L'Argent

Based on Leo Tolstoy’s 1911 novella ‘The Forged Coupon’ this loose adaptation by Robert Bresson was his last film and won the ‘Director’s Prize’ at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival. Bresson was also presented with a ‘Best Director’ Award by the National Society of Film Critics. The dialogue is sparse with no incidental music. The film tells the story of an adolescent who owes money to a schoolmate. When his father refuses to give him the required amount he pawns his watch to a friend… who then gives him a forged bank note worth 500 Francs. This triggers an unexpected chain of events with a deadly outcome…

After Norbert (Marc Fourneau) realises that he will not be getting the desired result from his father (André Cler) he complains that his all his other friends get more pocket money… to which the father replies that presumably, they don’t rack up debts. Nobert then asks his mother (Claude Cler) but she is also short of cash and on her way to a meeting. Desperate to get the needed cash Norbert then visits a friend intent of pawning his watch for which his friend pays him with a forged 500 Francs note and assures Norbert that no one will notice. In order to prove his point he takes Norbert along to a photoshop and buys a picture frame, secretly mocking the female sales assistant (Béatrice Tabourin) who first reacts suspiciously and mentions that lately, quite a few counterfeit notes had been in circulation. Eventually she believes the young lads but later the store’s manager (Didier Baussy) realises straight away that the note is a fake and scolds the assistant who wryly replies that he himself fell victim to two counterfeit notes just the other week. Peeved by her sarcastic remarks, the shop owner decides to pass on the three forged notes and sends his junior assistant Yvon Targe (Christian Patey) to pay an outstanding bill owed by the shop. Instead, Yvon uses the money to have a few drinks in a nearby Bistro but unfortunately for him, the waiter is no fool and recognises the notes as fake – which prompts the arrest of Yvon. At the court trial, his employers plus another shop assistant, Lucien (Vincent Risterucci) perjure themselves as it was they who were responsible for getting Yvon into trouble in the first place. However, Yvon is spared jail although it is decided that he must quit his job for having the cheek to use the money to pay for drinks in a bar.

Meanwhile, Norbert’s mother bribes the female photoshop assistant with money (real money this time) after the assistant had recognised Norbert and his friends on the street and threatened to report them to the schoolmaster. Back in the shop, Lucien is angry at his employers for having asked him to commit perjury at court and lie in Yvon’s favour. Frankly, Lucien is of the opinion he deserves a little something for having lied under oath and starts by marking up certain items in the shop, pocketing the difference. When he is found out he too is fired, however, the photoshop owner doesn’t have an inkling that Lucien managed to make copies of the shop-keys and soon, the owner is confronted with the sight of an empty safe!
The desperate Yvon can’t find a job due to his criminal record and so decides to act as the driver of a getaway car for a bunch of bank robbers though in typical Bresson fashion even this chain of events is executed in minimalistic style. When the police are tipped off about a bank robbery the shoot-out scenario is depicted in an almost surreal fashion. With Yvon arrested yet again, this time ‘round the Judge sees no reason to be lenient and sentences him to three years in prison – prompting his long-suffering partner Elise (Caroline Lang) to start a new life without him. This he learns via a letter which she sends to him in prison. He is also made aware that his little daughter has died. As fate would have it, Lucien and his partners in crime are also arrested for their various scams and end up in the same prison as Yvon… who gets angry with Lucien because he blames him for his own misfortune. When Lucien plans a prison break, Yvon doesn’t want to know about it, which is just as well, because Lucien gets caught and his sentence is extended.

After three years Yvon is released with nowhere to go and no means of support. Eventually he finds himself in a ramshackle guesthouse but it is like an evil force has taken hold of him as he kills the innkeepers while they are asleep and helps himself to the cash from the reception lobby. Wandering aimlessly around the nearby countryside, Yvon notices an elderly woman (Sylvie Van Den Elsen) going into the local post office of a little village. Intent on robbing her, he hesitates when he realises that she’s aware of being followed, at which point Yvon stops pursuing her. Later on he simply enters her little house (which never seems to be locked) and to his amazement she doesn’t ask many questions but instead welcomes him into her humble home, even giving him meals – much to the chagrin of her father (Michel Brigue) who doesn’t like this stranger. If only the kind lady would have listened. Days pass and Yvon is allowed a ‘makeshift home’ in the garden shed – his host even brings him coffee every morning. While he seems to like the warm-hearted lady – even helping her with the laundry and remarking that she works like a donkey for a very ungrateful family (her sister has since returned with her hubby and children in tow) the rest of the household make it clear they don’t want him. One day while making his ‘bed’ in the shed he discovers an axe under the straw and enters the main house to carry out the unthinkable….

(Spoiler Alert) - This is an utterly unexpected ending made all the more shocking because after the bloody murder of an entire family, Yvon enters a restaurant for one last time before handing himself in. One can only assume that his motive for the brutal killings was an anxiety attack over the threat of losing his temporary shelter and being forced to wander the streets once again. Or perhaps Yvon is simply an evil person – the fact that he carries out the butchery of an entire family, including the kind-hearted lady, in a completely stoic manner suggests the latter might be the case. Bresson leaves us to come up with our own conclusions. There is a big message in this film, namely how we - as individuals and as a society as a whole - are prepared to commit crimes because circumstances are forcing us to do so and it no longer matters whether our deeds are right or wrong. At the same time, the film demonstrates that due to the selfish and thoughtless actions of one individual, considerably more harm can befall other people: if only Norbert’s friend had not handed him the fake 500 Franc note then this avalanche of terrible events would never have occurred…

This thought-provoking drama is released in a new restoration on Blu-ray, iTunes and Amazon Prime. Special Features include:
• Restored from the original negative and presented in High Definition
• Style, Anti-style and Influence (2022, 22 mins): an onstage discussion.
• First and Last (2022, 9 mins): film scholar Jonathan Hourigan Les Anges du péché, with his last, L’Argent.
• The Root of All Evil (2022, 19 mins): writer Michael Brooke considers Bresson’s late masterpiece in this newly commissioned video essay
• Jonathan Hourigan on L’Argent (2007, 27 mins, audio only): an audio introduction to the film
• Value For Money (1970, 22 mins): David Blest’s dreamlike, experimental short film, featuring Quentin Crisp, visualises coin-operated connections between money and religion
• Theatrical trailer
• ***First pressing only*** Illustrated booklet.