This film carries a deeply disheartening – yet impactful – sense of cynicism. A fake 500 Franc bill is passed around, fooling various establishments and individuals until it lands with honest delivery driver "Yvon" (Christian Patey), who’s completely unaware he's about to be caught in a deception. His employer demands that the financially struggling man replace the money, leaving him few choices. Small-time illegal activity appears like an easy answer, so he joins forces with some aspiring bank robbers. Predictably, things don’t go as planned and soon the young man is looking at a long prison sentence while his marriage begins to fall apart. It serves as a reminder that incarceration isn't invariably the ideal response; the youth descends into despair, and after being released, that feeling of frustration and anxiety pushes him toward an even more serious offense. There’s something disturbingly selfish about the entire narrative. The young man is knowingly manipulated by others but lacks the intelligence to realize he’s no better than a piece in a bleak and dispiriting pattern of avarice and apathy, not until it's too late. Patey performs admirably, as does Robert Bresson in establishing an atmosphere that crushes any glimmer of optimism and illustrates the captivating pull of corruption – likely mirroring Tolstoy’s original intent. Ultimately, I perceived this as a striking examination of a young man whose fate could easily have been my own.

Source on TMDB