The decisive action forces the viewer into the confrontation with the Wholly Other he would normally avoid. He is faced with an explicably spiritual act within a cold environment, an act which now requests his participation and approval. Irony can no longer postpone his decision. It is a “miracle” which must be accepted or rejected.

The decisive action has a unique effect on the viewer, which may be hypothesized thus: the viewer’s feelings have been consistently shunned throughout the film (everyday), yet he still has “strange” undefined feelings (disparity). The decisive action then demands an emotional commitment which the viewer gives instinctively, naturally (he wants to share Hirayama’s tears, Michel’s love). But having given that commitment, the viewer must now do one of two things: he can reject his feelings and refuse to take the film seriously, or he can accommodate his thinking to his feelings. If he chooses the latter, he will, having been given no emotional constructs by the director, have constructed his own “screen.” He creates a translucent, mental screen through which he can cope with both his feelings and the film. This screen may be very simple. In the case of Pickpocket it could be that people such as Michel and Jeanne have spirits which have deep spiritual connections, and they need no earthly rationale for their love. In Diary of a Country Priest it could be that there is such a thing as the Holy Agony, and the tormented priest was its victim. Bresson uses the viewer’s own natural defenses, his protective mechanism, to cause him, of his own free will, to come to the identical decision Bresson had predetermined for him.