Pickpocket

Aroview: Dir. Bresson's austere meditation on the motive personal forces of criminal enterprise, this trails a directionless young man into a flirtation with petty thieving and onwards into an increasingly fascinated devotion to the manually dexterous 'trade'.

With spiritual, sexual and moral subtexts, this typically stylised work has attracted many admirers, most dramatically Paul Shrader who remade the film as AMERICAN GIGOLO. Those who love Bresson's world of enigmatic montage and expression will surely find this one of his greatest, though newcomers are advised to perhaps start with a less rigourous work, such as A MAN ESCAPED.

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