L' Argent (1984)

Robert Bresson won a Best Director Award at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the Grand Prize for Creation, for this contemporary revision of Leo Tolstoy's short story. The tragedy tells of how an innocent prank goes wrong and becomes the definitive moment in a man's life. When a young man passes a forged 500-franc note at a photography shop, the photographer passes it along to an unsuspecting victim. It eventually lands in the hands of Yvon Targe (Christian Patey), an innocent man who is detained when he tries to use it to pay for a meal. Hiring an attorney to hopefully bring the truth to light, Yvon is shocked to discover that the photographer will not budge from his story. To make matters even worse, he has goaded his assistant into lying along with him. This causes Yvon to lose his job and self-respect, triggering a downward spiral that results in a murder. Bresson's final film is a haunting commentary that condemns materialism and its sinful offspring, exploring universal themes that only continue to grow in importance in modern society. Proving that not all filmmakers weaken as they age, L'ARGENT remains as profound a work of art as the director's early masterpiece, A MAN ESCAPED.