Robert Bresson-Les Anges du péché (1943)

Rich young Anne-Marie thinks she has found her vocation when she joins a Dominican convent as a novice. The convent specialises in rehabilitating female prisoners, and Anne-Marie becomes especially fascinated with Therese, trying to get her to join the convent to redeem her for her sins - but Therese protests her innocence. However, when released, Therese shoots the man who committed the crime for which she was imprisoned, then joins the convent, where she is reluctant to tell anyone her secret, least of all Anne-Marie. Meanwhile, outside the convent, a police search is widening... (http://imdb.com/title/tt0035636/plotsummary)




Contrary to what you might expect from a 1943 movie about nuns in a convent, Les Anges du Peche is fast, intense and gripping. The writing (by a Dominican priest, Raymond Bruckberger) is awe-inspiring; nearly every line of dialogue is a cluster of moral and emotional insights. Explored with great wisdom are themes of conformity and nonconformity, selfishness and selflessness, sin and redemption, love, jealousy and bitter resentment, pride and shame. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0035636/usercomments)




1st full-length feature by the self-described Christian-atheist, it was made in occupied France after Bresson had done a year in a prison camp. There's nothing ostentatious i his style. It's sparse, no flashy camera-acrobatics or editing tricks. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0035636/usercomments)




The story is set in a convent, Sisters of Bethany, it's purpose is to help women in prison rehabilitate. In it we find Anne-Marie, a somewhat proud & middle-class woman who comes to logger-heads w/Mother Superior & this leads to problems. Along the way she connects w/one of the more recalcitrant prisoners & recognizes her pain & need to be reached out to. Upon release the prisoner returns to join the convent under suspicious circumstances. What we have is a contrast in characters who come to the convent for different reasons & an exploration into spiritual matters. (http://imdb.com/title/tt0035636/usercomments)




Robert Bresson's first feature, Les Anges du péché is a fascinating film, both intrinsically and in its relation to the rest of Bresson's oeuvre. The script, fashioned by Bresson in collaboration with the Dominican priest Raymond Bruckberger and the noted playwright Jean Giraudoux, concerns the Sisters of Bethany, an order of nuns devoted to working with female ex-convicts. The film's protagonist is a well-to-do young woman, Anne-Marie (Renée Faure), who joins the order out of a passionate sense of mission. On a prison visit with the prioress, she meets an inmate named Thérèse (Jany Holt), who rebels continually against her unjust confinement for theft. Upon her release Thérèse kills the man responsible for her imprisonment, and takes refuge in the convent. Here Anne-Marie tries to effect Thérèse's spiritual transformation, but her obsession intensifies Thérèse's resentment and jeopardizes her relations with her fellow nuns. For her disruption of convent life Anne-Marie is expelled, but secretly returns nightly to pray at the tomb of her order's founder. When she becomes deathly ill, she is discovered and readmitted to the fold; and, upon her death, Thérèse undergoes a change of heart, delivering herself to the police and to her just punishment. (http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/01/17/anges.html)