The Devil, Probably

“Even though Bresson has painted a dark picture of wasted youth and beauty, one comes out of the film with a sense of exultation. When a civilization can produce a work of art as perfectly achieved as this, it’s hard to believe that there is no hope for it.”—Richard Roud

The most controversial film of the peerless Robert Bresson’s career, The Devil, Probably follows the last six months of a disenchanted Parisian twenty-something’s life as he rejects the corrupt and materialistic modern world. For the first time in his career (at the age of 76!), Bresson worked from his own solo screenplay, and the result is what Blank Generation musician Richard Hell called “by far the most punk movie ever made.” Sensualistic detail and criticism of a world beyond salvation make this one of Bresson’s most austere, challenging, insightful, and relevant films. (90 mins., 35mm)