2002 Talk About Movies
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Little Notes
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Follow Me




Contents © 2002
by Jim Holman.
All rights reserved.

PICKPOCKET

Ernie: Why picking pockets? Matthew: Maybe to show that all sin is petty, shaking your fist in the face of God.

* * *

Ernie: I saw the film as a treatise on order and what happens when you attack it. The worst part of crime, even a small-time crime like picking pockets, is that it's an attack on order. He tries to live above the norms like a superman, but in doing so, he deprives himself of the peace and happiness that come from order.

Matthew: I saw it as a general treatise on sin. The initial sin drives him out of the garden. Gradually, the sin becomes a habit and a source of comfort. He even finds a kind of community of sinners.

Ernie: Though it's telling that their fellowship never advances beyond their sinful acts. And even when he's successful, it profits him nothing. He ends up right back where he started.

Matthew: He can't run away from goodness. He keeps going to the cop, the voice of moral authority, and trying to justify himself. The cop says, "The world will not be changed by pickpockets." That's what he has to realize. When he goes to prison, he realizes that he is alone in his misery.