Les anges du péché

This first Bresson effort has not worn well.The director himself did not like it,and it is sure easy to see why.A non -French audience will not notice it,but the actresses here are professional,some of them were stars of the era.The great Sylvie,Renée Faure,Jany Holt were famous in France when they starred in "les Anges du Péché" .Some were to become ,like Silvia Montfort,whose whining acting is in direct contrast to everything RB would do afterward .

Can today's audience relate to those characters?I have my doubts.This is an excellent documentary : a nun's life is no laughing party (for that matter,see also Zinnemann's "a nun's story" and Alain Cavalier's "Thérese").But the nun from the bourgeoisie who tries to redeem a criminal 's soul will not convince anybody,unless he absolutely loves the director.

It's little more than a Sulpician melodrama.

An absorbing melodrama with great performances from Renée Faure, Sylvie and Jany Holt. Novice nun Anne-Marie, slightly worryingly over-confident, embarks on a fervent mission to redeem a particularly troubled convict, Thérèse.

The script is really strong, and particularly as it portrays the life of the convent. The saints'-wisdom-tombola and the conversation in the laundry are charming, and the ceremonies and submissions quietly powerful.

Anne-Marie's urge to do good becomes increasingly insufferable, and then unhinged to the point where she denounces the sisters' pet cat. The cat, rather than her thankless protégé Thérèse, whose response to Anne-Marie's selfless love, or perhaps her foolish religious pride, comes increasingly to the fore in a deeply moving ending.

Contrary to what you might expect from a 1943 movie about nuns in a convent, Les Anges du Peche is fast, intense and gripping. The writing (by a Dominican priest, Raymond Bruckberger) is awe-inspiring; nearly every line of dialogue is a cluster of moral and emotional insights. Explored with great wisdom are themes of conformity and nonconformity, selfishness and selflessness, sin and redemption, love, jealousy and bitter resentment, pride and shame.

I am not sure if I have ever seen as forceful a feature debut as Bresson's. Don't overlook it - it is arguably better than his more well-regarded works.

1st full-length feature by the self-described Christian-atheist, it was made in occupied France after Bresson had done a year in a prison camp.

There's nothing ostentatious i his style. It's sparse, no flashy camera-acrobatics or editing tricks. I always feel the best directors are those whose work you hardly notice.

The story is set in a convent, Sisters of Bethany, it's purpose is to help women in prison rehabilitate. In it we find Anne-Marie, a somewhat proud & middle-class woman who comes to logger-heads w/Mother Superior & this leads to problems. Along the way she connects w/one of the more recalcitrant prisoners & recognizes her pain & need to be reached out to. Upon release the prisoner returns to join the convent under suspicious circumstances.

What we have is a contrast in characters who come to the convent for different reasons & an exploration into spiritual matters. Well worth watching...

Script and dialogues by the director, Raymond Bruckberger and the playwright Jean Giradoux. Accurate and moving description of a Dominican convent (Bruckberger was a Dominican monk). The story centers on the difficulty of setting precise limits between Christian charity and pride. Unfortunately, the script veers needlessly (and distractingly) into overly dramatic territory midway through the movie. This affects negatively the quality of the acting as well. Music is a little too emphatic at times.

On the positive side, well paced direction and excellent cinematography. This is the first feature film by Bresson and there are some inklings of the minimalist style that would mark his later work.