THE DEVIL, PROBABLY

France 1977 - DCP - 95 minutes, in French with English subtitles

Director, Screenplay: Robert Bresson

Producers: Michel Chanderli, Stéphane Tchalgadjieff, Daniel Toscan du Plantier

Cast: Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc, Laetitia Carcano, Nicolas Deguy

Print Courtesy: The Film Desk

Monday, July 10 6:20PM | MFC 3

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How many directors are so distinctive they have a word that describes their style made from their name? Well, there’s “Bressonian,” coined by Cineastes for Robert Bresson’s spare, spiritually-based, utterly distinctive films, none of which were commercial hits, nor were they aspiring to be. Using non-professional actors, including children (Mouchette) and a donkey (Au Hasard Balthazar, the film that EO remade last year), Bresson was a true original. The Devil, Probably was his penultimate film, a cry of despair for a world that seemed to have lost its soul. Its 20-year-old protagonist, Charles, looks for answers in religion, psychotherapy, and politics, rejecting them all before fixing his sights towards suicide as the only answer for him. Yet Bresson’s artistry itself speaks of something more for Charles, and for the world he inhabits: our own. —KE

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