Robert Bresson is a legendary French filmmaker whose films I never wanted to see. His most famous work is about the miserable life of a donkey, and I always expected his works to be dour and depressing and, well, pretty much that. Recently, the Criterion Collection, or as I call them, The Real Heroes, recently made a deal with Netflix to show some of their films under the Watch Instantly program. So I decided to tackle this most difficult director, which Wikipedia describes as follows: Bresson's early artistic goals were to separate the language of cinema from theater, which often heavily involves the actor's performance to drive the 'artwork. With his "actor-model" technique, Bresson's actors had to rehearse several takes of each scene until all semblance of "performance" was removed, leaving a striking effect that was both subtle and raw, and the can only be found at the cinema. Some believe that Bresson's Catholic upbringing and Jansenist belief system lie behind the thematic structure of most of his films. Recurring themes of this interpretation include salvation, redemption, the definition and revelation of the human soul, and the metaphysical transcendence of a limiting and materialistic world. LET’S GET READY TO PARRRRR-TTTAAYYYYYY!!!!!! Pickpocket (1958) is about a pickpocket. No shit. I chose to watch Pickpocket first because it was 76 minutes long. I'm not proud to admit it. Pickpocket begins with an artistic statement. . . in French. Oh god, no, my brain thought, My Art Film Nightmare is coming true! However, once the movie started, all of that disappeared. One thing that parodies of old French art films forget to mention is that these films tell stories. Of course, the sound...... middle of paper......without any gimmicks to distract, which ends up being distracting at times. (IRONY, YOU ARE A THING!). The dialogue is stilted at times (although that might just be a poor translation of the subtitles), but the themes aren't hidden: salvation, redemption, and a guy named Jansen are all there. Bresson definitely strives to create something universal. I really liked Pickpocket, even if it didn't have the full artgasm that I had with something like 8 1/2 or Bicycle Thieves. The depth didn't really hit me in the gut like it did with those films. I guess the power of his films will increase the more I see and get used to what my man Bobby is trying to say. Or maybe I just prefer Italy to France. Anyway, I will continue with Bresson! Coming soon from my Bresson-a-thon: Au Hasard Balthazar, the film about the donkey that I described above.