Bresson's last film is his worst, sadly

Bresson's last film, L'Argent (1983) does not do justice to his career; it's a sad example of a very old filmmaker - he was probably about 80 at the time and, based on video of a Cannes news conference included in the Criterion Collection he looked frail and sounded almost doddering - who's locked in his ways to the point of mannerism and self-parody. Yes, Breton is well known for his unusual narrative pacing, in particular for lingering on the after-effect of an action; when a character leaves a room, for example, he lets the camera linger at some length on the door the character closes behind her. We get many, many long shots of closed doors (including some cell doors and gates in a prison), empty hallways, empty offices - and to what end? These do not advance the story in the least. Bresson is also well known for working entirely w/ amateur actors. Great, if you can get a fresh and insightful performance from them, but he did not do so in this weak movie: All of the characters are wooden in their body movements and their dialogue, and the very few action sequences, such as a prison riot, are embarrassingly bad (the protagonist threatens a guard with a soup ladle!). Worst of all, the plot is difficult to follow and ultimately makes no sense, as we watch a young man railroaded into prison after he's caught w/ some fake bills who descends deeper into criminality and eventually into mass murder, and we never believe it for a second: We don't know enough about his life, background, needs, drives, anything to help us understand him or care about him - completely unlike the great Bresson films such as Pickpocket, A Man Escaped, or Diary of a Country Priest. Of course I understand and sympathize with the desire to continue to create works of art, but sometimes it's better - like Roth, like Munro, to name two recently retired writers - to know when to stop (and maybe focus on teaching, criticism, or some other artistic endeavor).