The Devil, Probably

Very much a Bresson film and worth watching if you enjoy his films, but it's not quite as good as his best. It feels like he's channeling Godard's sense of politics without his sense of fun and it comes off as a really odd combination. It's still somewhat effective, especially in the religious criticisms and his trademark style works well with the depressed youth central to the film.

SPOILERS."The pleasure of despair". Coldy haunting experience from start to finish -- and what a brutal finale; kid pays a friend to kill him and he can barely finish his last sentence before being shot down. Favorite scene: random people on a bus rambling about existence, driver stops and just leaves. It's Bresson all over it, of course -- detailed shots of gestures, hands doing things, feet of people walking around, doors and shit, the march of everyday life --, but with such a wicked vibe.

name a more unsettling arc than the one spanning the climax of a man escaped and this finale's grotesque parody of the same. the most misanthropic of all comedies, a film on how seeing our modern world too clearly is (or feels like) a terminal “sickness”--by the filmmaker who saw more clearly than any other. this cinema of total negation only becomes more relevant and appealing; die dritte generation, first reformed and nocturama would strap it to their chests.

Immaterial material and contrived scenes to, amongst other things, lend platform for unrealistic and delegitimizing I'm14andthisisdeep drivel were the basis of my conviction that I was watching a film from students at a film school. The limited scope in both breadth and depth of most actors didn't help either. Unfortunate, because the premise seemed very promising. Cool Hand Luke was much more convincing and devastating.

I might be in the minority in that i actually prefer Bresson the more relentlessly "Bressonian" he gets, which may account for why i seem to prefer his later films, where he's developed his singular style to the point of near autonomous perfection. I'd be lying if i said this didn't have stretches that sort of drag, but then a brilliant scene like the psychiatrist session will come along and make it all totally worth it. Also, is it just me or is this the most weirdly brown and beige movie ever?

Drab, hackneyed and uninteresting with wooden acting and unsympathetic characterisation. To say more would mean dredging up even more cliches and having sat through 90 minutes of them back to back I'm disinclined to go any further. Like listening to a sullen teenager mumble on for an hour and half.

I think I’m gonna watch this again later, but for now: can you imagine Bresson’s reaction to twitter discourse lmao

Competent as always from Bresson, but I found this one even colder than his usual stuff and I couldn't stand and did not relate to the protagonist at all. I found the whole thing kind of tedious.

While part of a lineage of French films about suicidal men (Le Feu Follet, Un Homme Qui Dort, etc.) "Le Diable probablement" has a certain emptiness, an active void created by Bresson as master eliminator, that conjures a feeling of malaise unmatched by any before it.

Nihilistic films rarely resonate with me, and this one isn't any different. Sure, the 60s were pretty wild with the space age and nuclear proliferation pushing technology to new heights, but social problems were also really being noticed. They're all here, and if you can't think of solutions, then there's no reason to live. I guess I just never subscribed to that theory.

The bus scene is incredible. The film as a whole would make for quite the depressing double feature with The Fire Within or even First Reformed.

Not the best film in the "good looking French guy wants to off himself for no apparent reason" genre, imho

With it's focus on youth rebellion and politics and it's trademarked deadpan style, this feels like a Godard film directed by Bresson. Unlike Godard, Bresson finds no solace in rebellion. He portrays a world devoid of value that man has destroyed with science and can find nothing of any value to use to salvage it. He's ferociously critical of the status quo, but finds only selfish egoists in the youth rebellion. A powerful, depressing work.

Nihilistic youth film made in the post-60's world of failed idealism, faddish intellectualism and progressively unrestrained capitalism that led us down an increasingly crooked path. As typical of late Bresson, the world presented here is incredibly bleak, bereft of hope and meaningful social concern, but it isn't quite as devastating as L'argent due to its contrivance and a sense that the air of doom and gloom has been applied a little too thickly, but even lesser Bresson is worth a look.

if there is one thing the film achieves that is to prevent the audience from making generalistic assumptions and analysis on the movie, which compels the audience to fluctuate in ambiguous thoughts. But isn't that just what Charles symbolizes? An anti-conformist who is only predictable about his unpredictability, a some kind of daemon?

A very cool film because of how uncool it regards everything -- its film essay style and usual Bresson ascetic aesthetic certainly help this too-cool-for-school mood. It's also rather incomprehensible and impenetrable, yet this makes me want to see it a second time rather than never again. A gloomy, talky pre-apocalyptic film that felt like it came from a through-and-through misanthrope (so of course I liked it).

In need of a rewatch. Pretty sure I'll connect with it better now.

"The more knowledge, the more grief." Bresson gives us a character in Charles who finds himself in the throes of despair. He knows too much. And no matter where he goes--politics, environmentalism, religion, or love--he cannot find relief for his despair. Bresson's masterful handling of the ending brings a yearning for life, even as it is snuffed out--a strain of Mozart makes him stop a moment, and when he dies he's cut off in mid-sentence. Despite Charles' despair, his friends all want life.

Found footage, genclik, bunalim vesaire. Her ne kadar 76 yasinda bir dede olarak yoz genclik filmi yapmis gibi gozukse de Bresson, cok guzel bir film. Sanki Godard ilk stilini hic degistirmeden yaslansa boyle bir sinema ortaya cikarmis.

The text is mostly going through some very obvious motions, but the central story is devastating.

how do you know these things?

Score based on distant memory.

Bresson's look at troubled nihilistic youth. Bresson usually isn't very cheerful, but this was a big downer. A bit on the boring side, too. Kind of seemed at times like a grab bag for various political ideas Bresson might have been kicking around.