The Devil, Probably starring Antoine Monnier

Director: Robert Bresson

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Like many of the late films of Robert Bresson, The Devil, Probably is, as the title suggests, a dark story of disaffected French youth in modern Paris: four disillusioned young adults who wander city streets and hole up in tiny apartments while serving witness to society's destruction of the planet. Bresson described the work as "a film about the evils of money, a source of great evil in the world whether for unnecessary armaments or the senseless pollution of the environment." It may not be the bleakest film in his canon--the honors surely belong to his final work L'Argent--but it is certainly one of his most depressing. Charles, the womanizing ringleader of the group, is haunted by an overwhelming sense of nihilism that finally envelops him. Newsreel clips of ecological disasters and atomic destruction punctuate the film and the backdrop of a busy but cold, impersonal, mercenary Paris is Bresson's least flattering portrait of the city. Many consider this a minor film in Bresson's career and it remains one of the hardest to appreciate--his expressionless performers and rigorous, distant style makes it hard to identify or even like the characters. Furthermore, the slim story (inspired by a contemporary newspaper report) offers little of the narrative complexity and resonant conflicts that enrich his literary adaptations. But it is at times a beautiful film, and it's clear that Bresson has invested himself in its sad desperation.

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