Robert Bresson's final masterpiece, L'ARGENT is a stunning protest against greed and corruption. A boy's parents refuse to lend him money, so a friend gives him a counterfeit 500- franc bill. This one act sets into motion a chain of events that will lead to murder. The bill passes from hand to hand, and with each exchange comes another lie, another betrayal. To protect themselves, shopkeepers pass the bill on to an unsuspecting delivery man, Yvon, who is arrested and sent to prison. Rejecting the world that ruined him, Yvon turns to crime and destruction. Inspired by a Tolstoy story, one of cinema's great masters creates a powerful tale of innocence corrupted. New Yorker Video




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 and murder... (http://imdb.com/title/tt0085180/plotsummary)




Robert Bresson always claimed his films are about hope and redemption, but so many end in death or suicide that it's a struggle to reconcile the statement with his films. His final film, based on Leo Tolstoy's story The Counterfeit Note, is no different. It's the harrowing tale of an innocent man, Yvon (Christian Patey), whose victimization at the hands of an arrogant upper-class delinquent and a greedy shop owner sends him on a downward spiral into a life of crime.




The once-happy husband and father turns bitter, angry, self-pitying, and ultimately coldly brutal in the chilling conclusion. It's Bresson's most expansive film and biggest canvas, weaving the paths of numerous characters across Yvon's journey, but he edits with jackrabbit jumps, running headlong through the story with a painful feeling of inevitability.




On its simplest level, Yvon's story is an elaborate chain of cause and effect, the ripples of a selfish act resulting in the fall of a proud man and the destruction of his soul, and Bresson presents every link in that chain with precise, cold clarity. There is little hope evidenced in L'Argent, but there is powerful sense of loss and sadness in this portrait of a society so obsessed with money that it loses its humanity. (Amazon.com - Editorial Reviews -Sean Axmaker)





















Links to previous movie posts:

From 1# to 200# please refer to page :
200 Donatella Baglivo-Andrei Tarkovsky in Nostalghia (1984)

201 Kenji Mizoguchi-Saikaku ichidai onna ('The Life of Oharu') (1952)
202 Tsai Ming-liang - Ni neibian jidian ('What Time Is It There?') (2001)
203 Jean-Luc Godard - Bande à part (1964)
204 Mario Monicelli-I Soliti ignoti (1958)
205 Alain Resnais-Hiroshima mon amour (1959)
206 Ingmar Bergman-Det Sjunde inseglet (1957)
207 Ingmar Bergman-Vargtimmen (1968)
208 Satyajit Ray-Pather Panchali (1955)
209 Tran Anh Hung-Xich lo ('Cyclo') (1995)
210 Liliana Cavani-Il Portiere di notte (1974)
211 David Gregory-Interviews on The Night Porter (2006)
212 Luchino Visconti-Rocco e i suoi fratelli (1960)
213 Boris Barnet-Devushka s korobkoy ('Girl with the Hat Box') (1927)
214 Alain Resnais-Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980)
215 Jan Svankmajer-Faust (1994)
216 Peter Greenaway-The Draughtsman's Contract (1982)
217 Nicolas Roeg-Don't Look Now (1973)
218 Emir Kusturica-Dom za vesanje ('Time of the Gypsies') (1988)
219 Michelangelo Antonioni-Cronaca di un amore (1950)
220 Márta Mészáros-Napló gyermekeimnek ('Diary for My Children') (1982)
221 Milos Forman-Horí, má panenko ('The Firemen's Ball') (1967)
222 Manoel de Oliveira-Viagem ao Princípio do Mundo ('Voyage to the Beginning of the World') (1997)
223 Francesco Rosi-Cristo si è fermato a Eboli (1979)
224 Roberto Andò-Il Cineasta e il labirinto ('Talking to Francesco Rosi') (2004)
225 Eric Rohmer-Le Rayon vert (1986)
226 Luis Buñuel-Belle de jour (1967)
227 Belle de jour-A History of the Film (2002)
228 Nicolas Roeg, Donald Cammell-Performance (1970)
229 Andrzej Wajda-Wszystko na sprzedaz ('Everything for Sale') (1969)
230 Ingmar Bergman-Jungfrukällan ('The Virgin Spring') (1960)
231 Karel Reisz-Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960)
232 Robert Bresson-Mouchette (1967)
233 Jean-Pierre Melville-Les Enfants terribles (1949)
234 Jean-Luc Godard - Masculin féminin, 15 faits précis (1966)
235 Joseph Losey-Monsieur Klein (1976)
236 Takeshi Kitano - Hana-bi (1997)
237 Robert Bresson-L'Argent (1983)