The more Bresson films I see the more I realize that his films are not for me. As usual, the acting in L'Argent (The Money) is intentionally wooden and emotionless. The film is also characteristically (and maddeningly) brief. Rather than explain crucial points, Bresson chooses to hint at them to maintain the "mystery." All that aside, L'Argent begins promisingly enough. The greed of a pair of young counterfeiters and a store clerk leads to major problems in the lives of an innocent man. The misdeeds of these people eventually come back on them, but to nowhere near the level they come back on the guiltless protagonist. He is seemingly naïve and innocent in the beginning, but he quickly loses these characteristics as a result of his interactions with crime. Once he loses his job, he is forced to turn to a life of crime and his morality quickly deteriorates. In fact, it deteriorates ridiculously quickly. By the end of the film, he has become the most terrible criminal imaginable and lost everything of value that he ever had. The concept of small sins leading to large ones is interesting, but it is hurt by the exaggeration with which it is presented. Sad that this film (Bresson's last) was a failure for the director.
