I love this movie so much

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Having only seen Au Hasard Balthazar from Bresson beforehand, of which I was disappointed by, I had still retained some interest in his work, despite his often sterile approach to filmmaking. Unfortunately, while still being very good, Pickpocket is not that film I've been hoping for. At just over 70 minutes long, it's strange how it skims so much detail and still feels slow, though is certainly no torture. The core of the film is Michel, as played by Martin LaSalle, who delivers a diary-esque narration throughout, which offers the story too much exposition, rendering all supporting characters to feel as if strangers. The narration details how he feels and what he's doing as he does it (in past tense - almost as if a police interrogation or a confession of other sorts), however, LaSalle's controlled subtle expressions reveals none of this, leaving us with a protagonist deeper than his loose fitting suit and cold stare. As the film skips and skims big details, such as an ostensibly important 15 minutes conversation to 2 whole years spent travelling on the run, the narrative appears to present all that the protagonist can remember, rather than an objective view of the story. However, this style alienates the viewer, and distances from investment for Michel rather than empathising with his perspective.Pickpocket's most exciting moments are the sleight of hand theft sequences, these shots developing the protagonist far greater than his interaction with other characters, as the camera lends Michel's eyes as a mere closeup of a watch on a stranger's hand becomes thrilling. The cinematography keeps a simple wide frame throughout, being purely observant, as the film uses subtle careful sounds of footsteps, rustling of clothes and hands gently touching objects giving it a greater sense of suspense than a score with a pace. The brief melodramatic music that dips in and out feels inappropriate, as does the rather primitive editing method of fading to black and then fading in to the next scene. The straight faces and suits is reminiscent of film noir, though these characters are even more petty than the icons, while it has the crisp realism of neo-noir. The film really captures the essence of Paris. It's certainly an interesting film about moral justification, even if I don't feel like it works in its favour in the end due to its imbalance of over simplification and ambiguity. The film feels like the foundation for an archetype but there's also many missed opportunities for tighter storytelling. I shall still explore Bresson until I discover his masterpiece.7/10

Some reviewers say that "this film is not for regular film-goers but for people with a better appreciation for art", but there is only one criterion for a true work of art; an original expression appealing to the heart. Criterion, in its introduction to one of his films says: "...Robert Bresson began to implement his stylistic philosophy as a filmmaker, stripping away all inessential elements from his compositions, the dialog and the music, exacting a purity of image and sound.". He also refrained from using professional actors. We'd better watch documentaries. This film, with its "wooden" acting, lifeless dialogs, monotonous tempo, unnecessary narrating voice, stolen but frozen version of "supermensch" argument of Nietzsche (religiously criticized in Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment with PASSION -lacking 100% in this film) leaves nothing to enjoy. All to one side; an "art" film avoiding everything popular tries to display the "subtleties of pickpocketing", orchestration of gang members in operation (without success due to non-fluid editing done) "a la Hollywood"in order to add some life to this otherwise worthless drama. I have watched a few films by Bresson: "Les dames de.." lacks emotion. "Diary of a Country Priest" is advisable only to priests. "A ManEscaped" is much better since it does not preach and has a nice change of tempo at the end.

From director Robert Bresson (Au Hasard Balthazar, L'Argent), the title of this film, featured in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die as the one of the entries, was distinctive and one that sounded worth watching, I was hoping for the best for this French film. Basically in Paris, France lives Michel (Martin LaSalle), a young man who finds an interest and a skill in picking pockets, i.e. slipping his fingers into or sneaking out wallets and purses from people's pockets. He is caught quickly the first time he does it a horse racing venue, but the Inspector (Jean Pélégri) released him because of lack of evidence, and he is allowed to take the money, and soon after this he becomes part of a group of pickpockets who teach him more skills. Michel visits his Mother (Dolly Scal), and he also meets Jeanne (Marika Green), who he begs to visit more often, and he gets the chance to get to know her better while on a date with his friend tagging Jacques (Pierre Leymarie) along, but he leaves this after he steals a watch at the carnival. He wants to clean up some of his guilt by visiting the Inspector and showing him a book he got about professional pickpocketing, but the police officer hardly glances at it, but he returns to his apartment and realises the Inspector was shunning him while he was there so that the police could search his apartment, but they failed to find the stolen stash of cash. Michel's Mother dies, and he attends the funeral with Jeanne, and after it the Inspector tells him that before she died she had some money stolen from her, he suspects her son did it, but he does not arrest him and he leaves the country to live an honest life without crime, but he throws all his money away spending on booze and women. Eventually Michel returns to France, and to Jeanne who he is shocked to find out mothered a child with Jacque but they did not marry and she has been left with nothing, so he starts working again to support her and the child, but he gives into temptation and is back to pickpocketing. In the end Michel is arrested and jailed with a confirmed theft by pickpocketing, and it is in prison that he realises with her regular visits that he does not truly love Jeanne. Also starring Kassagi as Accomplice, Pierre Étaix as Accomplice and César Gattegno as Detective. Leading actor LaSalle does well using hardly any facial expression at all to make an intriguing character that you unsure whether to be sympathetic or concerned for, I will admit first off that I sort of dozed or did not pay full attention to midway through, by I understood just about what was going on, and it was certainly an interesting enough crime drama. Very good!

No doubt that this is a very well done film but it at the same time also isn't the best or most effective one within its genre.The movie has the same sort of story and approach as for instance the other European movies "Ladri di biciclette" and "Umberto D." but big difference with those movies is that you never feel the same sort of desperateness that the main character must have had. I just never felt it was a necessity for the main character to be a pickpocket. Surely he could had gotten a straight job, if he tried hard enough. It was just a way of life that he had picked for himself because it was one of the most easy things for him to do and felt more comfortable doing that than an actual normal job. The movie therefore felt kind of less involving and powerful to watch, than the earlier mentioned similar type of movies.The main character also falls kind of flat due to the quite weak acting within the movie. Martin LaSalle's face remains basically the same throughout the entire movie, so all of the emotions also already fall kind of flat due to all of this. Apparently this was a type of acting-style that Robert Bresson liked but I'm just not much into it or impressed by it at all.And the story also just doesn't work out that interesting because of all of that. The story gets mostly saved by the fact that the movie is being an extremely short one and therefore never starts to drag. It's not like the story is dull but it's just the type of movie that tries to pick a more realistic approach, with a more realistic and everyday type of story, in which not always an awful lot (interesting) is happening.But oh well, it's still a very well shot film, so the movie remains for most part still a real pleasure to watch. All of the pickpocketing scene's are quite well done and show the art and skill that goes into it. No doubt some people, with criminal intentions, are taking notes from this movie, just like the main character from this movie was taking notes from a book.A good watch but at the same time also a movie that you can easily do without.7/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/