In Robert Bresson‘s first feature film, Angels of Sin (1943), which I saw on YouTube, righteous behavior intersects with the worldly behavior of a desperate soul. Here, a zealous young nun, Anne-Marie (Renee Faure), tries to Christianly love a female ex-con (Jany Holt) taking refuge in Anne-Marie’s convent. Unknown to the convent sisters, she is there after having committed a murder.
Less oddly directed than Bresson’s later films, Angels is also less spiritually vivid and resonant, and is far from first-rate. It is a serious picture, though, and does well in showing the distinctive lives of nuns. To my mind, frankly, it is about the impossibility of saintliness (but not sacrifice), albeit we also infer from it that the devout life is a good life.
(In French with English subtitles)
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