First Bresson film for me.

It is unsettling to watch this film after years of watching "movies."

Pickpocket felt like an anti-movie and after delving into reviews and a summary of Bresson style it reinforces that reading.

This fact makes this a very difficult movie to watch.

Non-actors here are non-acting. There is a plot but motivations are never mentioned. We just get a look at this actions and their consequences. Pacing is off, camera shots linger too much on doors and hallways. Yet, you still watch...

Bresson is showing you what he wants, he is filming questions not answers, he is confronting you with them, letting you fill in for the lack of emotion. (As I have read, this is his method, I shall see when I start watching his other films.) This works very well and the movie lingers in your head...

There also is some fascinating camera work dealing with the act of pickpocketing. The highlight of this aspect is a sequence in a train station that is truly outstanding work and creates tension without using a note of music.

Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver's screenwriter) lends a very fascinating break down of how this movie works, how Bresson works it. (Look for "Paul Schrader's Pickpocket Intro" on the Internet and you will find it, it was filmed for Criterion's release of the picture)

Schrader cites this movie as a direct influence on him before writing Taxi Driver and you can clearly see how much he borrows towards the creation of Travis Bickle.

I can also clearly see how Bresson's style influences the pacing on Wong Kar Wai's films wich was an added bonus while watching this.

Martin LaSalle is really quite effective here as the small time pickpocket ("Michel"), who just about manages to get by, from day to day, wearing the same suit and living in his one room garret where even the door doesn't lock. He spends his time with friend "Jacques" (Pierre Leymarie) with both taking a bit of shine to "Jeanne" (Marika Green) who is a neighbour to his rapidly declining mother (Dolly Scal). To be honest, not a great deal actually goes on in this observational slice of his life offered to us by Robert Bresson. We learn a little of the deft arts of his trade and of the techniques used by the police - not least the wily "Inspecteur" (Jean Pélégri) with whom he has a bit of a cat and mouse dance throughout this 75 minute drama - to catch his like! For the most part it is enjoyable but somewhat simple; the photography provides us with an intimacy that helps immerse us into the scenarios more personally. We are like a fly on the wall getting a sense of what drives this rather sad, unsatisfied, figure content to take perpetual risks just to get a crust; almost inviting discovery as his life seems devoid of much purpose. It's not even as if there seems to be much of an adrenalin rush as he carries out his petty larceny and/or avoids capture! The dialogue and music accompaniment are sparing, we are left to follow this rather episodically constructed piece of cinema using that detailed imagery and our own imagination - and that works really quite well. A fine example of less is more, this - and well worth a watch.