L'Argent (1983) User Reviews

money is the root of evil

[dbdumonteil · 8/10 · 18 July 2007]

"L'Argent" is Robert Bresson's very last film and a piece of work that went through a lot of financial problems to see the light of day. It was dismissed by many producers before being finally taken in hand by the Ministry of the Arts. At that time, Jack Lang was the ministry and his daughter served as a "model" for Bresson in the film where she is Yvette, Yvon's wife.

Sourced from a short story by Léon Tolstoï, "l'Argent" is first the assessment of a downward spiral for the main hero of the film, Yvon. Because he was given a forged note, this domestic oil delivery man will be caught in a chain of unfortunate events which will see him jailed, losing his cute, little daughter and wife before turning into a murderer. Through his decay, all forms of dishonesty, cruelty, injustice will be stated with money at their core, particularly in the first half of the film. Money is used for rewarding cowardice (the photograph who rewards his employee Lucien for his false evidence), for buying people's silence (Norbert's mother who gives the photograph's wife money to compensate her) and more generally, money is a God that makes Yvon's fate take a tragic dimension and drives a cruel, unfair world.

Its depiction is a perfect opportunity for Bresson to let his sparse, cold, neutral cinematographic writing shine. The more the film goes on, the more these epithets prevail with an accumulation of close-ups of objects, audacious elliptical sequences, a tightened editing and deliberately bland models who recite their texts and don't "act" it. Bresson's minimalist approach of this tragic story and harsh society amounts to a limpid harmony that inevitably brings an unshakable emotion and it's important to note down the moment when Yvon is put up by the old lady. These sequences are like lulls in Yvon's grisly fate and it's impossible to remain indifferent to the old lady's dreary way of life or when she's offered a few hazelnuts by Yvon. There's even a glimmer of hope when she pronounces the words: "I would forgive to the rest of the world".

It's true that Bresson's highly elliptical, straightforward style will leave many viewers baffled as there is no psychology or action but if you're sensitive to his unspectacular directing, you will realize that he pushed his art to the extreme to better get the audience involved in Yvon's woes. You can watch it only once but it will forever stay in your mind.

The "idea" of a film

[renelsonantonius · 7/10 · 14 January 2008]

On a strictly formalist level, Robert Bresson's swan song, "L'Argent" (1983, France;which directly translates to "Money"), can be regarded as Pure Cinema. That is to say, no emotions, no actions, no music, none of such "artificiality" that has customarily been associated with cinema. At best, the film (and for that matter, Bresson's entire filmography) can be described as a Cinema of Ideology.

What is strictly at work here is the "idea" of how money can corrupt and destroy the human spirit. Surely, this can be derived from the Biblical concept of "money being the root of all evil" (Bresson's Christian upbringing being almost always discernible in his films). But this is not to regard this essential commodity per se as the reason for all things evil. Rather, at least in the film's context, it's a particularly forged 500-franc note that set in motion a series of unpleasant and unjust events, with this quiet and unassuming gas station attendant named Yvon Targe at the (abysmal) center.

As suggested from the preceding paragraphs, what concerns Bresson here is not the characters themselves or the milieu they are in (the actuality), as let's say the Italian Neo-Realism would have it, but the idea of how an unscrupulous act can be the cause of another person's undoing. This is humanism in its abstraction. Thus, watching the implications and complications of the counterfeit 500-franc bill upon the lives of the characters--or upon the life of Yvon--is like watching statuesque figures ("15th-century Christian icons", as some would politely have it) being callously manipulated by their blind fate, perennially condemned to be dragged along by the turning of its wheels.

And it is Bresson himself who is the prime mover of this "wheel". In his hands, the "force" of this fate is of such a cold, detached, unforgivably rational quality that one can unfailingly have the feeling of not being able to bear it all. From the initial simple act of the two schoolboys having to knowingly spend the counterfeit money at a photography shop, to the final harrowing act of Yvon having to commit a terrible deed in the name of and as a vengeance against the money (in a figurative sense), one senses Bresson as having the big hand in this cause-and-effect chain of events.

If one gets such a feeling, it's because the filmmaker (already 82 at that time) intended it to be so. As "L'Argent" is a specimen of Bresson's own brand of Pure Cinema, he absolutely wants his exacting vision and conception to be seen and felt in each and every scene, unhampered and uncluttered by the "standard" cinematic manipulations of stylized dialogue, fancy emotions, accompanying soundtrack and contrived actions. In this specific cinematic world, the filmmaker is the cinematic god himself whose fuel for his performers (non-professional at that) is mainly his idea of how cinema should be.

(In reference to one of his films, a reviewer noted that it is Bresson himself who is assuming the different characters in the film. Curiously, the above-noted film elements are what define, not in a derogative way though, Bresson's introductory feature film, "The Ladies of Bois du Bologne".)

This, in effect, gives an entirely purist level to the filmic conception of what it means to be an auteur, formally introduced to movie lexicon by the French New Wave, as pioneered by Jean-Luc Godard. "Purist", in that, whereas the New Wave pioneers can still "play" upon the above-mentioned filmic artificialities, Bresson the auteur is no different from being a sculptor or a painter or even a novelist. It's his own soul that seeps through his work. The product is distinguished by the singularity of its maker's personality.

What makes this singularly cold, clinical method even more pronounced is how Bresson's characters always find themselves drawn into the vortex of some kind of moral and/or spiritual crisis. The intellectual thief in "Pickpocket", the desolate young wife in "A Gentle Woman", the abused teenage girl in "Mouchette", the self-destructive youth in "The Devil, Probably", the contemplative priest in "Diary of a Country Priest", and now the quiet simpleton-turned-morally bankrupt murderer in "L'Argent". Bresson's rigorous and steely formalist cinema should just be the perfect stage for the dark night of his characters' souls. Grace is attained not without some form of sacrifice and damnation of the soul.

It is this ideology that fills the mold of this filmmaker's astonishing pure art. Unrelentingly dark and morbid, perhaps, but a flickering light of salvation can still be seen through it all.

Interesting but flawed film from Bresson

[timmy_501 · 6/10 · 9 March 2008]

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.

The Cost of Money

[MacAindrais · 12 May 2008]

L'Argent (1983) ****

This is a hard film to rate for any number of reasons. It is challenging for one, and not really a movie for another. L'argent is more a philosophical essay on celluloid than anything else. This could be said for any or all of Bresson's films for that matter. His style of film-making is not really cinematic. It is philosophical and, to quote Paul Schrader, transcendental. L'Argent is a tale about the evils of money and materialist ideology. Bresson has been spoken openly about his shock and fear at the ever increasing materialism in society. The film begins as a spoiled school boy is refused the necessary money by his father to repay a debt. He goes to a friend who gives him a counterfeit bill, which they then go off to spend. They go to a photo shop, and buy something cheap so as to get as much real change as possible. The woman sees that it is fake, but accepts it anyway so as to make the sale. Her husband, the owner, scolds her for it, but does not report it, and instead passes it off to an unsuspecting oil delivery man, Yvon. He then goes to a restaurant and tries to get a drink, unknowingly using the fake bill. He is arrested, and the shop owners and their cashier refuse to acknowledge the man not only got the bill from them, but was ever in the shop to begin with. From this incident Yvon's life spirals out of control. He is let off without jailtime, but the scandal costs him his job. He turns to a life of crime to make money. He gets thrown in jail, his wife leaves him, and his child dies. From here the film goes really out there, as Yvon becomes an axe murderer upon his release. It is certainly far fetched, but I think that may have been Bresson's point. The movie is a damnation of the costs of money (no pun) replacing the sense of God. Bresson once said that today there is no more God in the world, there is only money, which has become God. The film's total disregard for a plausible narrative and sense of restraint is frustrating. It is a short film, and it feels that way, as Bresson wastes no time getting from point A to point B. That is not to say that the film is not well directed though, it is superbly directed with the care and hands of a great master of the medium. It is difficult to comprehend why Yvon does what he does once released from jail by following any logical reasoning of the narrative, but that is the point Bresson wanted to make - the lust for money and material possession and the alienation and disenfranchisement from a purposeful existence causes people to do illogical and irrational things. Bresson uses this extreme (and i do not mean that lightly) example to highlight this. Bresson accomplished exactly what he was trying to do with L'Argent, and it is difficult to criticize him for that.

A Great Film That Needs Close Attention...

[Steven_Harrison · 10/10 · 16 June 2004]

Robert Bresson tells the story of a handful of people who are manipulated by greed for the key component of capitalism: Money (originating in the form of a counterfeit bill, I'll also tell you it's based fairly loosely on a Tolstoy novella "The Forged Note"). A disturbing series of events change the lives of a few individuals and signifies how such a system can rot a human being to their core. Emotionally I connected with this film very strongly, at some points it made me sit up in my seat and shake my head in amazement. However, Bresson's directing style is very different from most. He'll pause and hold moments in time expecting the viewer to stay with him. He'll also decide to leave out parts of a film that most would deem very important (generally, he avoids showing too many scenes that are similar to each other) which can be confusing. But when it comes to paying attention to this film, you'll get much more than you give... I go back to this movie every now and then and find something new to love about it. Rating? easily 10/ 10.

the final "striving" of one of France's most uncompromising filmmakers

[Quinoa1984 · 8/10 · 18 April 2007]

On the DVD for the film L'Argent, it's writer/director Robert Bresson says that he dislikes his films being called "works", because he sees each films as being a sort of "striving" or attempt towards something more and more perfect with cinematography and so on, and most specifically to strive towards truth with what's up on the screen. It's an interesting position to see from the film's own creator, because the truth as presented in L'Argent is that really of repression. It's not just the characters, or particularly the actors portraying them, or the deliberate flow of shots in a scene of violence or physical altercation or something that should be run of the mill in a crime movie. It's the society itself, and even in the subtler ways the mechanics of society, of money as well, drive along people, especially when they do wrong. Like other Bresson pictures, L'Argent is interested in man's conscience and what it is to go over the line of what makes one guilty or not based on the cruel fates of such a society, only this time even more restrained and- as the word gets thrown around so often- detached.

But I would be a little hesitant to label it outright as detached. Bresson's definitely no Scorsese, let's make that clear, and one's not going to get a camera movement that jolts you in your seat. On the other hand there's a level of low-key engrossment in the material. It's not very easy to get through, to be certain, as Bresson is all about both subtleties and hitting you over the head with the message, although not seemingly so much with the latter. His story comes from a Tolstoy short, and it seems fitting for a man who's masterpiece, A Man Escaped, also dealt with the feelings of dread against a clockwork structure where any and all feeling comes in smaller doses. The protagonist, Yvon, gets handed a twist of fate with some counterfeit money, and gets put to jail after taking a deal on a job that leads to a car crash (perhaps the one and only time, ironically of course, that Bresson probably tried an action scene like this). After a stint in prison, where coming face to face with the man originally responsible for putting him in there via the counterfeit money only brings a sense of loss in lacking revenge, he goes through a murder spree.

But a murder spree, of course, as Bresson would only do, where omitted details are all apart of the mis-en-scene and in adding an emphasis on the aftermath more-so than the actual grisly details of what goes on in the moment. There's even a moment towards the end of something out of Sling Blade, only here not so much out of the simplicity of the mind from knowing right or wrong but from the simplicity of being numbed by the experience: the lack of a conscience. Yvon is the kind of criminal that never gets shown in movies, and rightfully so. He doesn't fit into a comfortable mold, and it will be a little sluggish for some viewers, even in an 81 minute running time, to see the usual Bresson tactics going on; likely many, many takes to wear down the already non-professional actors, and this time stuck in a near-rigid control of Bresson's in an emphasis of camera over performance. As one critic pointed out, it's more like 15th century icons than usual 'actors'. And, truth be told, it's not quite as fascinating as A Man Escaped or Pickpocket because of Bresson making it tougher to get into the detachment of the main character (the lack of narration may be attributable to this, or the simple fact that perhaps Tolstoy is a hard literary nut to crack).

But as his final film, it's a good "attempt" that does progress ideas about the truth behind criminal acts, and the society that tries, convicts and houses them (there's an great little moment showing how the prisoners have to pick up their suitcases before going into the prison), and how 'normal' citizens also have a kind of repression that comes out in spurts, like with the old married couple who take in Yvon late in the film (the shot of the slap is significant, tying into Bresson's visual scheme of such acts being too easy to show on film). It's an intellectual stimulator, at the least, even as it does resist anything extremely favorable as an emotional effort. It's slightly cold and assuredly dense, but worthwhile for a certain kind of movie-goer.

L'Argent directed by Robert Bresson. Bressonian touches to a Tolstovian work of art ! ! ! !

[FilmCriticLalitRao · 6/10 · 30 July 2008]

Robert Bresson's last film is based on a short story by great Russian writer Leo Tolstoy.L'Argent is not at all a direct adaptation of Tolstoy's work of literary production "Faux Billet".It is a film for which Bresson infused some of his own ideas in order to create a different narrative.It was made in 1983 thanks to personal intervention by French minister of culture Jack Lang whose daughter Caroline played an important role in it. L'argent is a Christian story of redemption about an innocent man who is doomed due to the carelessness of reckless people.We see that due to class difference and power struggle Yvon is condemned to hell.L'argent throws light on misfortunes associated with money.It depicts that many people from good backgrounds are involved in wrong doing.In L'Argent, we primarily see a simplicity of actions,gestures,sound and images. Bresson achieved this effect by creating a film in which events happen in quick succession.It is expected that the audience will remain focused in order to appreciate its sequence of events.One would be surprised to note that even violent acts are shown in a cold,detached manner.L'argent is recommended as a good film which is a good example of perfect collaboration between a filmmaker and a writer.

A piece of art

[Mialle81 · 10/10 · 12 August 2006]

I just wanted to make a quick comment regarding the comment of suekendall about l'argent. L'argent is one of Bresson's biggest masterpieces. A merge of minimalism and strong observation. And as for the actors in l'argent, they are not wooden, they are real. Bresson made frequent use of non-performers to give his film a certain authenticity. I think he succeeded in every aspect. It is a ground breaking film which taught the viewer that it does require very little to create a story. Bresson works demands the viewer's imagination. Moreover, for everyone who has a keen interest in cinematography, this film is a must. Bresson truly succeeded in making the most economic and sensible use of the camera.

For everyone who does not like the film, there will be other films to enjoy...but for everyone who is willing to enter Bresson's world, this film is a true eye opener about film, art and humanity.

Reel Look: 'L'Argent'

[JosephPezzuto · 7/10 · 17 February 2015]

"You have me on your conscience. You have to answer for that now." So states our innocent main protagonist to the guy who sent him to jail. People tend to misconstrue the sage adage of money "being the root of all evil" when, in actuality, it is the love of it that is so. Managing money is one of the many important facets of what has been placed within our means and is not to be taken lightly. It is also an enormous responsibility to be taken into emphatic consideration. Does this film play out as the saying 'cold-hard cash' infers? Let's take a look.

'L'Argent' is a 1983 French drama directed by veteran writer/director Robert Bresson (Pickpocket, Au Hasard Balthazar). Based on Leo Tolstoy's 1912 novella 'The Forged Coupon', it was Bresson's last film, though he passed away in 1999, but earned its creator the Director's Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. A young man enters his father's study to claim a monthly allowance, as his father obliges. But the son presses for more, citing a school debt he must pay as the father dismisses him. An appeal to his mother fails as well. Taking matters into his own hands, he pawns off his watch to a friend, of whom, rather than paying him back, provides him with a forged five-hundred franc note. The slip is then brought into a photo shop where the young man is on the pretext of purchasing a picture frame. When the store co-manager discovers the fake, he scolds his partner for her lack of wariness. She in turn rebukes him in turn for accepting two forged notes the previous week. Vowing to pass off all forged bills in their possession at the next opportunity, enter Yvon Targe (Christian Patey), a gas man of whom, in his hand, holds a bill. Upon leaving, he goes to eat at a restaurant, beginning a formidable turnaround in a deadly game that chose him as a pawn rather the other way around when he tries to pay the tab.

What follows afterwards is the slow but gradual descent into the corruption tangled in a web of scandal, deceit and shattered innocence as Yvon is now a culprit of unfortunate circumstances far out of his control. Arrested, but avoiding jail time, he loses his job, leading him to be the get-away car driver for a bank robbery when desperate for money. Arrested and sentenced for three years doing time, while incarcerated his daughter dies and his wife writes she is leaving him to start a new life. Upon release, Yvon has nothing. Enraged and bent on revenge against the world, he murders hotel keepers, robbing them of their till, and hides out in a house of a kind woman and her family,and, after some time passes, one night kills everyone with an axe. Going to a restaurant, he confesses his crimes to an officer, leading, once again, to his arrest.

The end of the film is what makes this movie. Poetic throughout yes, and then the rage of an empty man torn of his will to live for a dynamic ending of blood and the inner cry of needless loss of the average working-class man and his world chewed up and spat in the dirt. 'L'Argent', along with actual money, shares its value in that it can indeed convey a flavorless sojourn down a road few or less are willing nor wanting to travel from the invisible power it so emanates from its green, lifeless form and feel aimed, in this picture, at an innocent but nonetheless damned soul. The film does show, however, that money is the character study, and that crime and punishment can be as cold and clinical of what many people so badly want to obtain which in return might just be their ultimate downfall if not preceded with extreme caution. What starts with a few bourgeois teenagers involved with counterfeit bills whose parents don't give them the money they want all unfortunately backfires on a simple, unsuspecting man just of whom was just living a normal life with a family that is sadly no more, revealing now the bleak, colorless world of court rooms and prison cells therein. A powerful, harrowing and fitting swansong for the then eighty-two year-old director, 'L'Argent' meticulously but honestly reveals the value not only of its eponymous title but also that of the redemption of the human spirit in a world gone hellishly awry. As CPEA states in a review from Time Out: "this is a return to the extremes of crime and punishment that Bresson last used in Pickpocket; and as in that film, crime is a model of redemption and prison a metaphor for the soul".

The evil that men do for money

[andrewnerger · 10/10 · 17 July 2006]

Robert Bresson was one of those rare storytellers that could take a universal theme and apply it in real-world terms into an image that was both beautiful and horrifying. L'Argent is Bresson's opinions on money; and the evil lengths that some people do in order to get it. The idea being that it has the ability to turn moral people into evil creatures. It is no surprise then, in this instance that the story begins with two (supposedly moral) teenagers who begin a life of crime through the forgery of bank notes. The journey that the central character Yvon takes on his fall from grace is from devoted husband and father to ruthless murderer. Whilst his journey may seem a bit too simplistic for some, it should be seen as a metaphor that the capability for evil lies within every man and that the money of the title acts merely as an accessory. Yvon suffers a series of negative events which affects him until his character quite literally hits breaking point and then commits the ultimate sin; all of which was as a result of money. Bresson's style is famous amongst directors and it really is breathtaking stuff to watch. The amount of meaning and power that he can get in to a film with minimal dialogue, unprofessional actors and in a relatively short period of time is impressive. Some of the scenes are mesmerising simply because of their lack of typical filmic conventions. The lack of a soundtrack also adds to the horror of the conclusion; which only adds to its realistic nature. Perhaps it is the lack of filmic conventions which means that Bresson's films are not well known by the general public, but if people can view just one of his masterpieces; it would be difficult for it not to stay in the viewer's mind and increase the desire to see and speak more of his output. L'Argent was unfortunately, to be Bresson's final film, his long in development filmed version of the book of Genesis never came to be; but it is a masterful swansong and indeed is highly recommended.

pretty well made but not particularly compelling

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 21 October 2005]

Technically, this is a good film--with decent acting, cinematography, etc. The problem for me is that watching a bunch of interconnected stories about completely amoral people becomes rather dull after a while for me. That's because if I don't like anyone, I feel very disconnected from the film. There are some exceptions to this, but not many. Time and time again, you see petty criminals committing crimes ranging from passing counterfeit money to driving getaway cars. Ultimately, one of these morally challenged guys goes to prison and when he is released is a psycho killing machine. If you like this sort of thing, go out and rent the movie. But, be warned that you, too, might find yourself awfully disinterested as well.

The problems of money in a striking film

[Rodrigo_Amaro · 9/10 · 22 April 2011]

In the modern jungle of the society presented in Robert Bresson's last film "L'Argent" (The Money) the survival of the fittest gets translated as the survival of the smartest person and the material for that is the money in all of his forms. The one who has the money controls everything, everyone, has the chance to buy and sell everything but men are mortal and they end losing up his/her soul just to have the main thing to survive among the living: money.

In his criticism about modern society, Bresson follows several characters involved with counterfeit money made by some bourgeoisie teenagers whose parents don't give all the money they want; and this same money will cause problems to a lot of people including the good guy Yvon Targe (Christian Patey), a simple man, living a regular life with his family until the day he almost gets arrested for trying to spend this money given by him during a business trade. Yvon escaped from being sentenced, but the damage was done. He lost his job, finds another one not so good by helping a friend in a bank robbery but this time he'll go to jail and will lose everything he knew of his previous life. The destiny has some surprises for him and for us while seeing how things will be developed with him and the other characters.

The environment and the circumstances of situations changes the man into a different thing; Yvon was a good man before all that happened; after that it's all downhill from him, including more robbery and even some murders. Here's a story about life, the awful pursuit of profit over the weakest, the dumbest (after all, Yvon received the money from the guy at the shop without looking if it was real or not), and how almost innocent pranks turned out to be the deadliest, the most striking events. Interesting also the fact about the wealthy kids who make counterfeit money, ask more money to their parents. One of them has a great taste for suits, steal money from his former boss and then return some part of the money, claiming that he's generous, he'll donate some for the poor. The sense of irony in this moment is incredible.

Well directed, well acted and with a good screenplay, "L'Argent" on one hand makes valuable statements about the power of money with a positive simplicity, based on a work from Tolstoy (now, here's a man who really gave away all of his money to preach love among people). On the other hand, the most technical aspect of the film, the narrative makes two films in one that it gets dreary, confusing, and almost without any connection with what we were seeing. I'm talking about the last half-hour that didn't match so great as it could be, but at least Bresson proved his point by the violent reaction of the main character. I believe this conclusion was the reason behind the negative reaction from Cannes audience when Bresson won the award of Best Director, in a tied along with Andrei Tarkovsky with his outstanding "Nostalgia". While Tarkovsky was praised and applauded, Bresson got some boos from the crowd, and Tarkovsky being a great admirer of Bresson complimented, embarrassed the other director (I saw the video with this moment somewhere). It's a very realistic ending but most people simply don't agree with what was showed in this change of moral behavior from such a sweet character.

Bresson and his last film tells many great things about the necessary evil money is and its disadvantages. 9/10

A Contemplative French Art Film

[iquine · 6/10 · 16 April 2019]

(Flash Review)

This essentially does what minimal modern art did for the art world as it strips away much of what you expect a film to consist of yet still is able to (arguably) tell a conceptual story. This is less entertainment and more it a societal message with a director stripping a film down to almost less that its bare essentials.

The core to the plot is the corruption by money and in this story a forged bank note sparks the chain of events. About how a seemingly minor negative event can indirectly have a major impact on someone a few steps down a series of linked events. It sends a regular man down a cruel streak that turns him numb to his actions. Perhaps also his 40 days in solitary as well as the death of loved one are contributing factors. This film is far from straight-forward and makes the viewer apply thought to the meaning of earlier scenes to make sense of later scenes but overall touches on the downfall from the lust of money. Will the protagonist be able to counter his situation or fall prey to it? Even upon reflection, some questions remain but that's what you get from the French. A film that can be discussed over a cafe after the show.

This film had a raw and honest look and feel with extended shot duration with very minimal camera movement and matter of fact cinematography. Sparse dialog accentuated the true sound effects which seemed to be a character of their own, since the film was also void of music, such as the satisfying clicking sound of prison gates locking and unlocking. This is not for the casual viewer, best for viewers who want to ponder and discuss the director's approach to film making as well as the root story.

Fun fact if that even in a French jail the prisoners get wine with meals!!

A bad film...

[peergynd · 5/10 · 3 May 2022]

The plot simple and realistic: corruption to money. Usual from the Italian neo-realism movement. The worst was that acting was just not there. People were colorless and emotionless. They were living tragedies and none of them screamed, or cried(except one scene) or laughed at all. They were non humans! It was like reading a newspaper, a dry and with not soul at all journalistic article. I'm sure that Tolstoy's novel was not like this. The story reminded me movies of the Italian neo-realism movement, yet this one was not to be compared with some masterpieces of De Sica, Visconti etc...

Stripped down, abstract, minimalist

[futures-1 · 5 May 2006]

"L'Argent" (French, 1983): When I saw Bresson's 1974 film "Lancelot du Lac" in 1977, I was amazed. What a stripped down, abstract, minimalist film! How empty, unemotional, and full of dread can one film be? Well, he met this challenge nine years later with his own (and last film) "L'Argent". Imagine screen writing a very interesting, linear story (taken from Tolstoy's short story "The Forged Note"), creating many characters who occasionally cross one another's paths, but then using static, nearly frozen camera work; stiff, nearly frozen "actors" (non-actors, "deliverers of the few lines"); and no major action to depict the events of your story. The result is almost like a "recreation of actual events". If you're looking for an intelligent story, here it is. If you're looking for entertainment, powerful acting, fascinating interaction, dizzying camera work, Dolby sound or a single special effect, go elsewhere.

Stripped Down Tale

[Hitchcoc · 9/10 · 15 June 2021]

The plot is relatively simple. It all starts with a large counterfeit bill which affects the lives of several people. It finally finds its way to a poor man who pumps fuel oil. He is arrested at a restaurant, trying to pass the bills (which he thinks are OK). We now have a domino effect. He gets no sentence but loses his job and his stubbornness overtakes him. He ends up driving a getaway car. This is a sad tale which leads to violence. The film uses quick cuts between events, including a finishing sequence. Bresson wanted us to look at the man and not be distracted by the violent deeds. Once one gets used to the technique, it makes more sense. One silly problem for me was that the young French men looked so much alike. Many had the same hair style. Many had the same bodily features.

A "must to see" if we are talking about cinema as an Art.

[cinestylo · 10/10 · 26 February 2005]

Robert Bresson is to cinema what Tàpies or Picasso would be to painting. It is indeed his last work which contains a concentrated knowledge of Art from an artist with 83 years of experience. I would recommend to anyone interested on his career and his cinema to read his notes entitled "Notes sur le cinématographe". In order to be introduced to his language I do also highly recommend to see his earlier works Pickpocket (1959), and "Un condamné a mort c'est échapé" "a condemned to death has scaped(1956). Robert Bresson does not use actors but "models". He gave this nomenclature to what we usually understand by actors due to the fact that he considered usual actors to always overact. Consequently he would picked up people without experience on acting by choosing them by their tone of voice and their austere facial expression. Very concerned to bring cinema to its highest pureness he combines and works with "characters", sound, photography and scenery with a minimalist style. L'argent is certainly a masterpiece. It's essentially cinema.

Sublime

[truemythmedia · 7/10 · 22 August 2019]

Luckily for me, I not only knew this but it was the very reason I was interested in seeking his work. I tend to like that kind of film making and was excited to see another of those masters' work.

The beginning of the film is jarring because you aren't really sure who the main character of the film is going to be. Just as you feel like you know that the film is going to be about a well off boy who commits a crime because his parents won't give him spending money the film leaves off on his story entirely, instead following the counterfeit bill he and his friend pass of at a photography store.

Then you settle in as you assume the film is to follow the clerk who took the bill and her boss who is upset about it. Surely they are about to call the police and the remainder of the film will be the fallout from that, but again. No.

The film ends up being about two characters who become consumed by crime, first the crimes of others, then their own. These characters are innocent bystanders and who are so tangentially related to the inciting crime that the viewer begins wondering why the film keeps focusing on them when the actual criminals fade into the background completely.

Then, their own crimes begin and the film becomes a study in the criminal heart that tastes just a whiff of evil and wants more. Will these violent desires have violent ends or will they be turned from and redemption be embraced? Well that is the question of the film. I'm certainly not going to tell you here.

The cinematography in this film is more than a character in the film. Many times that old hackneyed phrase is a simple was of saying that you notice the camera work. Certainly this is the case in "L'argent" but rather than being a character or narrator, the camera is only passively interested in the film's events.

There are times where the camera isn't showing either party in a conversation or where the principle action is not shown. Why?

I can't say for sure, it is art after all, but for me it exuded this sense that the characters were caught up in events and a societal machine that was indifferent to them. By the end of the film you are starving for connection and creates a greater value when it becomes personal for one relationship that is encountered. In that sense, the camera work is not a character singular as much as a representation of culture or characters plural.

I was kind of disappointed in the acting in this movie. I'm sure it was intentional but the sort of matter of fact unmotivated acting in this film left me wondering what people were feeling much of the time. This does seem to be a feature of certain foreign films in general and I' not exactly sure why. You do get used to it but it does leave the film on the dry side.

To top off this detached film is a wonderfully literary piece. Granted, Bresson based this work on a Tolstoy story so that helps, but if you are the sort of person who loves a good classic crime story (we're talking "Crime and Punishment" here not pulp) then this film might just be your cup of tea.

one of the most efficient films ever

[s-andrews78 · 10/10 · 22 December 2005]

Bresson's last film is one of his best. He leaves no room for anything extra. There are no more dissolves, no more music (just his brilliant soundtrack). He moves through so many many facets of society so quickly, efficiently and daringly. Today's filmmakers should learn a lesson with their 2 hour films which never get to the point.

You will never forget the car chase scene, where he as usual builds so much through the soundtrack. And the dog, roaming from room to room in a pinnacle scene is revolutionary.

Money corrupts, then and now, and his attack on french society was maybe another reason he was never given funding for his films.

Bresson's ability to show humanity, surprise, horror and complexity reminds of his hero Doestovesky and in this case Tolstoy.

The ending, the final scene and shot, pierces your soul.

a life spirals out of control

[cdcrb · 7/10 · 17 November 2016]

a young man is accused of passing counterfeit French franc notes and is sent to prison. his wife leaves him and his life spirals out of control in way that is totally believable. I kept thinking this could really happen. it's a very simple story, but a complex tale. there are many gaps in the film and I understand that is how the director Robert bresson does things. you are just expected to catch up with what's going on as best you can. it's a film where basic decency turns into monstrous results. it's a lot like Hitchcock. maybe better. one interesting thing I noticed was atm machines in France in 1981. I don't really remember them in nyc that early.

Treasures from a genius

[PTA-fan · 10/10 · 18 February 2006]

Robert Bresson is an intensely Catholic director whose sensibilities, unlike those of most of his French peers and colleagues, seem more aligned to the existential stillness of Ingmar Bergman or Carl Dreyer, a tradition imbued with the spirit of the still life. His is a world where the density, or intensity, of surface is scoured to reveal what would be 'otherwise', where this otherwise is not reducible or defined by psychology or any of the other narcissistic sins of our late modem world.

So, in the world of L'Argent, the world is fallen, always fallen, and redemption is never available in or from it. Grace, a divine gift (and Bresson's vision of grace explicitly obeys a radical economy of the gift) is arbitrary and unknowable, constituting an outside that can never be deduced from the events or causes of a particular narrative.

This is, perhaps obviously, the major difficulty audiences have in approaching Bresson's work. We are, for better or worse, conditioned by what we think narrative cinema is, and when we meet a story that disregards this, that even quite actively refuses us the pleasures of reason, our attempt to escape via the secular inevitably fails. We always walk out asking "why?" or even "I don't get it", not recognizing that the cause for what has happened is not within the characters, and certainly not of the quotidian, nor even of what we might ordinarily define as 'reason' to be.

On the other hand, this is plainly not an escape into the irrational, surreal, or some 'soft' eschatology of the deserving. Sacred cause and action is outside of reason, this is one of its sacred aspects, and will always remain mysterious. In Bresson's world we are fallen too.

This lack of reason is also evident in more simple ways in the film, through what might be described as the film's unreasonableness. In its manner of address the film performs, in relation to us, the same distance and immutability that is represented in the film's narrative. It offers little by way of narrative pleasure - for example we cannot identify with the characters through their acting as it is deliberately evacuated of expression and individuality - while the film's minimalist style replays the film's critique of the vanity of what might be termed 'style'. (Notwithstanding that a refusal of style can always be recovered as a style.) We are not to be accomplices in the story, nor are we its equals. Indeed, I suspect it could be that we are not even allowed or permitted the possibility of judgment in any ordinary sense (is it 'good' acting, why does Yvon kill, why does his daughter die, why does he confess?), for each of these locates us in a relation of intelligibility to the film.

In other words the film performs the same asymmetric relation between itself and us as is represented within the film between Yvon and the world. This is the textual model of prayer and while we certainly don't need to be Catholic to understand this it is probably important to recognize that this is the disposition of these works. On the other hand, there is something cinematic that Bresson has discovered, and L'Argent is perhaps one of the simplest expressions of this.

The practice of religious art has always privileged what can be characterized as poses, representations that carry the force of being 'distilled' moments - the crucifixion, Madonna and child, and St Anthony's agony for example. These instants, as distillations, fall outside any simple temporality, so they are a bit like posed photographs, though we understand that unlike the photograph, they are unposed - sacred snaps (we don't ordinarily think that Christ struck a pose while being crucified). Cinema as a modern technology is composed of many simultaneous images, most of which are moments that don't of themselves carry the import or distillation of the pose. What Bresson does is to take these two possibilities and combine them, so that within the indifference of the everyday he 'makes' poses. These are Bresson's hands, doors, feet, the rarefied backgrounds and even the soundtracks. Within these a 'major' pose will always emerge; Yvon's weeping, confession, the woman awaiting her death, Yvon's attack' on the guard, but these poses while derived from the quotidian, point past the quietude of what is already in the world.

These poses - just think of the hands in L'Argent - represent spaces that have become singular. They are separated out from their surrounding space, so the image's relation to other images, what can come next, is now freed from the 'rules' of continuity editing, it can be any space (any location, any event). In addition, once what produces the image of the hands is no longer the flow of movement defined by a before and after, an intensity is produced in the image, a quality that is, precisely: the pose.

For Bresson this achievement is religious in intent, a revealing of the sacred within the profane. For L'Argent the question and mystery of the sacred is not merely limited by the unknowability of grace, but applies equally to the intelligibility of evil: what does it mean to choose evil when indeed there is choice?

L'Argent (Money)

[jboothmillard · 7/10 · 10 November 2012]

From director Robert Bresson (Pickpocket, Au Hasard Balthazar), this film featuring as one of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die in the book was one I was naturally looking forward to watching, despite not knowing much about it at all, but that didn't matter. Basically a father refuses to give a young man his monthly allowance, demanding more he claims he needs it to pay a school debt, and he doesn't convince his mother either, so he pawns his watch off who provides with a forged 500 franc note, and he is seen perusing some nude art as well. The counterfeit note is taken by the boys to a photo shop where they pretend they want to buy a picture frame so they can exchange the fake note for the real change they will get, obviously afterwards the co-manager spots it is a fraud and tells of his partner for not noticing, it has happened to her twice. The opportunity for a person holding a counterfeit to be caught arises when gas man Yvon Targe (Christian Patey) pays for a restaurant bill, he is arrested but not long after let go, but he does lose his job, and in need of money he helps a friend as a getaway driver in a bank robbery. The robbery goes awry and Yvon is arrested and he is sentenced to three years in prison, and while there he suffers hearing about his daughter dying and his wife writing to him that she is starting a new life elsewhere and therefore leaving him. Yvon has nothing when he is released from prison, and he straight away robs the tills of hotel keepers and murders them as well, he finds help from a kind woman and her family, but he eventually kills them all with an axe, which he goes to a police officer in a restaurant to confess and he is arrested. Also starring Sylvie Van den Elsen as Grey Haired Woman, Michel Briguet as Grey Haired Woman's Father, Caroline Lang as Elise Targe, Vincent Risterucci as Lucien, Béatrice Tabourin as Woman photographer, Didier Baussy as Man photographer, Marc Ernest Fourneau as Norbert and Bruno Lapeyre as Martial. I will be honest and say that occasionally I drifted off in the plot and couldn't understand absolutely everything going on, but there were enough interesting scenes of the fraudulent activities and such things as manipulation going to keep you watching, so it is a worthwhile crime drama. Very good, in my opinion!

Bresson's perspective on money, corruption and the mystery of the human spirit.

[Amyth47 · 8/10 · 23 August 2019]

My Rating : 8/10

The minimalist tone of Bresson's cinematographic works is a language and art on it's own that deals in feelings rather than concrete intellectual black and white understanding - it moves, breathes, changes and gets under the viewer's skin and hopefully their emotions and sensibilities. One can see some influence of De Sica's 'Bicycle Thieves' herein though the treatment of the material is typical Bresson. One can also see L'Argent's influence on Krzysztof Kieslowski's works specifically 'A Short Film About Killing'. So the language and purpose of cinema has been effectively passed down the pantheon of the auteurs in some mysterious form - an art form which is the embodiment of the mystery of the human spirit and it's powerful interiority.

Bresson Says Goodbye

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 25 May 2017]

A forged 500-franc note is cynically passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn't see it for what it is - which will have devastating consequences on his life, causing him to turn to crime.

Bresson first began work on the film's script in 1977. It is based on Leo Tolstoy's "The Forged Coupon". Bresson later said that it was the film "with which I am most satisfied- or at least it is the one where I found the most surprises when it was complete- things I had not expected." While this is not Bresson's best film, it is still a great film fro ma man who has made many great films. That it also happens to be his final film is wonderful, because he ended on a high note. Far too many directors seem to wane as their careers progress, but Bresson shows he was not one of them -- three decades on, the film is both entertaining and powerful.

A Piece of...well, not Art

[hawkster27 · 1/10 · 14 November 2008]

I first saw L'Argent in 1983 during its original theatrical release. The ad campaign at the time proudly boasted, "The only film to receive Four Stars from all three of Chicago's major movie critics!" which at the time included Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, and Dave Kerr. With eager anticipation I trooped down to Chicago's Fine Arts theater, and there I and a full house of other viewers endured this horrible film. As the house lights went up, we slumped out of the theater in misery, our souls left barren and hollow by what is easily the worst 'serious' film ever made.

For 25 years I've regaled my friends with tales of this movie's awfulness. However, a person's outlook, insights, and perceptions can change over the course of a quarter of a century, so I was willing to give it a second screening. Sadly, I must report that L'Argent is as ghastly as ever. The arc of the film's story remains as completely pointless, arbitrary, and capricious as it was 25 years ago. To say the acting is wooden, as others have done, is an understatement. By the end of his career, Bresson was using amateur performers exclusively. I've heard that he would go through dozens of takes on each scene to "de-emotionalize" the content. Well, he could have saved everyone a lot of trouble if he had just administered Qaaludes to his little troupe at the beginning of each day's shooting. Better yet, shooting life-size photo cut-outs of the characters with a voice-over dialog track would have provided a more perfect realization of his vision.

L'Argent is essentially a blank canvas upon which viewers are required to paint whatever sort of meaning they can. If you are already a Bresson fan, I'm sure you will be thrilled by this film. On the other hand, I think Bresson is a charlatan, the emperor with no clothes, and that this movie is a barren desert.