The most sublime of swan songs, Bresson's last movie was one of the
outstanding achievements of world cinema in the 1980s. Adapting a
story by Tolstoy, Bresson updates it to contemporary Paris, but the
props of modern life become symbols of a timeless reality. Eliminating
all but the most essential, the spare images make the metaphysical
world tangible through the positioning of objects and the precision of
editing. A journey through the purgatory of one lost soul, its
understated but agonising violence - both spiritual and physical – is
made endurable, even exhilarating, by the supreme compassion of a
great director. Stunning, literally.
