Pickpocket

Robert Bresson's absorbing character study of a thief (Martin La Salle), based loosely on Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment, still packs a wallop nearly 40 years after its release in 1959. La Salle is excellent as Michel, an unemployed melancholy young man with an ill mother, who acts on an impulse--pickpocketing money at a racetrack--which quickly turns into a compulsion. Learning from other thieves, Michel methodically studies and practices his craft while drifting further away from real emotional human contact. Eventually, the law of averages catches up with the pickpocket, but Bresson manages to pull off a nice redemptive twist by film's end. Recommended. (R. Pitman)[Blu-ray/DVD Combo Review—July 29, 2014—Criterion, 76 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, $39.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray and latest on DVD, 1959's Pickpocket sports a great transfer and an uncompressed monaural soundtrack on Blu-ray. Extras include an introduction by filmmaker Paul Schrader (15 min.), audio commentary by film scholar James Quandt, Babette Mangolte's 2003 documentary “The Models of Pickpocket” (52 min.), a 2000 Q&A with costar Marika Green and filmmakers Paul Vecchiali and Jean-Pierre Améris, clips of sleight-of-hand artist and Pickpocket consultant Kassagi from a 1962 episode of the French TV show La piste aux étoiles (12 min.), a 1960 interview with Bresson from the French TV program Cinépanorama (7 min.), the original theatrical trailer, and an essay by novelist and cultural critic Gary Indiana. Bottom line: a foreign classic shines on Blu-ray.]