L'Argent (1983) + Extras [Criterion Collection]

In his ruthlessly clear-eyed final film, French master Robert Bresson pushed his unique blend of spiritual rumination and formal rigor to a new level of astringency. Transposing a Tolstoy novella to contemporary Paris, L’argent follows a counterfeit bill as it originates as a prop in a schoolboy prank, then circulates like a virus among the corrupt and the virtuous alike before landing with a young truck driver and leading him to incarceration and violence. With brutal economy, Bresson constructs his unforgiving vision of original sin out of starkly perceived details, rooting his characters in a dehumanizing material world that withholds any hope of transcendence.



Extras:
- "L'argent," A to Z - presented here is a brand new essay, written and narrated by James Quandt, that focuses on Robert Bresson's unique style and the conception of L'argent (with some very interesting comments about the differences between the film and Leo Tolstoy's novella that inspired it) (51 min, in English only)