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Pickpocket

7.6

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Related Documentary:

The Models of 'Pickpocket'

Related to:

The Ballad of George Barrington

Original title

Pickpocket

Year

1959

Running time

75 min.

Country

France

Director

Robert Bresson

Screenwriter

Robert Bresson

Cast

Music

Jean-Baptiste Lully

Cinematography

Léonce-Henri Burel (B&W)

Producer

Compagnie Cinématographique de France

Genre

Drama. Romance | Heist Film

Synopsis

Michel takes up picking pockets as a hobby, and is arrested almost immediately, giving him the chance to reflect on the morality of crime. After his release, though, his mother dies, and he rejects the support of friends Jeanne and Jacques in favour of returning to pickpocketing (after taking lessons from an expert), because he realises that it's the only way he can express himself.

Rankings Position

#43 Best French Movies of all time
#103 Best Romantic Movies in the history of film

Awards: 1960: Berlin Film Festival: Official Selection

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Critics' reviews

"A marvel of poise and circumspect emotion from French auteur Robert Bresson."

David Parkinson: Empire
"It is, at base, about self-fulfilment and redemption through love -- a common enough idea in films. But this 1959 epic has seldom been equalled as a philosophical treatise on the subject."

Derek Malcolm: The Guardian
"The movie, above all, affirms the miracle of redemptive love and its price in humility and unconditional surrender."

Richard Brody: The New Yorker
"Robert Bresson made this short electrifying study in 1959; it's one of his greatest and purest films, full of hushed transgression and sudden grace."

Dave Kehr: Chicago Tribune
"Every image in Pickpocket evokes the director's idea of the soul in transition."

Ed Gonzalez: Slant
"Bresson choreographs the complex techniques of lifting wallets and watches with such precision that one seems to be watching a kind of surreptitious ballet."

David Denby: The New Yorker

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Ranking Lists Position

52 My Favorite French Movies (59)

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Pickpocket

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