Angels of Sin

Robert Bresson’s first feature, made during the occupation, was this melodrama about a nun (Renée Faure) from a wealthy background who zeroes in on the distressed condition of a poor young female prisoner (Jany Holt) sent to the convent for rehabilitation. Co-written by Bresson with the French dramatist Jean Giraudoux and the Dominican priest and author Raymond Léopold Bruckberger, this is an emotionally overpowering experience. If we don’t quite recognize the Bresson the world would come to know, this is a formidable debut from a filmmaker who, in David Bordwell’s words, had “proven his virtuosity” and, in the process, created what Jacques Becker recognized as “a whole new style.” Print courtesy of French Cultural Services.