"We fear death because we love life so much."

 -one prisoner to another

 As a certified Bresson virgin - the taboo of the film viewing community - I must
to say that popping my cherry on this, his last film, may not have been the blasphemy I
assured myself I was committing. It felt like the work of a director set in his ways, an
auteur that cultivates each film to carry the same feel and to procure the same effect. My
assumption - though I'm still only up on the Frenchman by one - is that I am right - his
style is distinct and methodical. "L'Argent" is a masterpiece, a rare film that has a
screaming commentary inside a quiet atmosphere. Allow my reflections to flow, as they
must.

 The film is dryly acted - I had remembered R saying something about his
distinction between theatre and cinema - which I allowed to explain the woodenspeak of
the characters. The film is dispassionate from start to finish, which speaks so loudly its
nearly deafening. The excessive contradiction Bresson sets up, dropping us in a world
where there is no fire or fury in action or verbal exchange, floats throughout the film,
always dicatating that little voice in my head. And it works - my God how it works! How
can this film be so moving when etched in this style? How can these people crave money
so much and live so closely within the lines - like a straightedged clockwork only feeding
life - no one having fun and no one expressing emotion. Why? My feeling is that the
emotion is laced within. Both Yvon and Lucien have confused emotions. Yvon, though
driven to murder by the disappointment his life has turned into, seems to feel no remorse.
When he turns himself into the police at the end of this yarn, we are presented with a
man who has not only denied his emotion to himself, but successfully hidden it from the
audience. In another film, this would be a mistake, but in "L'Argent", Bresson is showing
us that his characters have this power and use it as a powerful tool to shelter and guide
them. Lucien is also mixed in his emotions. He contradicts himself at the trial by saying
he is a "kind-hearted man" and then that he will "break out and commit crimes again". He
robs with no guilt, yet pays him former employer back. He robs again, only to go to jail
and plan to escape. His mixed emotions, hidden from us bring me to my next point about
the chain reaction in this film.

 "L'Argent" is not a film whose plot can easily be described. The forgery of a 500
franc note sets off the falling dominos that lead all the characters to their eventual fate.
Norbert ends up getting caught, as do Lucien and Yvon. Is the message that "Crime
doesn't pay"? No - far from it. Notice what Bresson sets before us in the beginning and
then dares his characters to question : The just (Norbert - attempting to pay a loan, and
Yvon-a family man) are both put through terrible ordeals. The unjust (Lucien, a perjuror
and a thief) continues to steal until well past the halfway mark of the film's running time.
The good are punished while the bad get away with it.

 Examine what's on the surface, however, and it shows that, by the end of the film,
not only will these characters be ruined, but characters they come in contact with will
also suffer-just like the randomness of money being passed from one hand to another,
racking up thousands and thousands of lives, stories and fates. The simple message :
money corrupts. Yvon's roommate's little speech about how money is God was the
director's voice, through and through.

 Some other notes : Bresson makes even murder seem non-chalant. The film is
ambigious, leaving the viewer to sometimes pick up things only after they've transpired.
The film ends as it began, though somewhat more monumentally - still, random and
simple, amidst another series of events. Though Yvon is in custody, the previous 81
minutes lead you to believe that there will be much more to the story - in that way - this
could be called a "Slice-of-life" piece.

 And finally, a note on the film's effect : I found myself being overly passionate in
my intereactions with others immedietly following my viewing of the film - to
compensate for the film's sedate atmopshere, perhaps? - Usually a film leaves me feeling
the way it feels. With "L'Argent", I feel just the opposite, which is unusual, but probably
for the best : perhaps the film naturally implants it's message in it and the viewer is
refreshed not to be in any of the situations that take place here, in the quiet,
straight-forward world of  Robert Bresson.

"You will be forgiven. If I were God, I'd forgive everyone".

-Sylvie Van Den Elsen to Christian Patey