In the film industry, their love for Dostoevsky can be seen in the works of many directors, Woody Allen, Akira Kurosawa, Bergman, Houmai, Visconti, Kaurismäki, Zuraski...
This summer, the 22nd Shanghai International Film Festival is coming, and in the "Tribute to the Master" section there is a retrospective exhibition of Angelopoulos and Bresson.
Angelopoulos and Bresson were also Dostoevsky's "fans".
In particular, most of Bresson's films are adapted from Dostoevsky's works, among which "Pickpocket" has the shadow of "Crime and Punishment".
Thus, Godard once said that Bresson is to French cinema as Mozart is to classical music, and Dostoevsky is to Russian literature.
Bresson's Pickpocket movie poster
Poster for the 1969 Soviet version of Crime and Punishment
Poster for the 1956 French film Crime and Punishment
[Tip: Based on Dostoevsky's novel Crime and Punishment, the film has multiple versions in multiple countries, with the French version in 1956 moving the plot to Paris; the 1969 Soviet version is 3 hours and 20 minutes long, closer to the original book.] ]
On the occasion of the release of the Bresson Film Retrospective, those who grabbed the ticket for "Pickpocket" may be interested in learning more about the story of "Pickpocket" and "Crime and Punishment": a movie, a novel; a famous director, a famous writer.
Next, we asked the editors of Crime and Punishment (Literary Review Edition, which was released in June 2019) to take stock of the similarities and differences between the two.
French Michel and Russian Raskolnikov
Films and novels depict nihilists of different countries but with similar fates
Footage from the movie Pickpocket
The consistent style of Bresson's film aesthetic is "simplicity, depth".
In Pickpocket, the diary, monologue, and lines are part of the film, presenting Michelle's pain in a minimalist way.
He himself was expressionless, living in a small room in a certain part of the city, a space like his inner world, small and cramped.
But he loved to read and was a nihilist.
He needs to take care of his bedridden mother.
This is the scene of his life.
Life in his eyes was backwater, boring.
And stealing is the way to break boredom, full of surprise, is adventurous.
This is also one of Bresson's intentions in the opening:
This is not a thriller, the director tries to portray the nightmare of a young man through images and sounds, driven by his own weaknesses, into an adventure that he cannot imagine, but the process of this adventure is wonderful, combining two hearts that will never come together.
This kind of nihilism has been enriched by Dostoevsky, as Oscar Wilde said in The Decline of Lies:
The nihilist, the strange martyr, who had no faith, walked without enthusiasm to the pillar of burning, died for what he did not believe, he was purely a fictional figure in literature. Turgenev created him, and Dostoevsky made it full.
Raskolnikov, the protagonist of Crime and Punishment, is a poor university student who lives in a cramped room in a house in Petersburg.
Because of the poisoning of the mind, he killed the landlord's old lady and her sister, so he was tested by "morality-psychology" and was repeatedly tortured inside.
Both Michel and Raskolnikov belonged to the category of poor but thoughtful intellectuals.
But they are also indeed "painful nihilists".
They all act according to their own inner will (will).
The former has nothing to do and only wants to steal in his heart, and his fascination with the art of stealing prompts him to go through this "wonderful" adventure.
The latter is forced into the path of crime because of money problems, and his justice and morality are intertwined, and he suffers from pain in his heart.
<h2>Nervous, abrupt, jumping mental activity</h2>
Michelle stole for the first time, Raskolnikov killed for the first time
In Pickpocket, Bresson uses his minimalist approach to depict Michelle's first theft in a car and his inner activities.
He held the newspaper, looked calm, close to the passengers, and the panic and nervousness in his heart were highlighted by the help of the monologue:
Hands shaking, newspapers too... My heart beat fast.
In the end he succeeded.
The next theft also made him very comfortable, until one time, he got out of the car and hurried away, but was chased by the owner, in person and in public, asked Michelle to return the wallet he had just stolen.
Michelle had to hand it over, then trotted away with her head down.
This also shows the shame in his heart after the failure of the theft.
In Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov shows inexplicable panic as he prepares for the killing:
"His heart was pounding, and he couldn't breathe."
His hands trembled as he sewed the ring sleeve that hung his axe.
As he drew closer and closer to the residence of the landlady Ivanovna, his emotions and limbs began to rage:
"He took a breath, pressed his hand on his beating heart, and then touched the axe again, hung it up, and then carefully and quietly began to go upstairs, listening to the movements from time to time."
He moved deliberately, raising his voice slightly to say something, without the slightest intention of avoiding, and then, for the third time, he rang the doorbell, but very lightly, steadily, without the slightest impatience. Later, whenever he thought of all this, distinctly, clearly, this moment was like a brand forever burned in his mind; he did not understand how he could have so many tricks, and his mind seemed to be so often extinguished that he could hardly feel even his own body... After a while, the sound of the hook being opened was heard. ”
[Tip: The translator, Cao Guowei, carefully revised the translation in order to express the tension, mutation, jumping and urgency of Raskolnikov's thoughts. ]
Dostoevsky's depictions advance meticulously and slowly, and Raskolnikov's mental state is perfectly presented.
<h2>
In addition to the nihilism and psychological activity in the film and novel, the female role of the author's guide is also important
</h2>
In the movie, besides Michelle's mother, Jenny is the most important female character.
Pointing to her as a neighbor of Michelle's mother, helping Michelle take care of her, and being Michelle's guide from the Void.
When Michelle first met Jenny, the connection between the two gradually became closer, and Bresson's opening sentence said:
"Two hearts that will never come together are united."
Jenny's love begins to be secretive, and her first encounter with Michelle is simple in dialogue.
The second time was to go to Michelle's house with Michelle's friends, and she entered Michelle's inner world like a love elf, small and simple.
Another time was on the street.
Michelle then goes to Jenny's house and talks about his cancellation of the lawsuit, where Jenny comes forward and hugs him, further pushing him out of nothingness.
Michelle may have been slowly guided, but he chose to leave Paris, went to Milan, Rome, and then to England for two years, because of gambling and women, he lost, and returned to Paris empty-handed.
He meets Jenny, who is an unmarried mother at the time, and she does not love the father of the child, so she no longer interacts.
Michelle continues to steal and helps Jenny.
Until he is caught at the racecourse, Jenny and Michelle meet in prison, Michelle asks her why she is here, Jenny says she is only him, Michelle refuses to say that he does not want anything.
Love and rejection face each other back and forth, and finally Michelle wakes up and kisses Jenny through the iron net, and he is purified by love and comes out of nothingness:
"Jenny, what a bizarre path I have taken to be with you."
Among the many women in the novel, Sonia is the leader of Raskolnikov.
Forced by her family's circumstances, she became a prostitute.
The landlord disliked her because of her profession, and she had to come back occasionally to help her younger siblings.
Sonia is an oppressed person, and this oppression leads her to another life, in a society of heavy pressure, she herself is not depraved, but chooses to save herself, patience is one of her beautiful qualities.
On the other hand, she did everything in her power to save others, namely Raskolnikov.
2002 British TV series version of Crime and Punishment
Sonia's full name is Sophia Semyonovna Marmeladova, in which Sophia implies "wisdom", then she herself is an incarnation, of which is the embodiment of love.
Sonia comforted Raskolnikov in pain and torment, her words filled with loving gentleness, gently soothing his burning heart and uneasiness.
Love is a divine guide.
At the end of the novel, Raskolnikov is baptized and sublimated by Sonia's love, and love and being loved are fused, presenting the purity and beauty of love.
Suddenly, Sonia appeared beside him. She came almost silently and sat down beside him. It's still early, and the early morning spring chill is still steep. She wears a shabby old cloak and a green tweed turban. Her face was still sickly, emaciated, pale, and her cheeks were sunken. She smiled at him kindly and cheerfully, but still timidly held out her hand to him, as usual.
When she reached out to him, she was always timid, sometimes not even reaching out at all, as if afraid he would push it away. He always seemed to shake her hand in disgust, always seemed annoyed to see her, and sometimes when she came, he always stubbornly did not say a word. She was often trembling in front of him, and when she left, her heart was very uncomfortable. But now their hands were clasped together, and he glanced at her quickly, said nothing, and lowered his eyes to look at the ground. It was just the two of them, and no one saw them. The prison guard just turned his back on it.
How this happened, even he didn't know it, but suddenly it seemed as if something had grabbed him and thrown him at her feet. He cried and held her on his knees. For the first moment, she was frightened and her face turned miserable. She jumped up, trembling, and looked at him sheepishly, but immediately, at the same moment, understood everything. Her eyes shone with infinite happiness. She understood, there was no longer any doubt for her: he loved her, loved her infinitely, and the moment finally came...
They want to say something, but they can't say it. Tears welled up in their eyes. Both of them were pale and thin, but on these two pale, morbid faces, there was already a different kind of future shining, the dawn of new life. What gives them a new lease of life is love. One person's heart contains an infinite source of life, enough to nourish another person's heart.
They decided to wait and endure. They still have to wait seven years, and before that, how much unbearable pain, how much infinite happiness! But he was resurrected, he knew it, his whole body was reborn, he felt it fully, and she, who had made his life herself, had simply taken his life as her own!
[The above is an excerpt from Crime and Punishment (Literary Review Edition).] Click to read the original article to go directly to Dangdang to purchase this book. ]
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