Bursting from the brand new, pink and pretentious Howard Theatre at Downing College is a budding film society showing esoteric and challenging films that are, if you’ll take the time to look, a real treat.

They’re old, they’re black and white, they’re even – God help us all – French. But don’t be put off movie-goers, they’re also bloody good, intelligently chosen and make for a refreshing change.

Last Saturday, while most of you were bop-bopping away, a small group of us sat beneath the neo-classical extravagance of Downing’s theatre-cum-cinema to watch Robert Bresson’s 1959 classic Pickpocket, heralded by Susan Sontag and Martin Scorsese as (I’m paraphrasing here) “proper wicked like”. In fact, Pickpocket was a major influence on Taxi Driver, quite possibly the best film ever made. I hyperbole you not.

The movie is Bresson’s take on Crime and Punishment. A Parisian down-and-out takes up pickpocketing as a profession, but is caught on his first attempt. Having been released, he hones his craft with a bunch of fellow thieves, falling in love with his mother’s neighbour Annette en route – all the while growing increasingly aware that he is being followed, while the same police inspector who released him in the first place awaits his confession.

The movie’s dialogue may have been a little stilted (GCSE French would almost see you through… though not quite; there were no pantalons or pamplemousses to be seen), but the chap playing guitar on my way in to the college and the friendly chat I had with my fellow movie-goers warmed up the space and more than compensated for any awkward moments.

The society’s next outing will be Terrence Malick’s badass Badlands on November 27th, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek as young lovers who head out to murder their way across America.

In contrast to the bigger and better known films being shown at other societies across Cambridge, For The Love will likely only ever attract small audiences. But this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If you don’t fancy cross-dressing and vomiting on a friend of a Saturday night, why not head down to Downing to see the kind of films filmmakers like to watch.