Daily Movie Rec 8/15/2023

Angels of Sin (1943)

"I didn't leave the world because it was hard, but because there were no challenges. I came to fight misery, to help people."

Directed by: Robert Bresson

Cinematography by: Philippe Agostini

Country: France

Genre: Drama

Plot:

A young nun makes it her life's mission to reform a homicidal woman seeking sanctuary at her convent.

Reasons to watch:

Like Carl Theodor Dreyer, Robert Bresson was a driving force in the development of arthouse filmmaking and its Slow Cinema offshoots throughout the early-mid 20th century. While Bresson's debut, Angels of Sin, sees the director's film grammar at its most conventional, the story is still far more interesting than any 1940s melodrama about nuns (this side of Black Narcissus [1947]) has any right to be - often playing like a really unorthodox noir, baptized in shadows and chiaroscuro lighting with an antagonistic femme fatale as the centerpiece of its fatalistic conflict of faith.

Where to watch:

rarefilmm