Un condamné à mort s’est échappé

English title: A Man Escaped

Also known as: le Vent souffle où il veut

Genre: war drama (in black and white)

With: François Leterrier (Lt. Fontaine), Maurice Beerblock (Blanchet), Roland Monod (Pastor Deleyris), Jacques Ertaud (Orsini), Jean Paul Delhumeau (Hébrard), Roger Treherne (Terry), Jean Philippe Delamarre (Prisoner number 10), Charles Le Clainche (François Jost)

Director: Robert Bresson

Screenplay: Robert Bresson (based on the memoir by André Devigny)

Release: 1956

Studio: Gaumont, Nouvelles Éditions de Films

Rating: -

MBiS score: 8.8/10 

 

My Kingdom for a Rigid Spoon 

 

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Story-line: Lyons, 1943. Fontaine, a French officer arrested for planting a bomb, tries to evade his Nazi captors but is quickly caught and taken to Montluc, a fort from which no one can escape. Once inside, he has little doubt about his fate: he will face a firing squad... unless he finds a way out.  

Pluses: a convincing performance by François Leterrier as the patient and courageous Fontaine, fine support from a serious cast, superior direction, a tight, no-frills screenplay that flows like a personal diary – mind games included – and makes the most of its grave subject, understandably meagre production values, a very serviceable musical score and a riveting final act.

Minuses: you may need 30 minutes or so to get used to this stark and claustrophobic movie but your efforts won’t go unrewarded.

Comments: World War II has spawned films that are extraordinary in their own right and A MAN ESCAPED is one such film. Robert Bresson’s treatment of Fontaine’s real-life ordeal is dry, demanding and true to his mission as a filmmaker. According to my old Dictionnaire du Cinéma (Larousse, 1986), Bresson was a loner and a perfectionist who broke away from the moviemaking rules of his day to tell his stories in a neutral, stylized tone with the help of non-professional actors. And his method, as arid as it was, yielded several works of vast artistic and human portent. Fontaine’s intensely dramatic story of humiliation, defiance, suspicion and dread is a masterpiece of resilience and international cinema.  

 

MBiS 

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