Pickpocket

Pickpocket (1959) is Robert Bresson's spare French drama, ready to watch online on iFILM. A young Parisian named Michel starts lifting wallets out of boredom, then keeps at it because theft becomes the only language he speaks.

The police catch him fast, but with no proof they let him go. His mother dies, his one friend Jacques pulls away, and only the neighbor Jeanne stays close — yet his fingers keep drifting toward other people's pockets. He apprentices himself to a real master of the craft and joins a small ring of thieves. Bresson films the thefts like choreography: hands, folded newspapers, a stolen watch passed between strangers in a crowded train station.

Stripped of music cues and big acting, the film is pure Bresson, and you can trace its DNA straight to Schrader's screenwriting. Seventy-five minutes that end with a thief, of all people, talking about love. Quiet, demanding work for anyone drawn to the French New Wave. Stream Pickpocket (1959) online on iFILM.