L'Argent (1983 film)

L'argent

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Robert Bresson
Produced by Jean-Marc Henchoz
Daniel Toscan du Plantier
Written by Robert Bresson
Based on The Forged Coupon
by Leo Tolstoy
Starring Christian Patey
Béatrice Tabourin
Didier Baussy
Vincent Visterucci
Cinematography Pasqualino De Santis
Emmanuel Machuel
Edited by Jean-François Naudon
Distributed by MK2 Diffusion
Release date
  • 18 May 1983 (1983-05-18) (France)
Running time
 83 minutes
Country France
Switzerland
Language French

L'argent (French pronunciation: ​[laʁ.ʒɑ̃], meaning "Money") is a 1983 French drama film written and directed by Robert Bresson. The film is loosely inspired by the first part of Leo Tolstoy's novella The Forged Coupon. It was Bresson's last film, and earned its maker the Director's Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival.

Plot

A young man 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 try to pawn his watch to a friend, who instead gives him a forged 500-franc note. After the trade, the youth lingers to peruse an album of nude art.

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, Yvon, comes in with a bill.

Model Role
Patey, ChristianChristian Patey Targe, YvonYvon Targe
Risterucci, VincentVincent Risterucci Lucien, Lucien
Lang, CarolineCaroline Lang Elise, Elise
Van Den Elsen, SylvieSylvie Van Den Elsen The Little Old Lady, The Little Old Lady
Brigue, MichelMichel Brigue Father of the Little Old Lady, Father of the Little Old Lady
Tabourin, BéatriceBéatrice Tabourin The Female Photographer, The Female Photographer
Baussy, DidierDidier Baussy The Male Photographer, The Male Photographer
Fourneau, Marc ErnestMarc Ernest Fourneau Norbert, Norbert
Cler, AndréAndré Cler Father Norbert, Father Norbert
Cler, ClaudeClaude Cler Mother Norbert, Mother Norbert
Lapeyre, BrunoBruno Lapeyre Martial, Martial

Yvon tries to pay a restaurant tab with the forged notes, but the waiter recognizes them as counterfeit. Yvon is arrested, at the trial the photo shop people lie. Yvon avoids jail time; however, he loses his job. Needing money, he acts as the get-away car driver for a friend's bank robbery. The robbery is foiled by police, and Yvon is arrested. He is sentenced to prison for three years. While in prison, his daughter dies and his wife writes to him that she is leaving him to start a new life. He tries to commit suicide but survives.

When released from prison, Yvon has nothing. Right away, he murders hotel keepers and robs their till. He then is taken in by a kind woman over the objection of her father. Some time passes, and one night Yvon kills everyone in the house with an axe. He goes to a restaurant, confesses to a police officer, and is arrested.

Production

Bresson first began work on the film's script in 1977. It is based on Leo Tolstoy's The Forged Coupon. Bresson later said that it was the film "with which I am most satisfied—or at least it is the one where I found the most surprises when it was complete—things I had not expected."[1]

Reception

The film was released in France on 18 May 1983 through MK2 Diffusion.[2]

Critical response

Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times, "that Robert Bresson [...] is still one of the most rigorous and talented film makers of the world is evident with the appearance of his beautiful, astringent new film, L'Argent. [...The film] would stand up to Marxist analysis, yet it's anything but Marxist in outlook. It's far too poetic – too interested in the mysteries of the spirit."[3]

Tom Milne found L′Argent to be "unmistakably a masterpiece", noting "the extraordinary apotheosis of the final sequence," and the "breathless wonderment in the last shot of onlookers frozen as they gaze into the empty room from which all evidence of crime has gone."[4]

Accolades

Bresson received the Director's Prize at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, tied with Andrei Tarkovsky for Nostalghia.[5] L'Argent was nominated for Best Sound at the César Awards 1984.[6] It won the 1984 National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Director.[7]

References

  1. ↑ John Wakeman, World Film Directors, Volume 1. The H. W. Wilson Company, 1987. ISBN 0-8242-0757-2, 62.
  2. ↑ "L'Argent". AlloCiné (in French). Tiger Global. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  3. ↑ Vincent Canby, "Film Festival; 'L'Argent,' 13th feature by Bresson," The New York Times, September 24, 1983.
  4. ↑ Wakeman, World Film Directors, 62.
  5. ↑ "Festival de Cannes: Awards 1983". festival-cannes.com. Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  6. ↑ "L'Argent – Prix et nominations". AlloCiné (in French). Tiger Global. Retrieved 14 October 2011.
  7. ↑ "Past Awards". nationalsocietyoffilmcritics.com. National Society of Film Critics. Archived from the original on 8 August 2011. Retrieved 14 October 2011.

Bibliography

  • Ciment, Michel. "I Seek Not Description But Vision: Robert Bresson on L’Argent." In Quandt, Robert Bresson, 2012.
  • Hasumi, Shigehiko. "Led by the Scarlet Pleats: Bresson’s L’Argent." In Quandt, Robert Bresson, 2012.
  • Jones, Kent. L’Argent. BFI Film Classics, 1999. ISBN 978-0-85170-733-4.
  •  ———. "A Stranger’s Posture: Notes on Bresson’s Late Films." In Quandt, Robert Bresson, 2012.
  • Moravia, Alberto. "L’Argent." In Quandt, Robert Bresson, 2012.
  • Quandt, James, ed. Robert Bresson (Revised). Indiana UP (Cinematheque Ontario Monographs), 2012. ISBN 978-0-9682969-5-0.
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