***

Robert Bresson’s masterful investigation of crime and redemption tells the story of the young, arrogant Michel (Martin LaSalle), who spends his days learning the art of picking pockets in the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. As Michel grows bolder and more adept, so too grows his fear that his luck is about to run out. But despite the pleadings of his sick mother and the lovely Jeanne to return to the world of the honorable, he is consumed by his compulsion to steal. Tautly choreographed and stylistically rigorous, Pickpocket reveals Bresson at his enigmatic, virtuosic best.

Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC vs. MK2 (3 Films de Robert Bresson) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Artificial Eye - Region 2 - PAL vs. Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray vs. BFI - Region 'B' - Blu-ray

MK2

Region 2 - PAL

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

1.33:1 Original Aspect Ratio
Average Bitrate: 6.55 mb/s
PAL 720x576 25.00 f/s

NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.

MK2 (3 Films de Robert Bresson)

Artificial Eye

2.0 Dolby Digital French

LPCM Audio French 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
Commentary:

Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps

LPCM Audio French 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Q+A:

LPCM Audio English 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Interview with Robert Bresson (6:27)
• The Models of Pickpocket (52:14)
• - Pierre Leymarie (13:27)
• - Marika Green (12:27)
• - Martin Lassalle (26:10)
• Auteur de Pickpocket (12:57) - Jean-Pierre Améris, Marika Green, Paul Vecchiali
• Kassagi (11:34)
• Trailer (2:32)

DVD Release Date: March 23rd, 2005
Keep Case

Chapters 17

Aspect Ratio:
Fullscreen - 1.33:1

Edition Details:
• Interview with Robert Bresson (6:27) - Cinépanorama (1960)
• The Models of Pickpocket (52:14)
• - Pierre Leymarie (13:27)
• - Marika Green (12:27)
• - Martin Lassalle (26:10)
• Auteur de Pickpocket (12:57) - Jean-Pierre Améris, Marika Green, Paul Vecchiali
• Kassagi (11:34) - of
• Trailer (2:32)
 

Chapters 17

Chapters 17

Chapters 7

NOTE: We have added 44 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE.

BFI also go liner PCM - in a dual-mono track in the original French language. The music is selections from Jean-Baptiste Lully's Suite de symphonies d'Amadis conducted by Marc Lanjean as well as Johann Caspar Ferdinand Fischer's Fragments from Orchestral suite No. 7 (Suite in G, Overture) sounding beautifully serene and placid in the uncompressed. BFI also offer optional English subtitles but their Blu-ray disc is Region 'B'-locked.

The BFI Blu-ray has some excellent extras starting with a 'Robert Bresson Q&A' from 1971, running three quarters into the film as an optional audio track. It has the director in conversation with John Russell Taylor, recorded on stage at the NFT during the 15th London Film Festival. They talk of Dostoevsky influences and much more - the director speaks English if slightly quietly - with his accent option subtitles may have been a good option. Paul Schrader on Pickpocket has him surfacing again - but this is new (2022) where Schrader discusses his relationship with Bresson’s film and how it has influenced him for about a dozen minutes. repeated from the Criterion DVD and Blu-ray is The Models of Pickpocket which runs 52-minutes - made in 2003 -and shows Babette Mangolte’s documentary which tracks down Pickpocket’s performers to discuss their experiences of working with Bresson. Included are archival short film: Thefts From Handbags (1961, 1 min): British television spot warning women to watch out for thieves; Snatch of the Day (1975, 1 min): John Krish’s sporty public information film of the tricks of the pickpocketing trade; Four Men in Prison from 1950. It is the controversial drama-documentary from the Crown Film Unit using real-life prison situations to address the purpose of incarceration - running shy of 3/4 of an hour. There is an original theatrical, reissue trailers and for the first pressings purchasers get an illustrated booklet featuring writing from Adrian Martin, Michael Brooke and Steve Foxon.

So, perhaps a more authentic, darker and beautifully textured, image, clean uncompressed audio (inspired music) and new supplements including the invaluable Q+A audio, new, updated, Schrader piece, the repeated Mangolte documentary, three shorts and the desirable booklet. Bresson fans know who they are. Pickpocket and its "parametric narration" has too much to offer to ignore. It has young Uruguayan, nonprofessional actor, Martin LaSalle and this was the first film Bresson wrote an original screenplay rather than an adaptation. It is a pure, thematic, cinema masterpiece where I seem to see more each time I watch it. The Criterion is 8-years old (with extras from the 17-year old DVD). How can we resist this new BFI Blu-ray? if only providing another reason to revisit and analyze the film. Our highest recommendation! 

***

ADDITION - Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray June 2014: This new Criterion 1080P supports Pickpocket's textures through its higher resolution. It is slightly brighter than the SDs - has superior contrast - and we see the slightly cropped information Henrik mentioned in the DVD - retuned to the right edge of the Blu-ray. Detail improves - notable in the many close-ups of hands and the written text (see samples below.) The 2k restoration with max'ed out bitrate looks as good as I anticipated and extremely impressive in-motion.

Audio is linear PCM mono and sounds clean although I occasionally notice what I believe to be slight sync issues. Most of the time it is not noticeable. There are optional English subtitles and the Blu-ray disc is, as you may have suspected, region 'A'-locked.

Extras duplicate the 2005 DVD - the James Quandt commentary, intro by Paul Schrader, The Models of “Pickpocket,” 2003 documentary by Babette Mangolte, an interview with director Robert Bresson from a 1960 episode of the French television program Cinépanorama, a Q&A on Pickpocket from 2000, featuring actor Marika Green and filmmakers Paul Vecchiali and Jean-Pierre Améris and vintage footage of the sleight-of-hand artist and Pickpocket consultant Kassagi from a 1962 episode of the French television show La piste aux étoiles. There is also a trailer and the package contains a liner notes booklet with an essay by novelist and critic Gary Indiana. The Dual-format package has a DVD with the feature and all the supplements of the lone Blu-ray disc.

Bresson on Blu-ray is an essential purchase, IMO. This provides a strong presentation of an immensely re-watchable film - I see something new each time I view it. The supplements are educational and fascinating. Our highest recommendation!

***

ADDITION: Criterion - October 05': At times we debate whether a Criterion image is actually sharper or simply has the appearance of being sharper by manipulation of contrast and saturation levels. In this particular case I actually do think it is sharper - contrast level adjustment can make black lines blacker and lighter shades lighter but it cannot really make hazier images more detailed. The Criterion is more detailed than both of MK2 and the Artificial Eye. The Criterion has some contrast fluctuation and has some visible film grain (or digital noise).

The complaint with the Criterion will be their own framing of Bresson's image. There appears to be haphazard and inconsistent cropping of the image mostly on the top and right edge. For years I have stated that this MUST be an occurrence of the Criterion digitization/restoration process but I have no conclusive evidence to support my theory. It happens on virtually all Criterion DVDs that we compare - it is probably a combination of zooming and slight pan + scanning. Whether you are overly offended by this matting is a personal decision.

The Criterion removable subtitles are slightly superior - a little more detailed in a few spots and a less intrusive (smaller), yet still have a perfectly visible font. 

The extras; a few of the extras on the other release are duplicated on the Criterion - The Models of Pickpocket, the Bresson Interview, a trailer and the Kassagi performance. In addition to that the Criterion has a 15 minute Paul Schrader introduction (excellent!!!), a Q&A on Pickpocket, liner notes and the James Quant commentary that I felt was rather stuffed - he was talking very fast. It was great information, for the most part, but he really seemed rushed.

Bottom line: So if this were a foot race Criterion have come from behind with the later release and passed both of their competitors. If you can live with the often very minor cropping of the image then the Criterion is definitely the definitive release of this masterpiece film. 

***

It appears as though both editions are exact. The Artificial Eye is a licensed port of the MK2 and has the same degree of sharpness, original audio, subtitle options, extra features and the same menus, except the AE are in English.

The only real difference (albeit minute) that we could find are that in the subtitles, where the Mk2 appears a few frames later than on Artificial Eye. Note the difference between them in Image #1. Both before Michel points and after his finger is out of the image, the Artificial Eye has no subtitles on in that specific scene.

The extras are the same and begins with an interview of Bresson from French TV (Cinépanorama 1960) where Bressons answers questions towards his techniques and the film itself. Following this comes three interviews with the three main actors, recorded in 2003, then a Q&A from 2000 with Ameris, Green and director Paul Vecchiali, and finally a demonstration of pickpocketing by Kassagi from the TV-show "La Piste aux Ètoiles" from 1962. Simply superb additional material.

 - Henrik Sylow