Imagine having to steal because it’s the only act that makes you feel truly alive in a world spiritually dead. A fascinating story about a man who wants to get caught, punished, who chooses freedom by imprisonment. 

There’s a certain irony revealed in Michel, a guilty man who wants to go to jail yet who spends the whole film evading the consequences of his actions. He’s a slave to his pickpocketing corruption, yet ultimately desires release by wanting to get cuffed. 

Unlike DIARY OF A COUNTRY PRIEST (1951) where Bresson explores how the body is a prison that needs escaping, in PICKPOCKET (1959) he explores how crime is a prison and freedom is secured by getting caught and locked in jail.

In A MAN ESCAPED (1956), freedom literally means escaping iron bars. Here the metaphor is reversed: freedom paradoxically means wanting to be imprisoned behind iron bars.

This film is super powerful, haunting. A redemption arc that ends in imprisonment, but where imprisonment is embraced as real freedom (freedom from crime), resonates with me. Wherever this arc is desired is the beginning of receiving real grace.

Bresson Ranked