With figures who struggle blindly toward or away from salvation, often without knowing in which direction they are headed, Dostoevsky was a constant inspiration for Bresson. Une femme douce is an adaptation of “The Gentle Maiden,” a Dostoevsky story from 1876. The astonishing opening sequence depicts the title character’s suicide through quick, shocking fragments. The rest of the story unfolds through the self-serving reminiscences of the young woman’s husband as he paces back and forth in front of the bed that bears her dead body. Perhaps the most chilling aspect of the film is the fact that her suicide has done nothing to redeem or reform her husband, a pawnbroker she meets while trying to sell a crucifix. In his first color film, Bresson crafts a sublime, mysterious meditation on the struggle of the spirit in a world that values only what can be bought and sold.