a series of feature films reflecting some of the finest work of many of France's most famous and talented directors and artists

starring Martin Lassalle
Written and directed by Robert Bresson

A young intellectual finds that picking pockets provides the stimulation his earlier life failed to offer.
Robert Bresson uses a non-professional cast in this impressively' close study of an intelligent young man who deliberately takes up crime. Non-professional in the acting sense, that is; at least one member of the company, Kassagi, is a skilled and thoroughly professional practitioner of the art the film deals with, and since it was made he has served several sentences.
Martin Lassalle plays Michel, the bright youngster whose rejection of society coupled with a self-destructive drive moves him first to pilfer pettily and then, under expert training from Kassagi, to pick pockets; Marika Green touchingly portrays Joanne, the girl who obstinately insists on loving him; Jean Pelegri is a policeman seen almost as a confessor; and in a smallish part is Pierre Etaix, subsequently the actor-director of Le Soupirant, Yoyo, and other works.