A Man Escaped
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: D Film: B
Robert
Bresson’s A Man Escaped (1956) is a
most influential film, with an opening that inspired a dark response opening in
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Salo (1975),
to an ending echoed in George Lucas’ 1971 version of THX 1138, to other prison films, especially those about the
Nazis. Bresson wrote and directed the
tale of one man’s plan to find a way out of Fascism, based on Andre Devigny’s
real life account of his escape form a prison where he was meant to die.
Here,
Lieutenant Fontaine (Francois Leterrier) is remarkably not shot on sight when
he bolts from the car that rakes him to the Nazi prison (again, as opposed to
what happens in Salo). Then, he goes to the prison where he gets by,
then decides that he could escape, especially because he wants to, then as he
plans it, realizes that he will be killed if he does not. A visit to Hotel Terminus later in the film
makes this an even more pressing matter.
The film
is incredible in its use of sets by Pierre Charbonnier that offers the kind of
claustrophobia that such a film needs. Raymond
Lamy’s editing is another huge asset, as the box states that this helped open
up the French New Wave. Though the style
of editing and camerawork is not that free, this is a valid point of
inspiration. It is elements such as
these and Bresson’s occasional references to religion and spirit that make this
far more than a prison escape film, but at least a character study of the
individual’s need to live free. The
religion is not dogmatic, but is not necessarily needed to make its greater
existential points, or negate the existentialism with religion.
The full
frame, monochrome image is a little on the soft side, but comes from a fine
print in really good shape. It is a very
long time since I had seen this film and it still looks good decades later,
thanks in no small part to the incredible cinematography by Leonce-Henry
Burel. It is one of the last great
block-style/academy aperture films before widescreen filmmaking kicked in
worldwide for good. The Dolby Digital
2.0 Mono captures the remarkable soundtrack that combines sound effects, clear
dialogue and ingenious uses of music in a way that few monophonic soundtracks
ever achieved. It is compelling and is often
dialogue-silent, while other moments are of one of the few great voice-overs in
cinema history.
So for
all these reasons, A Man Escaped is
a must-see film for any serious film person and many of them will simply want
to own it outright. New Yorker has once
again come up with a mandatory cinema classic we can all celebrate.
- Nicholas Sheffo
