Pickpocket (1959)

 Robert Bresson's "Pickpocket"


Upon first watching Robert Bresson's 1959 film "Pickpocket," I felt a certain lack of engagement with the film. Its plot and story are very dry, its characters are very flat, and the main conflict of the character is entirely within his ability to maneuver out of. However, the more I reflect upon the film, the more I feel as though I entirely missed the point. 

The film centers on Michel, an unemployed man living in Paris who cannot seem to hold down the jobs that his friend Jacques acquires for him. After falling into a lifestyle of pickpocketing, Jacques and his neighbor Jeanne try and help him out of his troubles. However, he continues to pickpocket until he is eventually caught.

The plot of the film does sound relatively simple. A down-on-his luck man cannot seem to stop himself from being a common thief, despite the pleading from his family and neighbors. Once you begin to ask yourself why he's doing this, the theme of the film emerges. To understand this theme, we first first regard the direction of Bresson. Bresson is known for his non-professional actors that he trains to deliver lines with a very flat effect, oft without emotive delivery. The result is very unusual, a film of characters who walk around, perform functions, and speak as though they were unfeeling robots or cardboard cutouts of actual human beings. The result is what many call Bressonian (or perhaps this was my own contrived label). When the characters behave like this in the world of Bresson's construction, the construction itself and the world they inhabit almost seem like a cold, empty wasteland of society. 

When the world is structured this way, it begins to make more sense as to why Michel behaves in the way that he does. Bresson has constructed a world that is impressionistic of the new post-war malaise of modern society. It is a world of alienation, loneliness, economic destitution, and a world with the philosophy that Michel espouses throughout: that of half-baked ideas derived from Friedrich Nietzsche and Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov from his seminal piece "Crime and Punishment." Our Michel claims special privileges above the common morality. Michel sees laws as arbitrary. His outlook on humanity is cold and uncaring. He seems to pickpocket for the simple notion that he feels above the common law and morality of society and is acting out against it. However, there might be a bit more to this than that simple notion.

Because of his cold, uncaring outlook of people, along with his economic destitution, Michel is an incredibly lonely person. He spends most of his days in isolation, despite his occasional interactions with Jacques or his neighbor Jeanne. In Bresson's impressionistic rending of a post-war society, there stems an element of depressive loneliness for the common person and Michel is no different. To me, it almost seems as though his pickpocketed is a cry for help, so to speak. He WANTS to get caught because getting caught is the only way he can ascertain any sort of human interaction in this uncaring and desolate world. There is a complete lack of emotion or feeling with everything and everyone and pickpocket is Michel's greatest shot at FEELING something. This is precisely why he does not listen to pleas to stop his incessant crimes. This is precisely why he ends up getting caught despite understanding the trap he's blatantly walking into. As American film critic Gary Indiana notes, "Michel steals because it is the only act that makes him feel alive in a world becoming dead." Michel pickpockets because there is nothing else for him to do in this cold and isolated life. It is the only thing that makes him feel anything.

It is for this reason why so many filmmakers have gravitated towards "Pickpocket." There is a depth of feeling within the film despite the complete LACK of feeling infused by Bresson. As Paul Schrader, whom was inspired by the film to write his iconic screenplay for "Taxi Driver," notes that "Pickpocket isn't really about being a pickpocket." Werner Herzog calls it "so intense and beautiful" that it makes him "ache. Even Yorgos Lanthimos calls it "the most moving film [he's] ever seen." Its clear that the depth of emotion with this film is much subtler than its simplistic story.

Because of the story's simplicity, much subtext can be derived. There are many who even feel that "Pickpocket" has sexual subtext, along with homosexual subtext. There any many who attribute Michel's pickpocketing to psychosexual reasons. There is even a fellow pickpocketer who assists Michel in his techniques throughout the film. Many consider this to be analogous to a homosexual relationship that Michel must 'hide.' 

Regardless of its subtext, there is a clear deeper interpretation to the simple story of Michel and his pickpocketing. Bresson's cold empty world of flat and emotionless people only allows for the kind of nihilistic behavior of our protagonist, as it is the only way for him to feel anything. It is a masterful film that really shakes you the more you think about it and the more you think about contemporary life.



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