MovieChat Forums > Pickpocket (1959) Discussion > A lot like crime and punishment.

A lot like crime and punishment.

posted 13 years ago by Marked_man
4 replies | jump to latest

While watching this movie the similarities of the plot with that book are really notorious. You have your crime motiff, here being robbery instead of murder, your mind gaming police officer, your superman theories about crime being forgivable to some special individuals.

The way the detective tricks him to meet him in the police station while he gets his room searched and then Michel's calling him out on it in his fit of rage is just straight off the book. He's growing paranoia and projection of fears unto other are also common themes. The pure religious romantic interest girl with family problems that forgives all his sins regardless of his crimes as Sonia. It even seems some parts of dialogue are taken verbatim. Even the endings are very similar. It's a huge influence on this movie I think.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] franzkabuki 13 years ago

Obviously. But stealing wallets is such a dull, lightweight substitute for murdering old women that, for instance, when the starring dude tries to wax philosophical about Übermenschen and the like, it just sounds silly. Give it an additional tiny push and we´re knee deep in hilarity. At any rate, Aki Kaurismäki reinvented Crime & Punishment with a lot more imagination in his feature debut Rikos & Rangaistus. Pickpocket on the other hand comes off as dry, lifeless & witless and it ain´t that impressive even as an exercise in technique, a coldly observed no-nonsense action/procedural what it´s essentially meant to be. And the "redemptive" ending´s just lazy and dumb, completely out of place. Overall, although similarly somewhat lacking in vitality, Bresson´s earlier A Man Escaped was markedly better... but in the end one can´t help but think that if these two pictures are supposed to represent the director at the peak of his powers, then what on earth might the lesser works look like. No idea what Tarkovsky saw in this lad, putting him on the pedestal right beside Bergman as he did. A very mediocre, uninvolving film. 6/10.

"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan

[–] murillo_luna 8 years ago

Totally a rip-off,period.To be considered one of the best movies in the world by the british film institute makes me think that a huge number of critics and directors are such in cinema that forgot literature.

[–] lindahopeboy 8 years ago

It is intentional. The Idiot was also an influence on Au hasard Balthazar and Bresson went on to make two more direct Dostoyevsky adaptations.