PICKPOCKET

France | 1959 | 35mm | 76 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: Robert Bresson
Cast: Martin LaSalle, Marika Green, Pierre Leymarie
In this deceptively simple crime story, hyper-focused and stoic pickpocket Michel (LaSalle) presses his luck with increasing risks. With an eye for the details of his protagonist’s criminal craft, Bresson tracks Michel as he navigates Paris through his compulsive stealing, fulfilling his need for a thrill but endangering the personal relationships that he struggles to maintain. Amos Vogel introduced Pickpocket to American audiences at Cinema 16, and his personal 35mm print of the film, courtesy of the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research will be screened. “Drawing the spectator into the hero’s obsessions, it reveals theft as an irresistible ritual of high art and erotic satisfaction, in sequences of breathtaking visual sweep” (Vogel). Preceded by Lafcadio (1948, 15 min.), a silent French psychodrama exploring queer desire and repression. Vogel screened this short film by cineaste Jean Béranger at Cinema 16 and distributed it to film societies across the United States in the 1950s. Believed to be lost, Lafcadio was recently digitized from a 16mm internegative in the WCFTR’s Vogel collection. (MSJ)