Pickpocket (1959)

Martin LaSalle: Michel

Photos 

Quotes 

• [last lines] 

  Michel : Oh, Jeanne, to reach you at last, what a strange path I had to take.

• Jeanne : I don't know. Perhaps everything has a reason.

  Michel : Jeanne, are you that naïve?

• Jeanne : Do you believe in nothing?

  Michel : I believed in God, Jeanne, for three minutes.

• L'inspecteur principal : A useful thief, then? A benefactor? That's the world upside down.

  Michel : It's already upside down. This could set it right.

• [first lines] 

  Michel : I know those who've done these things usually keep quiet, and those who talk haven't done them. Yet I have done them.

• Michel : Can we not admit that certain skilled men, gifted with intelligence, talent or even genius, and thus indispensable to society, rather than stagnate, should be free to disobey laws in certain cases?

  L'inspecteur principal : That could be difficult. And dangerous.

  Michel : Society could only gain from it.

  L'inspecteur principal : Who will identify these supermen?

  Michel : They themselves. Their conscience.

  L'inspecteur principal : You know any man who doesn't think he's exceptional?

• Michel : I lost my earnings at cards or wasted them on women.

• Michel : The pickings were poor and not worth the risk.

• Michel : Jeanne, do you think we'll be judged?

  Jeanne : Yes, but don't fear for her. She was perfect.

  Michel : Judged how? According to laws? What laws? It's absurd.

• Michel : These walls, these bars -- I don't care. I don't even see them.

• Michel : I can be honest. At least let me try.