Les Anges du Peche (aka Angels of the Streets)

Before Robert Bresson became the filmmaker that he has come to be known as, he made two films in a much more conventional manner. This was his first feature which was soon followed by the more well known, Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne; however, despite his usage of studio's and professional actors, this feels much more Bressonian. It's about a generous, young woman who becomes a Dominican nun at a prison reform ministry. She immediately focuses in on a prisoner named Therese who is reluctant to be helped. The nun tries to convince Therese to repent and become a nun herself so as to redeem her from her sins. But as soon as Therese gets out, she kills the man responsible for sending her to prison and then joins the convents. It's a spiritual struggle all the way as only Bresson could make it. It's not the work of art that his later films would be, and Bresson himself reportedly disowned the film, but it is significantly better than Les Dames du Bois de Boulogne.