Pickpocket, Robert Bresson, France, 1959, 75 DCP, OV FR, Sub ES'
Michel, a young writer, tries to demonstrate the reach of his theory about the existence of "men of talent, capable, indispensable to society" who, in certain circumstances, should be "free to disobey the laws". Maybe this way, he will say, a world that is upside down can, perhaps, recover its natural order. He starts commiting small thefts, that of the banal larceny, to which it will be given with a cold passion. Learning, hesitation, encounters with accomplices, will allow him to make a bet that finds different witnesses: an old mother who will die knowing that she is robbed by her own son; a police commissar who attends, half fascinated, half paternal, to the game of Michel; Jacques, the good friend who will end up revealing himself as an ignoble seducer; finally, Jeanne, that young woman who endures a miserable life because "everything has, perhaps, a reason". Arrested, finally, by the police, the last meeting of Michel with the young woman in prison will seal the recognition of a trajectory that he himself will qualify retrospectively: "Jeanne, to get to you what a strange path I have had to travel".
Michel, a young writer, tries to demonstrate the reach of his theory about the existence of "men of talent, capable, indispensable to society" who, in certain circumstances, should be "free to disobey the laws".