L’argent (1983) by Robert Bresson — Movie Discussion
Details
Concerned with the corrosive effects of an all-pervasive materialism, French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigor to a new level of astringency for his final film. Transposing a Tolstoy novella to contemporary Paris, L’argent follows a counterfeit bill as it originates as a prop in a schoolboy prank, then circulates like a virus among the corrupt and the virtuous alike before landing with a young truck driver and leading to tragic consequences. With brutal economy, Bresson constructs his unforgiving vision of original sin out of starkly perceived details, directing us to see that it is habitual human callousness that keeps us out of paradise.
"The forged banknote is merely a Hitchcockian ‘MacGuffin’, a prop that Bresson uses to explore evil’s real source: base human desires and their expression through free will." (Sight and Sound)
"Filming with his usual tranquil, austere feeling for the miraculous, Bresson still manages to make most other filmmakers appear hysterical over-reachers" (Time Out)
"Bresson captures the moral weight of tiny gestures in brisk, precise images, and conveys the cosmic evil in daily life through one of the all-time great soundtracks, full of the rustle of bills and the clink of change, the click of a cash register and the snap of locks." (New Yorker)
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Join the Toronto Philosophy Meetup to discuss the movie L’argent (1983) directed and written by Robert Bresson, recently voted the 72nd greatest movie of all time in Sight & Sound's international survey of filmmakers. Bresson won the Director's Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival and the 1984 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director for this movie.
We also previously discussed Bresson's Pickpocket (1959), A Man Escaped (1956) and Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) in this group.
Please watch the movie in advance and bring your thoughts, reactions, and queries to share with us at the meeting. You can stream it with a viewing link to be posted on the main event listing here.
A trailer.
We'll be joined by many other participants from the Toronto Philosophy Meetup at this meeting — https://www.meetup.com/the-toronto-philosophy-meetup/events/306179699/
Check out other film discussions in the group every Friday and occasionally other days.