L'argent (The Criterion Collection)

This is a damning and alarming and highly poetic film that no one else besides Robert Bresson could have created; the film's stripped down, austere and haunting style only gives credence to "form follow function" here in what is a spiritually bereft world that has given all passion to the pursuit of money as opposed to creativity and compassion and understanding and justice. A serious adult movie for those interested in film as art and deep contemplation. Stunning achievement.

The script was absurd. The story line, in the hands of even a second rate screen writer, would have unfolded more naturally. The acting was incredibly wooden - any sense of emotion must have taken a holiday. The most notable memorable aspect of this film was the sound of footsteps liberally sprinkled from opening to closing credits. The generally positive reviews for this film following its release in 1983 makes one wonder if this was simply the seductive result of 'auteur overload'.

I like foreign movies but the plot was strange and lots of unnecessary violence. I would not recommend this movie to anyone!

It's amazing so few people know of Bresson's films; he's one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. This film, his last, is brutally efficient in laying out his often bleak view of the world. Based on a Tolstoy story 'Le Faux Billet', it's an exercise in zero sum eliminative logic. The fact that the culprit (a conterfeit bill) is set in motion by playfully malicious youths and then the path is cleared by the greed and malice of their hypocritical parents is a beautiful setup for this dark meditation on the subjugation of human beings to their ruthless god.The abstract mechnanized backdrop for the titles sequence is a money machine. As is so often the case, behind the deadpan performances of his nonactors (many of whom are superb in this movie), Bresson fetishizes on his subject unto hypnosis; in this film, notice how many times doors, small and large, are slamming, beginning with the automated one closing the first transaction, to the last image of a row of people gawking at the door. This film retains its searing impact through many viewings.

Bresson captures the truth through his silence of human emotions where the sensations triggered by futile motifs such as smiles, frowns, and other expressions of feelings are repressed. In the light of Jean-Luc Godard many could probably argue that there is still a lie present in Bresson's films, as Godard once stated, "Every edit is a lie". Nonetheless, the intentions of Bresson are sincere, as the actions on the screen are what he wanted the audience to observe, not the acted part, the extravagantly flamboyant expression of feelings that could cloud the viewer's perspective of the truth. All of the emotional aspects could be characteristics of an actor acting where the act itself becomes an intricate lie that tries to convince the audience to react through words disguised in emotions. Instead of showing the deceitfulness of expressive sentiments and reactions of the body and face Bresson strips down all scenes of emotions to only leave the audience with what truly counts - actions.Those who never had the pleasure to be initiated in Bresson's stylistic cinema, might find it awkward and obtuse. Yet, if reflection were to be provided a different perspective might arise, which could deepen the observers notions of what they would see in cinema and in life. Many of the critics considered Bresson an old spirit from old days of cinema when he released L'Argent while they ought to have considered him as a cinematic innovator that did not conform to traditional narratives. Despite his unconstructive critics, who actually helped him secure his place in time among the cinematic scholars, his final film provides an intriguing tale of guilt in L'Argent. He based L'Argent on a personal adaptation of Tolstoy's The Forged Coupon, which deals with the fate of forgery.Innocently, the teen Norbert asks for his monthly allowance while also trying to ask for a little more, but the father refuses to provide the extra money for his son. It is in this opening where the consequences of a horrific crime are about to take form, Norbert asks his friend Martial for financial backing. Martial has a forged 500 Francs bill, which they pass off in a small camera store where they buy a cheap frame. The owner of the store realizes later on that they have received a forged bill, and he also received two more at an earlier occasion. Instead of contacting the police the storeowner decides to pass the bills to someone else, and this unfortunate person happens to be Yvon Targe who gets paid with the forged bills for providing house oil. In the scenes where the money switches hands the camera dutifully studies the hand movements and the simplicity social destruction can be spread.Yvon is charged for trying to use the forged bills, and he brings the police to the camera store where he receievd the forged bills. The storeowner informs the police that he has never seen him before and his assistant Lucien supports his testimony. This unfortunate event causes Yvon to loose his job, which leads him into a desperate situation where he tries to raise money quickly to save his family form further financial misery. However, the situation backfires when he first does not share with his wife what he is about to do, and second, he gets arrested and sentenced to jail for being an accomplice to a bank robbery. Parallel to Yvon's story the audience gets to follow a true criminal, Lucien, the camera store assistant, who is fired and later robs his former employer. Lucien accumulates a large sum of money through several illegal activities. Through the illusion of wealth his arrogance grows, and his ignorance of consequence leads him to become a Robin Hood character who donates to the poor including his former boss. This is a mistake that eventually sends him to prison where he meets Yvon.The jail sentence becomes the beginning of a long downward spiraling journey for Yvon. When Lucien arrives to the jail they have a brief, but essential conversation at a Catholic mass. The irony that Bresson applies in this sequence is profound while Lucien declares to Yvon, "Neither of us is a killer. We alone have no one on our conscience." To this Yvon responds, "You have me on your conscience. You have to answer for that now." In the following scene Yvon wakes up to the alarm of Lucien's escape attempt. His cellmate comforts him and says that they will never have to see him again, as Lucien would be transferred to high security prison. "I will.", replies Yvon to his cellmate's effort to comfort him. Soon after Lucien's escape attempt Yvon finds himself a free man, but instead of a peaceful lifestyle he retorts with violent crimes.The crimes that Yvon commits seem to be thoughtless acts of violence. However, recalling the scene where he talked with Lucien presents the situation in a different light, even if it seems disturbing and callous. The open ended conclusion of the story leaves the audience with a cliff hanger where several thoughts might run through the mind. Initially, it might seem dark and gloomy, but it also leaves the audience with several options to consider that can steer the story in many possible directions. The ending also leaves the viewers with a number of ideas to ponder. One of these notions could possibly be the truth about absolute guilt. It also questions whether innocence of an act and pure ignorance could be a crime. These and many other issues are left for the audience to ponder and muse over while L'Argent slowly settles with an enigmatic vision of the truth.

Good!

Robert Bresson gives a razor-sharp portrayal of the effects of External Reward, Alienation, and Internalized Class Prejudice. It's a meditation on Christian Social Justice denied & Karl Marx on Deviance

I liked it

Some consider this to a classic by the famous Robert Bresson, who specialised in minimalist films, but I found it to be too slow-moving and a bit boring. A delivery driver (Christian Patey) gets possession (unwittingly) of a forged banknote. Arrested for this, he is cleared by the court but loses his job.He then (unconvincingly for me) descends into a spiral of theft, imprisonment and finally murder. But his motivations are never fully explained and indeed he says very little throughout the film.

There were no English subtitles.The product was a waste of money.

It is indeed rare that such wooden acting can be excusable. In the case of L'Argent it is, because somehow, and don't ask me how, the film gets by without emotional performances. Indeed, it would be an entirely different film if the actors were any good. As it is they go through the motions in such an expressionless way, that I am convinced Bresson wanted it that way. Bad actors usually over act not under act. These are simply pawns in a game, moved from scene to scene by the director's invisible hand. It is a touch of genius if you ask me, because as the audience I found myself having to emote for the actors, to take their place so to speak. In Bresson's inimitable style, where each shot seems to take on a moral weight which is passed on to the next shot and the next and the next, and where it is clear he is not aiming for realism but more for a kind of sparse imitation of what is going on (see the scene in the cafe where Yvon pushes the waiter), the wooden acting works.I don't discount the possibility that Bresson simply couldn't get good acting performances out of his cast this time around. But even if that is the case, the film works. And how! It created in me a sensation I compare to that of being in the presence of a frigid and ungiving lover who is so beautiful, her presence alone is enough to sustain the relationship.

Robert Bresson's 1983 film L'Argent was his final feature film, and it represents one of the most sobering and uncompromising takes on 'modern society' ever to have reached the cinema screen. The film won the Best Director prize for Bresson at the 1983 Cannes film festival. The film's narrative is actually based on a Tolstoy novel, The Forged Coupon, written in 1911. The story follows innocent delivery man Yvon (Christian Patey) who becomes ensnared in a tragic and downward spiral of events, whose origins are triggered by a chance event, the passing on (unbeknown to him) by Yvon of a forged banknote, and its subsequent discovery by the police.In L'Argent, Bresson uses his by now trademark style of minimalist cinema (static camera shots, long takes held on the camera's subject, sparse dialogue, no music, camera close-ups on legs, midriffs, closed doors, feet on accelerators, etc) to tell a devastating tale of guilt, deception, hypocrisy, denial and, at least partial, redemption. As became Bresson's trademark, he again employs a cast of first-time actors to great effect, and particular praise should go to Christian Patey (playing Yvon) and Vincent Risterucci playing Lucien, the photoshop worker whose deception is the cause of the problems that eventually beset Yvon. My other observation on the male cast Bresson has assembled is the remarkable physical similarity between them - it is almost as if Bresson is depicting a modern human race of androids, all motivated by common ambition (of which the key one here is money).The first two-thirds of the film use the typical Bressonian approach (rather like his earlier masterpiece Pickpocket) of devising an intricate plot, whereby the principal object of the narrative (here, the forged banknote) is passed between numerous characters, some crucial to the storyline, others not. It is from this sequence of events that Bresson then homes in on the key characters, Yvon and Lucien, around which the core of the film is based. The final third of the film, charting the period after Yvon has been released from prison, began, for me, to rather meander, until Bresson brings all the narrative strands and themes together for the film's devastating finale.I think this film can be regarded as something of a retelling of Pickpocket, updated for an even more cynical modern world, and, whilst it is not, for me, on a par with the earlier film, it still provides a fitting finale to the career of one of the most original auteurs to have ever worked in cinema.The DVD also contains two very interesting interviews with Bresson (albeit with some overlap between the two). He talks mainly about his love of spontaneity in filmmaking, after having had a brief go at Jean Renoir(!), and before praising a James Bond film!

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