Sunday, August 26, 2007

Notebook sighting in Pickpocket

Jules Dassin's Rififi led me to Robert Bresson's Pickpocket (1959), with its dazzling silent stretches of intricate criminal choreography. Pickpocket is my second Bresson film. As in Diary of a Country Priest (1951), a notebook grants access to the protagonist's inner life. A pattern? I must see more Bresson.


[I know that those who have done these things usually keep quiet, and that those who talk haven't done them. And yet I have done them.]

Pickpocket (The Criterion Collection)

Related posts
Pocket notebook sightings in Rififi
Pocket notebook sighting (in Diary of a Country Priest)

comments: 4

Anonymous said...

While they may not be Criterion Collection material, old Perry Mason episodes (on DVD) are remarkably enjoyable and interesting a half century after their original creation. (I recently indulged in a boxed set.)

The episodes show a lot of 1950s office material, including the wax cylinders of dictation machines. Also, many pocket notebooks (often in the hands of Mason's associate Paul Drake, Private Detective), intercoms, typewriters, and much more.

Michael Leddy said...

Yes, Perry Mason is great stuff. I always like seeing Paul Drake's car phone in action.

feclvert said...

Why does Perry always wear a heavy overcoat in Los Angeles ?
Why is the sun always shining at night in the Perry Mason shows ?
Why do they always show an old movie clip from the 40s when showing the traffic in LA ?

Michael Leddy said...

I don't know the answers to the first and third questions, but the sun always seemed to be shining at night back then. : ) I've noticed it in other old shows too.