Pickpocket

Released May 26, 1963

1h 15m

Crime

Drama

List

94%

Tomatometer

47 Reviews

85%

Popcornmeter

5,000+ Ratings

Michel (Martin La Salle) takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques (Pierre Leymarie), and his mother's neighbor Jeanne (Marika Green), Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector (Jean Pélégri) keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.

Critics Consensus

Narratively spare and told with clockwork precision, Pickpocket is a carefully observed character study that packs an emotional wallop.

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Kevin Maher

Times (UK)

A short and flawless wonder.

Rated: 5/5

Jun 3, 2022

Full Review

Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

Hypnotically intense and lucid...

Rated: 5/5

May 31, 2022

Full Review

Eric Rhode

Sight & Sound

At first one may be impressed by the mystery surrounding these characters, until one realises that they are only mysterious because they are unable to create their own destinies.

Jan 11, 2020

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Stream on Demand

[Robert Bresson's] austere style, emotionless direction, and minimalist scripts can become frustrating if you don’t connect. But there’s a purity in his ambition to pare away everything but the essential elements of cinema.

May 4, 2024

Full Review

Dilys Powell

Sunday Times (UK)

The style of the film is characteristic of the director... But this time the method defeats itself. In rejecting every irrelevant action, in ruthlessly refining away every decoration, Bresson has thrown away the motives as well.

Aug 10, 2022

Full Review

Rob Aldam

Backseat Mafia

A wonderfully flowing character study which treads the border between sanity and lunacy.

Jul 7, 2022

Full Review

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Audience Member

I love French films but I couldn't connect with this one at all. The lead character is extremely boring and the story a little pointless.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

05/27/24

Full Review

Andy F

Engrossing and atmospheric but perhaps a tad overrated.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

08/15/23

Full Review

dave s

There is no mistaking Pickpocket for anything other than a Robert Bresson film. Clocking in at a scant seventy-five minutes, it is as clean and as crisp a movie as one could imagine, devoid of anything that even hints at being extraneous or irrelevant. Michel (Martin LaSalle) is adrift in life, unemployed and directionless, ultimately honing his dexterity to become a pickpocket. It is an incredibly simple story about redemption and the motivating influence of unrequited love, but the simplicity, as with all Bresson films, is what gives it its beauty.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

noel d

I am not sure if this film was restored, or even needed restoration. The black and white print is immaculate and the soundscape is perfection. You feel as though you're in Paris in 1959. It has a documentary feel to it and, if my bad French is correct, in the captions at the start it thanks a person (one word name so presumably it's a nom-de-plume, so to speak) who advised on the pickpocket techniques shown throughout the story. The actor playing the eponymous role does not emote very much and it is the intensity of his expression that draws him to the audience. He's a thief through and through but he still gets some sympathy. He's given chances to reform by a detective who displays a similar sympathy but justice wins in the end. Without spoiling the ending, it is only by failing that he achieves his redemption through the love of a woman. Well worth your time.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

Full Review

andrey k

It's so powerful in its simple but extremely effective delivery this film is; the direction and narrative are impeccable. A strange path indeed Michel had to take to finally see the right light to navigate him towards real meaning of life and towards responsible adult life with a girl he subconsciously has loved all this time. This short story of a young man's wanderings is a gem.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Fra B

With Bresson, one of the most essential filmmakers, you'll find beauty and elegance in sequences of pickpocketing, but in dialogue and emotions he doesn't force you to feel anything, rather it's up to you to connect the dots.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/10/21

Full Review

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Robert Bresson

Director

Martin LaSalle

Michel

Marika Green

Jeanne

Pierre Leymarie

Jacques

Jean Pélégri

Chief Inspector

Dolly Scal

La mère

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Synopsis

Michel (Martin La Salle) takes up pickpocketing on a lark and is arrested soon after. His mother dies shortly after his release, and despite the objections of his only friend, Jacques (Pierre Leymarie), and his mother's neighbor Jeanne (Marika Green), Michel teams up with a couple of petty thieves in order to improve his craft. With a police inspector (Jean Pélégri) keeping an eye on him, Michel also tries to get a straight job, but the temptation to steal is hard to resist.

Director: Robert Bresson
Producer: Agnès Delahaie
Screenwriter: Robert Bresson
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters): May 26, 1963, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 11, 2017
Runtime: 1h 15m
Sound Mix: Mono

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