Pickpocket An Analysis Free-Sample for Students-Myassingmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Film of Robert Bersson. Answer: Robert Bresson can be easily touted as one of the most important stalwarts of film making in the 21st century. His works often indicates the plight of the common people going through immense hardships and struggle to find a divine enlightenment and awakening (Burch, 2014). His films are characterized by the severe austerity of narration, which helps the audience to focus on the nuances of the acting capability of the actors of the film. The films of Robert Bresson force the audiences to think about the characters of the protagonists and the nuances in their character, which the director so skillfully portrays. His films like Pickpocket, Au Hazard Balthazar, Mouchette and The Diary of a Country Priest, reflect a somber tone and a passivity of the characters, surrendering to some force. The force can be either external or internal to the characters. This write up discusses about his 1959 film, Pickpocket. Pickpocket is a film that reflects the inner complexities of a kleptomaniac. Michel, played by Martin Lassalle is a complex and compulsive kleptomaniac. The habit of stealing of the protagonist almost sets him apart from the ordinary, which, according to the character, is extra ordinary. This extra-ordinary life of the protagonist is often punctuated by the normality and the ordinariness of the world that surrounds him. The scene where he comes to know about the illness of his mother, but still does not go, shows his apathy towards the banalities of life. It seems that almost he is reluctant to keep any connection with the ordinary world. The protagonists of the films of Robert Bresson show a variety of subtle emotions through their acting capabilities (Quandt, 1999). The eyes of the protagonist tell the story of the character and their inner conflict. The characters of his films remain oblivious to their own flaws, which lends them a quality with which the audiences or the viewers c an empathize. The force with which the characters of his films portray the emotions remain calm and composed, yet emote a variety of range of emotions through their eyes and the actions (Quandt, 1999). The films of Robert Bresson show extreme struggles of mankind through the protagonists of the film. In Pickpocket, the director adeptly showed the complexities and little nuances of a man who is a kleptomaniac. The screenplay of the film is reminiscent of Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The angle of love in the story of the protagonist shows that Michel wanted to be changed by the influence of love. The director mostly uses mid shots and long shots in the film. There are little to no camera movements that indicate the austerity of the film narrative. He also uses fade-outs to change scenes (Bresson, 2016). Bresson paid a lot of attention to the sound of the film. The sound of the city was skillfully brought to screen by the master French filmmaker. The sound of the city is reverberated in the lonely apartment of the protagonist (Watkins, 2013). Therefore, to conclude, it can be said that Pickpocket is one of the finest films of the enigmatic French filmmaker, Robert Bresson. The protagonist of the film depicts an apathy that is symbolic of the contemporary society and the lack of empathy in humans. The kleptomania of the character symbolizes the flaws of human nature. Bresson, with this film, brought out the subtlety and the nuances of the human character. References: Bresson, R. (2016).Notes on the Cinematograph. New York Review of Books. Burch, N. (2014).Theory of film practice. Princeton University Press. Quandt, J. (1999). Robert Bresson, Cinemathque Ontario (1st ed., pp. 165-188, 235-274). Toronto: Cinematheque Ontario. Watkins, R. (2013). Robert Bresson's surrealist ghosts.Studies in French Cinema,13(2), 141-155.