The prison escape subgenre, producing classics such as The Great Escape and The Shawshank Redemption, is one of the most consistently enjoyable subjects in film. On the flip side, the films of Robert Bresson are not for the faint of heart and are the opposite of widely accessible, easy watches. Something had to give when Bresson, in 1956, brought his minimalist style and bleak tone to such a gripping genre, but what we received was a riveting and deeply probing film that perfectly straddles the line between entertainment and artful expression. A Man Escaped, one of Bresson’s finest works, is the gateway film for newcomers looking to dive into the filmography of the renowned French director. Not only did Bresson craft the quintessential prisoner-of-war escape movie, but he also redefined procedural filmmaking and the poetic beauty and horror of an individual seeking freedom.

Robert Bresson Tackles the Dark Core of Humanity and Procedural Behavior

A true iconoclastic filmmaker, Robert Bresson was not confined to any restrictions in the film medium. With his sparse formalism, restrained performances by non-professional actors, and fixation on the darkness of humanity, his films require you to be in the right kind of disturbed mood. While the spiritual angst of Au hasard Balthazar, The Devil, Probably, and L’Argent targets the innate cruelty of society with a pessimistic eye, his films carry a palpable vigor thanks to his emphasis on procedure and raw revelations of the human soul, which arise out of his insistence on shooting as many takes as possible until his actors (or, as Bresson referred to them, “models”) strip away any semblance of artificiality.

Along with Pickpocket, about a small-time thief defined by his meticulous craft, A Man Escaped demonstrates Bresson’s poetry of procedure and repetition. The film, following Fontaine (Francois Leterrier), a lieutenant of the French Resistance captured by Germans during WWII, depicts the soldier’s methodical escape from the Nazi prison, Montluc, which remains utterly engrossing and tense despite the title spoiling Fontaine’s fate. Isolated in his cell, Fontaine communicates with his fellow prisoners by tapping on the walls. He is left to escape on his own until a young soldier, Jost (Charles Le Clainche), reluctantly joins with the determined Fontaine.

Bresson’s preference for forcing his actors to repeat takes is put to good work in A Man Escaped. With his signature use of elliptical storytelling, Bresson focuses on the specific, methodical components of Fontaine’s escape plan, depicting laborious acts such as chiseling a crevice in his cell door, fashioning hooks to scale the prison walls, and winding bedclothes into a rope. The cyclical nature of the narrative is akin to the monotonous prison lifestyle and Fontaine’s unwavering determination to escape and experience some level of contact with nature beyond sending and receiving letters through an unsupervised courtyard stroller.

‘A Man Escaped’ Shows the Will and Determination of Humanity

Unlike The Great Escape or other POW movies, A Man Escaped is devoid of the grand political machinations of the ongoing war. Bresson forces us to view Fontaine as not a soldier in the French Resistance, but rather, an ordinary human being. He doesn’t concoct this elaborate plan to return to his military base or infiltrate Nazi territory. Instead, his determination to escape is empowered by human nature. Through Bresson’s precise photography, he underscores that a human’s natural disposition is to be free and not trapped like caged animals. Although Fontaine may seem bereft of any distinct characteristics, we slowly recognize that the process of escape and its intimate portrayal is an expression of himself. At a fundamental level, the systematic escape plan is transfixing, allowing the viewer to consume Bresson’s philosophy with incredible ease.

Although terse in communicating ideas, A Man Escaped is an all-encompassing depiction of the human condition. The subdued nature of the performances and narration and neutral observation of the WWII backdrop grounds the story with a degree of rawness that often gets washed out by familiar cinematic devices such as melodrama and overt sentimentality. Bresson understood as well as any filmmaker that simplicity provides the most poetic and rich storytelling. The point A to point B structure of the film allows the viewer to connect with the subject personally, especially those more inherently averse to Bresson’s dour cinematic language.

Fontaine’s somber tone of speech and lingering sense of dread speaks to the inhumanity of prison, but it also, in a perverse Bressonian way, unlocks an untapped source of the human spirit. He devolves into a man resigned to one purpose in life: escaping this prison. Because Robert Bresson avoids theatrical emotional beats and superfluous character backstories, we recognize that he still has a soul intact. He merely needs to scrape through enough walls and tighten enough ropes to restore his sense of self. In Bresson’s world, meticulous procedures lead the way to salvation.

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In Robert Bresson’s riveting drama, a captured French Resistance member is held in a German WWII prison. The narrative focuses on his quiet and determined efforts to break free, relying on sparse dialogue and precise visuals to enhance the suspense and psychological depth. The film is a profound exploration of human resilience and the indomitable will to survive.Release Date August 26, 1957 Director Robert Bresson Cast François Leterrier , Charles Le Clainche , Maurice Beerblock , Roland Monod , Jacques Ertaud , Jean Paul Delhumeau , Roger Treherne , Jean Philippe Delamarre Runtime 101 Minutes