Les Anges du péché (1943)
Directed by Robert Bresson

Film Review

A decade after he made his directing debut with a comedy short, Les Affaires publiques (1934), Robert Bresson completed his first full-length film which, whilst stylistically very different to the films he would subsequently make, resonates with many of the themes that are central to his oeuvre, in particular man's striving for spiritual fulfilment and redemption.  Les Anges du péché is a characteristically Bressonian exploration of the nature of sin and the susceptibility of the human spirit to evil, but it differs markedly from the director's later films in that it adopts a conventional approach to filmmaking, with professional actors giving polished performances in the style of the day (more theatrical than naturalistic).  Bresson would stick to the cinematic conventions of his time for one further film, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne (1945), before breaking ranks and developing his own form of cinematic expression.

Les Anges du péché has much in common with Bresson's later masterpieces Journal d'un curé de campagne (1951) and Procès de Jeanne d'Arc (1962), and indeed these three films may legitimately be grouped together as a loose trilogy in which the director expounds his idiosyncratic ideas about faith and redemption.  The heroine of the first film, Anne-Marie (magnificently portrayed by Renée Faure), resembles the tragic protagonists of the other two - a young country priest who fails to deliver Christ's message to sceptical parishioners and Joan of Arc, who fails to convince a court of her divine inspiration.  Like the characters in these later Bresson films, Anne-Marie ends up being ostracised from the community she has selflessly devoted herself to but she is ultimately redeemed by the immense purity of her faith.

Anne-Marie's salvation is mirrored by that of the 'fallen woman' Thérèse (Jany Holt), who resists well-meaning attempts to reform her but in the end is redeemed in a miraculous moment of transcendence.  The antagonistic and manipulative killer Thérèse prefigures those deeply flawed characters in Bresson's later films - Pickpocket (1959), Le Diable probablement (1977) and L'Argent (1983) - who at first appear seem to be completely beyond salvation but ultimately find their way back to goodness.  The fact that Anne-Marie and Thérèse end up in the same place, in spite of the fact that one is an obvious saint and the other an outright sinner, is a typically Bressonesque comment that there are no absolutes in good or evil and that we are all capable of redemption and all equally deserving of forgiveness.  To those familiar with Bresson's work, the language of Les Anges du péché may be unfamiliar but the meaning is instantly recognisable.

Film Synopsis

Rather than follow the life of wealth and comfort that has been mapped out for her by her family circumstances, Anne-Marie Lamaury opts instead to take holy orders and devote herself to the service of God.  The order she chooses is the Dominicaines de Béthanie, which concerns itself with the rehabilitation of women convicts.  It is on one of her prison visits that Anne-Marie meets Thérèse and finds herself strangely concerned with her plight.  The prisoner gives the nun no encouragement and is clearly too resentful for what has happened to her to accept any help from anyone.  Undeterred by the young woman's intransigence and hostility, Anne-Marie persists and offers her a place to stay in the convent when she comes out of prison. 

Thérèse declines and goes on insisting that she has been wrongly convicted.  Not long afterwards, Thérèse turns up at the convent and appeals to Anne-Marie to help her.  It seems that, shortly after leaving prison, the unrepentant young woman returned to her lover, the man she claimed committed the theft for which she was convicted, and murdered him.  Anne-Marie is naturally delighted by Thérèse's arrival and, convinced she has found a genuine penitent, devotes herself to the young woman's spiritual salvation.  In doing so, this most committed of nuns comes into conflict with her fellow sisters and ends up being sent away from the convent.

A short time later, Anne-Marie is found lying unconscious on the grave of the order's founder.  The Mother Superior takes pity on her and welcomes the grievously ill woman back into the convent, where she is dutifully nursed by Thérèse.  Fearing that the dying Anne-Marie will betray her confidence, Thérèse makes up her mind to run away once again, but before she can do so the police arrive to arrest her.  Once she has completed her prison sentence, she returns to the convent to replace the one to whom she owes her redemption - Anne-Marie.