L'argent (1983)

Director:

Robert Bresson

Writers:

Robert Bresson (writer)
Leo Tolstoy (short story "Faux billet")

Release Date:

18 May 1983 (France)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

A forged 500-franc note is cynically passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into...

Plot Keywords:

Note | Murder | Courtroom | Based On Short Story | Camera

Awards:

2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Christian Patey	...	Yvon Targe
Vincent Risterucci	...	Lucien
Caroline Lang	...	Elise
Sylvie Van den Elsen	...	Grey Haired Woman
Michel Briguet	...	Grey Haired Woman's Father
Béatrice Tabourin	...	La photographe
Didier Baussy	...	Le photographe
Marc Ernest Fourneau	...	Norbert
Bruno Lapeyre	...	Martial
François-Marie Banier
Alain Aptekman
Jeanne Aptekman	...	Yvette
Dominique Mullier
Jacques Behr
Gilles Durieux
Alain Bourguignon
André Cler	...	Père de Norbert
Claude Cler	...	Norbert's Mother
Anne de Kervazdoué
Bernard Lamarche-Vadel
Pierre Tessier
Eric Franklin
Jean-Louis Berdot
Yves Martin
Luc Solente
Valérie Mercier
Alexandre Pasche
Jean-Michel Coletti
Stéphane Villette

Directed by
Robert Bresson

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Robert Bresson		writer
Leo Tolstoy		short story "Faux billet" (as Tolstoï)

Produced by
Antoine Gannagé	....	executive producer
Jean-Marc Henchoz	....	producer
Daniel Toscan du Plantier	....	producer

Cinematography by
Pasqualino De Santis
Emmanuel Machuel

Film Editing by
Jean-François Naudon

Production Design by
Pierre Guffroy

Costume Design by
Monique Dury

Production Management
Richard Dupuy	....	unit production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Olivier Péray	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Hélène Vaillant	....	upholsterer (uncredited)

Sound Department
Jean-Marc Lentretien	....	sound mix technician
Jacques Maumont	....	sound mixer
Jean-Louis Ughetto	....	sound engineer
Luc Yersin	....	sound engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
Michel Abramowicz	....	first assistant camera

Production Companies

• Eôs Films
• France 3 Cinéma
• Marion's Films

Distributors

• Artfree (2009) (Greece) (theatrical) (re-issue)
• Accent Film Entertainment (2005) (Australia) (DVD)
• Al!ve AG (2007) (Germany) (DVD)
• Artificial Eye
• Cinecom Pictures (1984) (USA) (subtitled)
• Kinokuniya (2002) (Japan) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2009) (Australia) (DVD)

Also Known As:

Money

Runtime:

85 min | Argentina:87 min (Mar del Plata Film Festival)

Country:

France | Switzerland

Language:

French | Latin

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | Iceland:14 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11 | UK:PG | Argentina:13

Company:

Eôs Films

Movie Connections:

Featured in De weg naar Bresson (1984)

Patapar Papers

This is only my second Bresson, the first being "Balthazar." That was rewarding in a sort of intellectual Norman Rockwell sense. This is not.

If you don't know Bresson, he's celebrated in some film communities for his economy, his approach to cinema that supports one view of what it means to be cinematic. I happened to see this on a day I also saw a Matthew Barney project and within near remembrance of a Tarkovsky.

Watching Bresson gives the same reward as reading one of those stories that omits any use of the verb "to be," or perhaps disallows a certain consonant, or maybe more radically forbids punctuation. You're impressed by the extent to which the artist understands the medium, well enough to negotiate his way around certain conventions. But the art isn't in the artifact, its in the method, the approach, the philosophy.

So if you watch this lucidly, you'll be confronted with that philosophy, and whether you really go along with it. Really, this is serious business, because such questions are the stuff out of which we define who we are not. Sure, its cinematic, but how is what matters.

Its a matter of taking away instead of adding, of closing instead of opening, in some way of the small, the slight — but in that, colored by the influence of the insignificant. Intimacies are always small, but loves can be big. Here, it is small, and gentle.

Make your choice.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.