The Pigeon

Suskind explores the obsessive inner world of Parisian bank guard Jonathan Noel, who awakens one morning to find a pigeon staring at him outside the door of his rented one-room flat. After a childhood marked by repeated abandonment and deeply traumatized by his childhood experiences during the German occupation of France, Jonathan strives with singular dedication to reduce his adult life to utter uneventfulness and monotony. The sudden appearance of a pigeon on his doorstep completely unhinges him, threatening to plunge his life into chaos, and he vows to commit suicide the next morning. Redemption comes at daybreak in the form of a rainstorm and the realization that, despite the sadness of his early years, he "cannot live without other people." --