A Man Escaped

Bresson has a unique minimalist style that uses mostly non-professional actors who speak their lines like "models" in a mostly emotionless way, using added sound. He hopes the audience can use the bare bones provided to fill-in the story themselves, and that the lack of emotion can itself produce emotion in the viewer. The style works well here . Based on a book by a French Resistance officer who escaped a Nazi prison during World War 2, Bresson painstakingly shows the minutes details the prisoner goes through to prepare for his escape, and then all the moves he's forced to do get out of the prison. The Criterion Collection package is excellent, especially two documentaries by admiring directors like Malle and Tarkovsky, and by those who collaborated with Bresson and explain his style of filmmaking. Highly recommended.

Un des chef d’oeuvre du grand Bresson, tourne à Lyon au fort Monluc, au lieu même où se produisit l’événement réel ici raconte. Le film illustre, par la description minutieuse des gestes infimes qui permettront une évasion, la définition que donne Robert Bresson dans ses Notes sur le cinématographe: « le surnaturel, c’est du réel précis ».

A+ on all accounts !

Fontaine, a French Resistance fighter during WW2, is caught by the Nazis and escapes his imprisonment after patient and persistent labor from a prison in Lyon in 1943. The film details in painstaking manner how Fontaine manages his escape in spite of the skepticism of many of his peers.Reading that it was an escape film, I had the wrong idea of this A Man Escaped; yet, the film was mesmerizing. Far from what I imagined, it shows in minute detail how a man uses all resources available in the small room of his prison. More outstanding is the man's desire to be free, a freedom he claims that God is willing to give him only if he helps himself. Albeit not a slow film, the spectator must have patience with the plot's development since scene after scene it shows the major character scraping wood, making tools, writing notes, whispering a few words to his peers in the prison during washing time while listening to his voice sharing his thoughts. Fontaine's story of escape is a story of hope in a time of darkness. And the film is beautifully done. It was a great experience to watch this movie.

A prison escape film that is pure Bresson. Spare, deliberately paced, avoiding all the usual tricks of the cinema to heighten suspense (music, flashy editing), yet it feels so real and honest in it’s understated way, that the tension at times can be almost unbearable.A captured French resistance fighter in WW II awaits execution at the hands of the Nazi’s afraid, confused (this is no Hollywood hero, but a real human) he nevertheless contrives to find a way to escape before he is put to death. We watch him plan and prepare, slowly, methodically, as one would have to do, and yet with a ticking clock always bringing him closer to doom.Beautifully and simply shot, with strong performances (Bresson’s penchant for nonprofessional actors meant that on occasion his work can be hindered by a weak performance, but that’s not the case here). More accessible than some of Bresson’s work for being less metaphorical, this might be a good place to start for someone interested in first sampling the work of this great French film-maker. I look forward to seeing it again.