Especially the scene outside the bank with Michel trying to take the man's cab. There's no dialogue, making it very awkward and fake. The victim is standing perfectly still, letting Michel rob him. And the scene in which he swaps purses with the woman at the track. Come on....I appreciate Bresson, but had a hard time not rolling my eyes during the pickpocket scenes.
share???????????????? I wonder how much Bresson have you actually watched your whole life ????????????????
shareThe act of picking pockets, by definition, takes place unobserved. The best pickpockets can't be caught in the act on film. Bresson addressed this problem by imagining beautifully choreographed acts of pickpocketing. Yes, they are exaggerated, but for a purpose. These were Michel's memories and he fancied himself a highly-skilled pickpocket. Can you appreciate that not everything is to be taken literally?
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Yeah some of the pickpocket scenes are indeed quite ludicrous - at one point the dude just reaches out his hand and took a wallet from a pocket of a man who was actually looking at him all the time. In another scene, from the way the sh-t is lifted, it is obvious that the victim would feel that something suspicious is going on on his torso; makes one wonder if the guy would even have noticed if he´d been given a handjob. Most of the victims musta been quite heavily anesthecized because there simply is no other reasonable explanation for their epic numbness. Good times picking pockets in 1959 France.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
The scenes of stuff being lifted are a ballet, a hymn to the thief’s art. Nobody is hurt as the goods make their way elegantly and silently from the owners to the villains. There is also a strong erotic element, as the thief invades the clothing and caresses the victim to remove the prize. And you don’t need me to explain the symbolism of rummaging in a woman’s handbag.
shareExactly. I see the pickpocketing scenes as no different to any number of styles and devices employed to make a real life process more filmic. How much does a flowery, beautifully choreographed Jackie Chan fight scene have to do with a real fight? Next to nothing, but it works better on film, it creates the impression the director wants. This is the same.
It's not the lack of dialogues, it's just that the technique is so badly replicated, exposed too clearly, in a completely unrealistic, mechanical way (like the actors' delivery one could argue). To get robbed so awkwardly, you'd have to be willing to be.
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Bresson had expert ex-pickpocket advice. The purse-switch is not uncommon and fairly simple to do. Pickpocket teams of gypsies are the plague of Europe. You can see lots of them robbing actual tourists on youtube as caught on video.
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