L'Argent (1983 film)

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L'Argent
Directed by	Robert Bresson
Produced by	Jean-Marc Henchoz
Written by	Robert Bresson
Starring	Christian Patey Béatrice Tabourin Didier Baussy Vincent Visterucci
Distributed by	New Yorker Films Cinecom International (original release)
Release date(s)	March 23, 1984 (New York City)
Running time	83 min
Language	French

L'Argent (Money), inspired by the Leo Tolstoy short story The Forged Coupon, is the final film by French film director Robert Bresson.

[edit] Plot setup

Bresson's modern retelling begins as a bourgeois youth enters his father's study to claim a monthly allowance. His father obliges, but the son presses for more, citing a debt at school he must pay. The father dismisses him and an appeal to his mother fails. This leads him to pawn off his watch to a friend who, instead of paying him, provides him with a forged 500-franc note. After the trade, the youth lingers to peruse an album of nude art, with similar images to appear throughout the film.

The boys take the counterfeit to a photo shop and change it on the pretext of buying a picture frame. When the store co-manager finds out, he scolds his partner for her lack of wariness. She chides him in return for having accepted two forged notes the previous week. He then vows to pass off all the forged notes in their possession at the next opportunity, which arises when a gas man comes in with a bill.

It earned its maker the Director's Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Although the film's basic plot is inspired by the Tolstoy story, it contains many references to Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment. Yvon's cellmate spouts the sort of Nietzchean Superman ideology that Raskolnikov was fond of, and the final scene, with Yvon confessing and then being led out past a gaping crowd is a direct quotation from the conclusion of Crime and Punishment.

[edit] External links

• The Forged Coupon and Other Stories, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Gallery of international poster art at Masters of Cinema website
• L'Argent at the Internet Movie Database

Robert Bresson
Les affaires publiques (1934) • Les Anges du péché (1943) Les dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945) • Diary of a Country Priest (1951) A Man Escaped (1956) • Pickpocket (1959) The Trial of Joan of Arc (1962) • Au hasard Balthazar (1966) Mouchette (1967) A Gentle Woman (1969) Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) Lancelot du Lac (1974) The Devil Probably (1977) L'argent (1983)