L’Argent
Studio: Criterion
Jul 28, 2017 Web Exclusive
Everyone has been told less is more at some stage in their life but there’s an oft-ignored coda that comes with the sentiment. Less is only more if the less is delivered by someone capable of making it more. There have been few as capable in this field as French filmmaker Robert Bresson, and he continued demonstrating this right to the end as his final film L’argent, released in 1983, proves in every shot.
In source material L’argent looks to Leo Tolstoy, standing as a loose adaptation of the first part of his novella The Forged Coupon. In style and sentiment though, it’s pure Bresson. When a couple of kids attempt to break a forged note at a photography store, they set in place a chain reaction that draws in a group of characters while focusing on the steady downward descent of truck driver Yvon (Christian Patey). He goes from a respectable working man with a wife and kid to a bloody criminal several times over, each escalation wiping out a little more hope from his life.
Bresson is famed for his minimalist style, and thousands of words have been written on this approach over the years. It bears repeating though, because its inimical to everything he does. He’s a filmmaker willing to turn to the imagination of the audience rather than manufacturing every shot to spoon feed the story. Scenes and actions are cut up as a result. It’s enough to see a weapon in a hand to know what will happen. When someone then emerges covered in blood the dots automatically connect.
It also frees him to focus on the details, the sum total of which come together to give the bigger picture. Hands feature prominently in L’argent, as do faces, the camera describing them in intimate detail. And like every good horror movie, Bresson’s last film knows the thoughts we harbor are always more terrifying than reality. It’s why he lets this forged note dance through the lives of a cast drawn from across the social spectrum, wreaking havoc wherever it lands. It’s why he sends Yvon plunging into darkness without needing to show the darkness in excruciating detail. It grows within us as we watch.
Woven into the fabric is a stark condemnation of the corrupting power of money. Once it takes the school boys who first bring the note into circulation, everyone falls under the spell, lying, cheating and deceiving to avoid losing out. Even those that start innocent end up losing everything in pursuit of something. It’s a depressing, cynical film for Bresson to bow out on, and a shocking one as the story reaches a brutally final conclusion. Old age can dull some people. It never did that to Bresson.
www.criterion.com/films/27588-l-argent
Author rating: 9/10
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