"Les anges du peche" (Angels of sin) is situated in a monastry of the Dominicanesses from Bethany. This order gives women who have been in jail shelter and a second chance. So not al the nuns in this monastry are angels.
Sister Anne Marie however, who has not been in jail but who has joined entirely out of free will, comes close (to being an angel). Anne Marie sees it as her mission to guide one of the most difficult novices, sister Theresa. Sister Theresa has been in jail, but persists that see was innocent. "The innocent cannot forgive" is her motto.
The relationship between the angelic Anne Marie and the frustrated Theresa is the engine of the story. While watching the film I found out that I dit not always symphatize with the angelic one.
Just as Stanley Kubrick, Robert Bresson began his filmcareer as a conventional director, to develop a unique style of his own only after a few films. His debut "Les anges du peche" (1943) together with "Les dames du Bois de Boulogne" (1945) are generally considered as his two conventional movies. This maybe true for "Les anges du peche" as far as the form of the film is considered. "Les anges du peche" has a plot and the characters are played by professional actors. But the theme of the film (guilt, penitence and redemption) is as Bressonian as a theme could be. This theme fully comes into its own during the marvelous ending.
