Pickpocket
1959 · TMDB 7.3
Directed by Robert Bresson
Michel takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques, and his mother's neighbor Jeanne, Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.
Why it matters
Robert Bresson's austere study of a young man who drifts into a life of petty theft, not out of need but out of a strange spiritual emptiness. The film's famous final line lands like a verdict and a reprieve at once, and the whole film has been building to that ambiguity.
- Runtime
- 75 min
- Released
- 1959-12-16
- Studio
- Lux Compagnie Cinématographique de France
- Country
- France
- Language
- French
- TMDB score
- 7.3
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