L’Argent

The title means “money.” The story starts out interesting enough, adapted from a work by Tolstoy. Some kids pass a counterfeit banknote, and after a while an innocent man is charged with a crime because of it. He loses his job, gets involved in a bank robbery, goes to jail … and ends up as a mass murderer. So … what? Money has somehow tainted this man? So that he slaughters a whole family? It just doesn’t make sense. Film school types seem to love this movie, because it was the last by an icon, Robert Bresson. But frankly, it’s a piece of shit. He apparently grabbed his actors off the street; none had a previous screen credit, and few had any afterwards. Worked in The Bicycle Thief, doesn’t work here. I’ve seen better performances from household appliances. Much better performances from R2D2 and friends. Lee and I remarked that there was a lot of walking, and a lot of opening and closing of doors. You know what a Foley artist is? It’s fascinating work, involving putting in sound effects after shooting, with an emphasis on footsteps. This film was so boring I was highly aware of the Foley work, and had the time to notice that it really sucked. Clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk, clunk. Just about sums up the film.