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In the film Pickpocket, Robert Bresson breaks with Hollywood cinematic codes to disrupt the audiences’ direct identification of reality. Bresson creates a film that avoids constructing an illusionistic reality. In avoiding the creation of an illusionistic reality, Bresson withholds the type of background information regarding the main characters, which would allow for an audience to understand his motives and desires. Pickpocket is an avant-garde film that breaks with the idea of creating an illusion through the use of camerawork, editing, and narrative form. The most avant-garde feature of Pickpocket is the narrative form. Typical Hollywood films use a consistent narrative form that allows for the audience to directly identify with the film’s characters. This usually includes a plethora of background information into the main characters that explains their emotions, motives, and desires. This information is necessary for inviting the audience into the reality of the film. A lack of information prevents the audience from indulging in the illusion of reality and relating to the characters. In Pickpocket the main character, Michel, is shrouded in a veil of mystery. The narrative is told through his journal, but it never gives an insight into his motives or his background. The film opens at a horseracing track and it is here that we are introduced to Michel’s blank, emotionless face. The only thing that becomes clear is that Michel is a pickpocket. Michel stands in the crowd totally expressionless and the camera cuts to a shot of his fingers delicately forcing open the clasp on a woman’s purse. There is no explanation why he is stealing. Does he desperately need money to eat or is this just a game to him? The answer is never outright revealed, although we do learn a bit about his rational or justification for picking pockets. In a later scene at a bar, Michel is with his friend Jim. They bump into a detective from the city’s police force. The detective tells them about the growing problem of pickpockets in the city.
Approximate Word count = 1311
Approximate Pages = 5.2
(250 words per page double spaced)
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