Pickpocket
January 16th, 2007 by fieldus

A repeat viewing of Robert Bresson’s Dostoievskian tale of inflated anomie coming acropper in post-war Paris. The object relations school would approve of the means of his salvation - a comination of hitting rock bottom and finding someone to love.
I like tales of ego-shrunk salvation: DISGRACE and FALCONER spring to mind.
Despite his reputation, there isn’t an especially Christian flavour to what happens to Michel, although there are allusions lurking in the background. There’s something very Madonna-like in the young girl whose openness of heart comes to mean so much to him and we come to regard Michel as a prodigal who has come home at the end of the film.
Paul Schrader discussing Bresson on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fmXiRixdvk
