Le diable probablement [The Devil, Probably] **** (1977, Antoine Monnier, Tina Irissari, Henri de Maublanc) – Classic Movie Review 9820

Antoine Monnier stars as alienated, tormented soul Charles, who is living his life walking under a cloud and decides that suicide is the only option, in writer-director Robert Bresson’s typically distinguished and profound, gloomy and doomy 1977 French drama Le diable probablement [The Devil, Probably].

Pasqualino De Santis shoots elegantly in Eastmancolor and there’s a score by Philippe Sarde.

It won the Silver Bear Special Jury Prize at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder, who was on the jury’, said: ‘Le diable probablement is the most shattering film I’ve seen this Berlin Festival. I think it’s a major film. In the future this film will be more important than all the rubbish which is now considered important but which never really goes deep enough. The questions Bresson asks will never be unimportant.’

Of Bresson’s 13 films, this and Les Anges du péché are the only original screenplays and not based on a previous work.

The cast are Antoine Monnier as Charles, Tina Irissari as Alberte, Henri de Maublanc as Michel, Laetitia Carcano as Edwige, Nicolas Deguy as Valentin, Régis Hanrion as psychoanalyst Dr Mime, Geoffroy Gaussen as Libraire, Roger Honorat and as Commissaire.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9820

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