Pickpocket | -1959-

He explains it with a cold, existential logic. He believes that certain "superior" men—geniuses, criminals, artists—exist outside the normal moral framework. He isn't greedy for money; he is greedy for transcendence . For Michel, picking a pocket isn’t a theft; it’s a “sport” and a “science.”

But he gets caught. Of course he does. The "superior man" ends up in a prison cell. pickpocket -1959-

It’s believing you don’t need anyone else to survive. He explains it with a cold, existential logic

Bresson treats this absurd justification with deadly seriousness. We are never allowed to laugh at Michel. We are trapped inside his hollow eyes, watching him rationalize his way toward self-destruction. If you watch Pickpocket , forget the faces. Bresson famously used his actors as "models," forbidding them from acting in the traditional sense. No tears. No shouting. No dramatic close-ups of crying eyes. For Michel, picking a pocket isn’t a theft;

There is a moment about twenty minutes into Robert Bresson’s 1959 masterpiece, Pickpocket , where the film stops feeling like a movie and starts feeling like a prayer meeting for sinners.