An eminently Bressonian film in its style, The Devil, Probably (1977) follows a string of characters revolving around the figure of Charles, a young man whose profound despair will prove fateful to him. Painfully contemporary, Robert Bresson's penultimate film portrays a youth caught between a sense of aimlessness and a necessity to resist in the face of the state of the world. Riddled with ecological, political and existential issues that still resonate acutely today, The Devil Probably, which the French government of the time banned minors from seeing for fear of sparking a wave of suicides, still stands out today as a radical and unique work.

Controversial even in film circles on its release, it was considered by R.W. Fassbinder, who went so far as to pay homage to it in The Third Generation, to be one of the greatest films of its time. For today's viewer, it is also the symbol and trace of profound ecological concerns that have been waged across generations, and contributes to a precious duty of remembrance of the historical continuity of political and social struggles.


The film will be screening from a 35mm print.