The Devil, Probably (Le diable probalement)

media release: France | 1977 | 35mm | 95 min. | French with English subtitles

Director: Robert Bresson

Cast: Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc

Told as a flashback from a news account of a young man’s suicide, the great Bresson’s penultimate feature is a rigorous depiction of a modern world that’s not fit to live in. Centered around a group of youths (all played, in Bresson’s inimitable style, by nonactors), the story eventually focuses on Charles (Monnier), who finds little happiness in chasing women, pursuing religion, furthering his education, and taking drugs. When psychoanalysis fails and some environmental documentary footage deepens his despair, everything seems pointless to Charles. “Even though Bresson has painted a dark picture of wasted youth and beauty, one comes out of the film with a sense of exultation. When a civilization can produce a work of art as perfectly achieved as this, it is hard to believe that there is no hope for it” (Richard Roud).