Pickpocket
d. Robert Bresson, 1959
Pickpocket, one of Bresson's very best, may very well the definitive Bressonian film. His technique, which many have tried to imitate, is in top form here; everything from his framing, editing rhythms, meticulous sound design (which includes the sparse use of music), right down to the final heartbreaking moment of true emotion.
Michel (Martin La Salle) is a pickpocket who is caught right at the beginning of the film. The police let him go - for they have no evidence - and he goes on with his activities without the slightest hint of guilt. Being a thief for Michel is not only a way for him to survive without having to get an actual job, one look at his eyes and the audience knows that he is looking for a true human connection. Bresson makes this very clear in the last few sequences, with Michel basically asking to be caught.
Over the course of Pickpocket, Michel also falls in love with Jeanne (Marika Green), who took care of his mother before she died. Jeanne constantly tried to convince Michel to go see her, but his arrogance (or maybe his guilt) kept him from ever actually speaking to her. Though it is obvious that Michel loves Jeanne from the first time they meet, the same insecurities that drove him to being a thief keep him from being able to connect with people. It isn't until the last shot that the audience, and Michel himself, can feel that there is hope for human connection even the most detached of enviornments. Pickpocket, along with Hiroshi Teshigahara's Woman in the Dunes (which also incorporates elements of Kafka and Sartre), may be the closest thing we have to Camus on the screen.
