Economically told and sweeping in scope, Robert Bresson’s swan song is a haunting indictment of money’s destructive power.
L’Argent, the final film by French auteur Robert Bresson, adapts Tolstoy’s The Forged Coupon into a stripped-down meditation on moral causality. A counterfeit bill sets off a chain of escalating consequences, revealing how minor acts of deceit spiral into irreversible violence. The film won Best Director at Cannes, capping Bresson’s career with one of his starkest visions. [95 min; drama; French with English subtitles]
This screening is supported by the Institute for European Studies, a Jean Monnet EU Centre of Excellence.
"Bresson, working his soundtrack as assiduously as his visuals, once again makes us realize how little use most films make of the resources of the cinema. A masterpiece." — Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
"Bresson—who was 82 years old when the film came out, and clearly in no mood for mellowing—frames the acts of wickedness, both great and small, with a terrifying calm." — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker
"A powerful and harrowing film that renews one's faith that modern cinema can bring to light what no other medium can do in the same way." — Dennis Schwartz, Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews
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