Music and voices in Pickpocket (1951), by Robert Bresson

Abstract

The French director Robert Bresson was known for his creative use of sound elements and the scanty insertion of music in his films. In films produced during the intermediary phase of his career, such as A man escaped (1956), Pickpocket (1959) and Au hasard Balthazar (1966), preexisting classical music pieces, which contain formal aspects that are analogous to their distribution in the respective films, were used as non-diegetic music. Moreover, in Pickpocket, the preexisting music by Lully also relates to the voice-in and voice-over. The voice-in at the end of the dialogues usually triggers musical excerpts, which are inserted in situations of movement and whose function resembles that of divertissements in baroque opera. We also consider the relations between voice-in and voice-over and the lag between the latter and the action and the image of the main character’s diary as it is being written.