| The Devil Probably | |
| Director: | Robert Bresson |
| Producer: | Stéphane Tchalgadjieff |
| Music: | Philippe Sarde |
| Cinematography: | Pasqualino De Santis |
| Runtime: | 95 minutes |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
The Devil Probably (French: Le Diable probablement), also spelled The Devil, Probably is a 1977 French drama film directed by Robert Bresson. It was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize.[1]
German film director Rainer Werner Fassbinder was on that particular jury, and championed Bresson's film:
Robert Bresson's Le Diable probablement ... is the most shattering film I've seen this Berlin Festival. I think it's a major film [...]. [I]n the future—and this world will probably last for another few thousand years—this film will be more important than all the rubbish which is now considered important but which never really goes deep enough[.] The questions Bresson asks will never be unimportant."[2]
Fassbinder would go on to refer to the film in his own 1979 film Die Dritte Generation,[3] where a character remarks that it is "a sad movie", but "so long as the movies are sad, our lives can stay funny".
The critic J. Hoberman described the film with one sentence: "A Dostoyevskian story of a tormented soul, presented in the stylized manner of a medieval illumination."[4] Richard Hell described the film as "by far the most punk movie ever."[5]
The Devil Probably was Bresson's penultimate work, preceding his 1983 film L'Argent.
Upon release, the film was banned in France for those aged under eighteen because of its suicidal themes.[6] [7]