Movie Details
| Title: | A Man Escaped | |
| Director: | Robert Bresson | |
| Year: | 1956 | |
| Genre: | Prison | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 11.10.24 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (0)
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 11.10.24 | Internet | This Screening is part of event: DVRfest 2024 I think this is the first Bresson film for me. I learned of this thanks to Bill Hader bringing it up in relation to No Country, apparently the Coens really like this movie and took a lot of that silent process-oriented direction from this. Since that's my favorite part of No Country I figured I should watch it. Didn't even realize it was on Criterion! I recently subscribed the The Criterion Channel, mostly in a weird effort to give them more money. I do think they're physical releases are overpriced and pretty much only buy their discs during 50%-off sales, but I never subscribed to Film Struck and in a perfect world that streaming service would still be around and going strong. Instead we get like 5 old movies on stupid-ass Max and Criterion had to scramble and start their own streaming service. I actually got to use it for this though which made me feel very good. This movie is a French prison break film set in Occupied France during WWII. It's mostly told through voice-over with small amounts of dialogue, usually followed by a guard yelling "No talking!" in German. It follows the same format as your typical prison escape story, but with the same feel of authenticity as Escape from Alcatraz. According to the Imdb trivia they even had access to the real makeshift hooks used by the real guy to escape the same prison they shot at. I loved this. I'd like to have something clever to say about Bresson as a director but I spent the whole movie caught up in the story. It's got exactly what I love about prison movies and heist movies now that I think about. I mean what's a heist sequence if not a reverse prison break? Chipping away at stuff, formulating plans, fashioning rope... all great. Nothing extraneous, but you can easily follow what's happening. Very clear storytelling. Love it. It's late now and probably a work night but I gotta try and fit one more. I'm still on the fence if this is the end or if the fest continues tomorrow... but if not there's another movie I've been holding off watching so I could include it in the fest. |
