It is only when he ends up in prison that he can speak and write openly about who he is. These differences, however, are only superficial, for in fact right from the very beginning of Pickpocket, Michel is a prisoner of his own anxiety, deceit, paranoia and guilt, cooped up in a cell-like garret, and, as his introductory voice-over makes clear, condemned to a life of silence and solitude by his criminal doings. On the surface, Pickpocket seems the exact opposite of Robert Bresson’s previous film, A Man Escaped ( Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, 1956) – for where one ends with its hero escaping to freedom, the other ends with its protagonist locked behind bars. Yet as their operations grow more elaborate, so does Michel’s need for greater risk and his apparent desire, however conflicted, to get caught. Reluctant to visit his dying mother despite the encouragement of her young neighbour Jeanne (Marika Green) and his own sometime friend Jacques (Pierre Leymarie), Michel is drawn back to lifting wallets on trains, eventually gravitating towards a more experienced pickpocket (Kassagi) with whom he soon forms a skilled team. Solitary misfit Michel (Martin Lasalle) has decided to try his hand at picking pockets, but gets caught after his very first attempt – only to be released by the chief inspector (Jean Pelegri) for lack of evidence. Pickpocket first published by Movie Gazette, 25 April 2005
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