Typically while watching a film I simultaneously check everyone’s imdb and it turns out the director of Jany’s Les Anges du Péché, Robert Bresson, also made Les Dames du bois de Boulogne (1945), one of my long time favorites. He also made Au hasard Balthazar (1966) “The story of a mistreated donkey. A study on saintliness.” which I will never watch. While I’m generally indifferent to people being mistreated in films, maimed, mangled – mauled even, esp by animals, I’m sure the 7 donkeys “used” for this film* were surely abused and that makes my blood boil. As well as sharing a penchant for awkward non-actors** Bresson also flogs the Pasolini variety of pseudo academic cruelty as a means to canonize his subject. I don’t know why Bresson bugs me so much, I suspect displaced rage. Apparently Andrei Tarkovsky considered Balthazar one of the greatest films ever made, so the joke’s on me.

Back to Les Anges; there are two female leads both built like supporting roles; or two supporting roles both built like leads. Whenever you see one, the other feels principal. It’s like they are both 64% – each, or 36% – each, making a combined total of 100% impossible, something is always lacking or is too much. However, the ending made some sense of that, and my eyes welled up.

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* “..in a notorious scene, a piece of newspaper is tied to the donkey’s tail and is ignited. This was tightly controlled by handlers to ensure the fire never reached or burned the donkey’s skin.” – Sure, Mary. Like I said, abused.

** “..his film Pickpocket was banned in Finland because of its depiction of authentic pickpocketing techniques.” – Documentaries are not cinema.