Robert Bresson is a legendary French director whose films I never wanted to see. His most famous work is about the miserable life of a donkey, and I always expected his stuff to be dark and depressing and, well, pretty much that. Recently, the Criterion Collection, or as I call it, The Real Heroes, recently made a deal with Netflix to showcase some of their films in the Watch Instantly program. So, I decided that I would tackle the most difficult of directors, which Wikipedia describes thus: Bresson's first artistic goal was to separate the language of cinema from that of theater, which often heavily involves the actor's performance to guide the work . With his "actor-model" technique, Bresson's actors were required to repeat multiple takes of each scene until all semblance of "performance" was eliminated, leaving a stark effect that registers as subtle and crude, and which can only be found in cinema. Bresson's Catholic upbringing and Jansenist belief system are believed by some to underlie the thematic structure of most of his films. Recurring themes in this interpretation include salvation, redemption, the definition and revelation of the human soul, and the metaphysical transcendence of a limiting and materialistic world. LET'S PREPARE TO PARRRRR-TTTAAYYYYYY!!!!!!Pickpocket (1958) is about a pickpocket. No shit. I chose to watch Pickpocket first because it was 76 minutes long. I'm not proud to admit it. Pickpocket begins with an artistic statement. . . in French. Oh God, no, my brain thought, My Art Film Nightmare is coming true! However, once the movie started, that stuff went away. One thing that parodies of old French arthouse films neglect to mention is that these films tell stories. Of course, she... middle of paper... without artifices to distract her, which sometimes ends up being distracting. (IRONY, YOU ARE A THING!). The dialogue is occasionally stilted (though that could just be a bad translation of the subtitles), but the themes aren't hidden: salvation, redemption, and a boy named Jansen are all there. Bresson is definitely trying hard to create something universal. I really liked Pickpocket, even if I didn't have the same artgasmism that I got from something like 8 1/2 or Bicycle Thieves. The depth didn't hit me in the gut like it did with those films. I imagine the power of his films will increase as I see and get used to what my friend Bobby is trying to say. Or maybe I simply prefer Italy to France. In any case, I will stick with Bresson! The next item in my Bresson-a-thon: Au Hasard Balthazar, the donkey movie I featured above. Works Cited Wikipedia.org