becomes this story about how one can carry on a life of crime without any remorse or regret, Bresson asks the question but he doesn't have an answer for us. What he does have is a chance of redemption for Michel which comes with the presence of Jeanne, and the films most famous scene is in the finale where the two are united, it's a burst of emotion that isn't seen in the film other than when Michel is stealing. Yet Bresson doesn't push the fact, he still holds back, there are gestures of affection but they are refrained from any melodrama.

It's difficult to peg a director like Bresson, he seems to transcend all sorts of types you would associate with a filmmaker. His films don't seem to fall in the category of theatrical or realism, they work on a different plain. With "Pickpocket" Bresson is tackling feelings that are very internal which film is not commonly known for conveying very well, but it's what makes his films unique. "Pickpocket" seems to make an argument that films can use images to express the inexpressible, it's ironic then that Bresson is able to accomplish this by wiping away any type of emotionon a person's face. What we are left with is what we can only conjure on our own, Bresson gives us the images, we take them in, we respond to them truthfully, it's a unique film experience that shows us a new way to interpret things.

"Pickpocket" is the same kind of film like Ozu's "Tokyo Story" that came to me with a new idea on how films should be made. I think I was tired by most of what I was seeing, but here came a new way of filmmaking, by not telling us exactly how we should feel, but just letting us make up our minds, "Pickpocket" is brave enough to leave what is only necessary and let us fill in the blanks.