Angels of Sin

Anne-Marie, the daughter of a wealthy family, enters a convent. The order works in prisons and takes in women on release. There she finds Thérèse: someone who has served time for murder, believes nobody and has come to the convent only to hide. The young nun makes saving her a personal matter, and that insistence disturbs the order. The subject is not faith but the wish to do good also being a form of pride. Anne-Marie asks nobody's permission, breaks the rules and is certain she is right; the convent punishes her, and the film does not present that punishment as wholly unjust. The form is plain and disciplined. White habits, stone corridors, fixed frames. Robert Bresson has not yet arrived at the distanced acting method of his later films; professional performers work here and the speech is literary. It is Bresson's first feature and was shot in France under German occupation. The dialogue was written by Jean Giraudoux, then among the best-known figures in French letters, which is why the language is unusually poetic. Renée Faure plays Anne-Marie and Jany Holt plays Thérèse. Who it is for: viewers curious about Bresson's development and anyone who likes convent drama. Who it is not for: anyone expecting his known bare manner; this film is far more classical and far more talkative.