Product: L' Argent [VHS] (1983)
Rating: 4.0
On greed and corruption
Last film by acclaimed French director Robert Bresson. In color. 1hour and 20 minutes.This film is very different, at first glance, from other Bresson classics. The pace is very fast (specially the first half), the streets of Paris in all its rush and chaos. The insides of homes and shops are remnants of peace and soberness (only apparently), trying to protect from the "evil" outside. The characters are practically all young people, lost souls, and for a reason: "they lack the inner resources necessary to make the kind of leap that 'Pickpocket's Michel or 'A Man Escaped's Fontaine makes. They lack sufficient experience to understand that one can have faith in something other than such paltry, man-made creations as "progress" and money."Those were the words of essayist Kent Jones in the case insert.The second half of the film moves to a more rural setting. The pace slows down. We meet a very noteworthy character. A woman with faith, lots of faith. In one scene they share a few moments of peace and give the film more meaning than I can try to explain with my limited English vocabulary. But it's the climax, and then comes the tragedy, which is like the final statement of the author, Bresson.I didn't like the film as much as "Diary of a country priest", and way less than "Au Hazard Balthasar", maybe because of its pessimistic taste, the lack of hope. Probably I don't like it that much because, simply put, modernity is ugly. And postmodernity is infinitely more so.But faith, hope and love are never in vain for those who love God, and belief in the resurrection of His Son Jesus.