Bresson Is Coming To Toronto

This really does no good for anyone who doesn’t live in Toronto, but the Cinematheque will be showing a brand new 35mm print of Robert Bresson’s Pickpocket. From the website…

Loosely based on Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, Bresson’s intense portrait of a compulsive pickpocket who believes himself above the moral constraints of common humanity turns the mechanics of theft into a ritual both erotically and spiritually charged. The “ballets of thievery,” as Cocteau called them, have never been equalled for their choreography and editing. “A film of dazzling originality. On its first viewing, it risks burning your eyes. So, do like me: Go back to see it again every day… If you deny this film, it is cinema itself as an autonomous art that you call into question” (Louis Malle).

Click here for more details.

I’ve only recently discovered Bresson’s work, thanks to Diary of a Country Priest, a film that is quite obtuse upon first viewing but opens up a wealth of spiritual insights the deeper you delve into it. I suspect the same holds true for Pickpocket.