Synopsis
A forged 500-franc note is passed from person to person and shop to shop, until it falls into the hands of a genuine innocent who doesn't see it for what it is—which will have devastating consequences on his life.
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Cast
- Christian PateyYvon Targe
- Vincent RisterucciLucien
- Sylvie Van Den ElsenGrey Haired Woman
- Michel BriguetGrey Haired Woman's Father
- Caroline LangElise
- Marc Ernest FourneauNorbert
- Jean-Frédéric Ducasseun client du magasin
- Didier Baussyle photographe
- Jeanne AptekmanYvette
- François-Marie Banierle compagnon de cellule d'Yvon
Recommendations
- 100
Slant Magazine
Robert Bresson's film hits with the effect not so much reflecting a cleansing of the soul, but rather a ransacking. - 100
Christian Science Monitor
Every shot plays a part in the director's underlying scheme - to probe the actual and symbolic roles of money in society, and grander yet, to explore the relationship between matters of the flesh and the human spirit, as manifested by the struggle between aspiration and corruption. [22 March 1984, p.21] - 100
Newsweek
Constructing a work of implacably interlocking images, the 76-year-old director -- as clear-eyed, still and attentive as a beast of the forest observing human folly -- has produced an Olympian protest against the modern world. Yet his lucid mastery produces not despair, but an odd exhilaration. [16 April 1984, p.93] - 90
The New York Times
It goes beyond the impartiality of journalism. It has the manner of an official report on the spiritual state of a civilization for which there is no hope. - 88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
There is no psychology in L'Argent, no acting to speak of; every scene is a minimal sketch which drives the didactic story forward. This use of narrative may sound ordinary, but, in Robert Bresson's pure filmmaking, it becomes extraordinarily relentless. [20 July 1984] - 80
Empire
Compelling morality tale that works on multiple layers.
