Les anges du péché

Before World War Two, France had one of the most vibrant movie scenes in the world, just behind Hollywood and Germany. But with the onslaught of WW2, most of the French filmmakers fled the continent. However, director/scriptwriter Robert Bresson decided to stay, and took advantage of the void to direct his first feature film, June 1943's "Angels of Sin." He would direct only thirteen full-length films, but his impact in cinema remains high, especially to those working in film in the late 1950s during what is known as the 'French New Wave' era.

Jean-Luc Godard placed Bresson in the highest echelon of French film directors. "Bresson is the French cinema, as Dostoevsky is the Russian novel and Mozart is German music." Francois Truffaut called him one of the very few true "auteurs." At 42 when Bresson handled his first feature film in "Angels of Sin," he had spent his younger years as a painter and a photographer. Bresson had directed only one short film, 1934's 'Public Affairs,' but he had written four film scripts prior to 1940 which became movies. Enlisting in the French Army when war broke out, Bresson was captured by the Germans and spent a year in a prisoner-of-war camp before paroled.

Under Germany's thumb, Vichy France restructured French cinema, and the dearth of filmmaking talent made Bresson a highly-sought after commodity. The Catholic director was assisted by famous dramatist Jean Giraudoux and Dominican priest Raymond Bruckberger, who suggested a book on the Sisters of Bethany who rehabilitate female convicts. Bresson's screenplay is centered on Anne-Marie (Renee Faure), a do-gooder who decides to join a convent to help those incarcerated. Her first assignment is Therese (Jany Holt), a bitter woman who unwittingly took the rap for her boyfriend's stealing. Once Therese is paroled, she immediately kills her former lover, and seeks to hide out from the police by joining the convent. Therese, the nunnery's bully, gets Anne-Marie in trouble where she's banned from the convent. Anne-Marie is so persistent in her attempts to reform Therese she repeatedly slinks back at night, leading to a spiritual awakening for both. "However distant from his later work it may be," says film reviewer Erik Ulman, "'Angels of Sin' remains not only recognizably a Bresson film, but one of great power." This is one of only two movies he had hired professional actors; all his others consist strictly of amateurs. His debut set a commonality which appears throughout his future movies, including his characters' salvation and redemption. Like his subsequent films, Bresson's pares down superfluous details of events not crucial to the main plot, known as ellipsis.

Some critics draw a parallel between the convent and Vichy France in "Angels of Sin" which Bresson subtly gives certain hints. German officials monitored each of the 230 films produced by the French during WW2, carefully inspecting and cutting any negativity towards the Axis powers. Popular for French film-goers during the war were adaptations of literature and drama, crime and melodramatic thrillers. German and Italian-produced films attracted only flies in France. Film critic Greg Klymkiw noticed "Angels in Sin" "deals very cleverly and subtly with the way in which the nunnery operates in comparison to the prison and most importantly, how the secular world is essentially the Vichy and the religious world, the Resistance." "Angels of Sin" was Bresson's only directed film during the war. But it was a springboard to one of the most fertile body of works in French cinema by one director.

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.

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...

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.

More people should see this beautiful film! It is easily available on amazon.fr (with subtitles), free for streaming on youtube or google video, or for download on the usual sites. It looks great and the print is fine for 1943. The grim corridors of the prison and the foggy streets outside the prison, makes for a suitably noirish contrast to the shining white walls and robes in the convent. Although the professional actors and the suspenseful plot make this an atypical Bresson film, the careful camera framing and the discrete panning produces typically sparse and detailed interiors. The plot may be melodramatic and music a bit intruding at times, but almost every scene is a joy to behold. There are a lot of interesting little touches that show in great detail the daily life and the more mundane side of convent life, clothing regulations, mores etc.

I find that I watch this film more for the aesthetic quality of the individual scenes than for any statement the film as a whole might have. There are also many oddities: For example when Therese knocks upon the convent door after shooting her betrayer, sister Anne Marie is chanting a text from what, one might assume, is a book of prayers. The title, however, reads: "Leo Tolstoj : Krig og fred", which makes it a Norwegian or Danish version of Tolstoy's War and Peace. Strange? But the most impressive and memorable sight in the film for me is the early scene when the submissive sisters lay face down with arms outstretched cross-like on the cold floor. It is almost frightening in its austere beauty, and also very strange for anyone without convent practice. It is the strangeness that does it. Like every Bresson film, I guess.