LES ANGES DU PÉCHÉ
B+
aka: Angels of the Street
France (96 mi) 1943 d: Robert
Bresson
Bresson’s first two feature films are both overwrought
melodramas from the 1940’s, also both feature the presence of professional
actors for the last time in his career as well as an orchestral soundtrack, all
features he eventually eliminated in creating his minimalist style that strips
bare all but the most essential elements. Of his two early films, this
one most accurately resembles his Bressonian film style, where characters are
nearly indistinguishable, there’s plenty of uniformity in action, nuns laying
prostrate on the ground before their superiors, where the camera routinely
follows people moving down long corridors or climbing up or down stairs, where
the physical movement itself creates the rhythm he was looking for, also in the
directness of addressing his subject matter, in this case spiritual
redemption. What distinguishes this film from all other Bresson films is
that it was made while under Nazi occupation “during” World War II, similar to
Rossellini’s OPEN CITY (1945), which was shot shortly after the German army
vacated Rome, or Dreyer’s DAY OF WRATH (1943) which was shot during the Nazi
occupation of Denmark and released to the public when the Danish government had
resigned in protest, where the film became a symbol of the nation’s
resistance. Curiously, after spending more than a year as a German POW,
this film was released in Paris June 23, 1943, a full year before D-Day, June
6, 1944. Surprisingly, French cinema thrived under the occupation, especially
with a German ban on foreign, particularly American, films. There are no
references to the war, no political mention of any kind, and the film, which
began as a documentary, takes place nearly entirely within the grounds of a
real-life Dominican convent of the Sisters of Béthany, where the interrelation
between the nuns comprises the narrative, an idea supposedly brought to Bresson
from Raymond-Leopold Bruckberger, a Dominican priest from Paris, shedding light
on an unusual ministry that cares for women prisoners while welcoming former
convicts into their Order. The personal reference to Bresson's own life
in prison is the final shot, where a wayward nun hiding out from the law
finally turns herself in, finding spiritual salvation in the form of handcuffs
and a life spent in prison.
While this, Diary
of a Country Priest (Journal d'un curé de campagne) (1950), and perhaps Mouchette
(1967), the latter two both written by the same Catholic author, are his most
Catholic oriented films, in each one must overcome the non-believer sentiment
and self-doubts, where even the most faithful are challenged and forced to take
unpopular actions, where going against the grain leads them to the redemptive
path, not following any rigid church hierarchy. The social structure
within the convent might surprise some, as it’s filled with unkind rumors and
backstabbers, where purely jealous motives may drive one to undermine another,
as another sister’s popularity or social ranking may irk them, feeling they are
more deserving. Sounding a bit like cliques from high school, many of
these sisters were deprived of a normal or typical social background due to
damaged family relations, while this particular order of nuns seeks renewal
through the rehabilitation of female prisoners. It’s there that the
idealistic and ever cheerful Sister Anne-Marie (Renée Faure) is called upon to
save the dour and unrepentant prison inmate Thérèse (Jany Holt) who insists
she’s innocent of all charges, rejecting and belittling Anne-Marie’s obvious
naiveté, but the sister doesn’t back down, becoming obsessed with saving
Thérèse’s soul, immediately befriending her when she suddenly and rather
unexpectedly joins the convent. Thérèse, on the other hand, remains
chilly towards Sister Anne-Marie, hiding from all the fact that once out of prison
she murdered the man responsible for putting her in prison. Linking the
salvation of the two together, the saint and the sinner, Bresson intercuts a
shot of Anne-Marie praying in the chapel and Thérèse walking down a hallway on
her way to commit the murder.
Thérèse has a poisonous presence within the convent, leading
a conspiracy against Sister Anne-Marie, turning everyone against her, using the
rigidity of the rules as a way to subvert her more free-spirited and open
hearted approach, resulting in a punitive critique by others who are jealous
that the Mother Superior holds her in such high regard, where supposed
nitpicking of rather minor infractions leads to a personally humiliating and
demeaning public condemnation. Strict obedience to the monotony of daily
routine overrides any sense of leadership or moral assertiveness, becoming an
absolutist, dictatorial agenda (like an Occupation) from which to impose harsh
and punitive judgment. This blindsides Anne-Marie and many of the nuns
who find her cheerful optimism a source of refreshment and spiritual renewal.
Bresson finds transcendent moments in his very first feature, a highly
provocative work accentuating dual moralities, filming a cinematic choreography
that highlights an ascending moral path for both, though in decidedly different
directions. It should be noted that French director Bruno Dumont’s recent
film Hadewijch
(2009) may draw heavily from the provocative themes of this film, in particular
blurring the lines between sinner and saint, both equally deserving of
spiritual renewal, as it also partly takes place in a convent and features a
deeply religious teenage Bressonian character who couldn’t be more innocent and
pure that becomes exposed to religious fanaticism, drawing a fascinating
parallel between the extremism of an austere, cloistered life and a similarly
devout Muslim believer who is willing to die for a cause as a martyr, creating
a powerful and emotionally cathartic final sequence that rivals Bresson’s own,
another film reflecting dual possibilities, the human and the Divine, creating
a bridge between heaven and earth.
