The career of Robert Bresson (b. 1907) is one of the richest in the history of cinema, but also one of the most enigmatic. For some commentators, Bresson is a severe moralist who's almost medieval in his concern for the darker aspects of Catholic theology. For others, he's best seen as a stylist whose work has consistently anticipated cinematic trends. Just as Bresson's 1959 <i>Pickpocket </i>was remodelled by Paul Schrader as <i>American Gigolo </i>(1980), so <i>L'Argent </i>(1983) is a study of spontaneous murder and a meditation on evil that has a striking kinship with contemporary vigilante and serial killer films. <br> Kent Jones disputes some of the received wisdom about Bresson's work as it's epitomized by <i>L'Argent</i>: the work can't simply be reduced to its austere, pessimistic, or religious elements. By exploring the many dimensions of<i> L'Argent</i>, Jones finds other elements: beauty, compassion, an overriding concern with the meaningful depiction of experience. <i>L'Argent </i>is the culminating work of one of the select group of directors able "to push the cinema, through the force of their own genius, onto a new plain."