The Devil, Probably

The most controversial film of Robert Bresson's career, Le Diable probablement was prohibited to viewers under the age of eighteen in France, not because of sex or violence but because it was seen as encouraging suicide. At the Berlin Film Festival, where it was denied the Grand Prize, Rainer Werner Fassbinder and British critic Derek Malcolm threatened to walk off the jury if their support for it was not made public. (Fassbinder declared “the questions Bresson asks will never be unimportant.”) Played by Antoine Monnier—a non-actor in his only film role who was also the great-grandson of Henri Matisse and who inspired the title of Dennis Cooper’s debut novel—the single-minded protagonist of Bresson’s film wanders around Paris looking for a reason not to kill himself—politics, religion, environmentalism, drugs, psychoanalysis—and ultimately finds none. Made when Bresson was in his seventies, The Devil, Probably is an indelible portrait of tormented youth. “Bresson's best film since Pickpocket  . . . One comes out of the film with a sense of exultation. When a civilization can produce a work of art as perfectly achieved as this, it is hard to believe that there is no hope for it.”—Richard Roud

Bing Theater | FAQs | New 35mm print!

$10 for the general public, $7 for LACMA members, seniors (62+), and students with valid ID | Tickets available Thursday, July 5 at 5 pm. | Tickets: 323 857-6010 or purchase online.

$5 for Film Independent, LACMA Film Club, and New York Times Film Club members | Pre-sale tickets available Thursday, June 28 at 5 pm |  Members of these groups will be required to show proof of membership when retrieving their tickets | Tickets: 323 857-6010 or purchase online.