PICKPOCKET

Bresson’s film follows Michel, an emotionally closed young man in Paris who turns to pickpocketing out of financial necessity and a sense of rebellion against societal norms. His solitary existence is disrupted when he meets the sensitive young woman Jeanne. A film about a criminal, but not quite a crime movie, the minimalist PICKPOCKET is a study of moral dilemma and a man caught between a life without obligation but devoid of connection and an honest, more conventional life with Jeanne. Writer and director Paul Schrader (TAXI DRIVER, FIRST REFORMED) has admittedly been paying homage to PICKPOCKET for much of his career, calling it the most influential film in his creative life, and replicating the last shot of the film in many of his own. “In the final scene, there is a burst of emotion, in a movie without emotion,” says Schrader. “What Bresson is trying to do is make you jump…and if you make that jump, he has created something almost unique in film: the movement of a soul, not only the soul on screen, but the soul watching it. He’s asking you to make the leap from the mundane to the transcendent.” 

Awards & Nominations

Nominee - Golden Bear, Berlin Film Festival

The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu