It was entered into the 27th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the Silver Bear - Special Jury Prize.

The film opens with two contradictory newspaper headlines informing us of Charles's death, shot in Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Charles finds no inspiration from left-wing politics or religion, nor from the work of his environmental activist friend, Michel.

[3] The commission which allocated advance funding to directors did not do so for Bresson, and the personal intervention of the Culture Minister, Michel Guy [fr], was required for it to be financed.

[6] Fassbender said: Robert Bresson's Le Diable Probablement ... is the most shattering film I've seen in this Berlin Festival.

The critic J. Hoberman described the film with one sentence: "A Dostoyevskian story of a tormented soul, presented in the stylized manner of a medieval illumination.

"[10] The film was well-received among critics, currently holding a 85% "fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 20 reviews.