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roseillith · 11 months ago

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Un condamné à mort s'est échappé // A MAN ESCAPED (1956) dir. ROBERT BRESSON

#f #Un condamné à mort s'est échappé #a man escaped #robert bresson #françois leterrier #charles le clainche

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addictivecontradiction · 1 year ago

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Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut, 1956

#drama #thriller #war #un condamné à mort s'est échappé #le vent souffle où il veut #a man escaped #robert bresson #andré devigny #françois leterrier #unshackled

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freudianblunders · 4 months ago

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A Man Escaped, 1956

“I’d rather people feel a film before understanding it.” — Robert Bresson

A Man Escaped (Un condamné à mort s'est échappé) is one of the finest prison escape films, masterfully executed with suspense that grips the viewer from start to finish. Few films have made me feel so strongly for the characters.

Bresson’s minimalist masterpiece tells the story of a French Resistance fighter imprisoned by the Nazis, based on the real-life memoir of André Devigny, a prisoner in Montluc prison in Lyon in 1943. This notorious prison was used by the Gestapo to detain and punish captured resistance members and Jews. Significantly, Bresson himself had been a prisoner during World War II.

“I was able to call on my experience as a prisoner of war. My impressions, my sensations, how I felt interacting with my German guards and jailers—I tried to put it all in the film.” – Robert Bresson.

Bresson is inventive, precise, and uncompromising. His use of fragmented frames and tightly focused shots suspends time, creating incredible tension. There is no soundtrack, only concise manipulation of sound with the imagery. There are no acclaimed actors, choosing realism over performance. Every scene is essential, characterized by simplicity and economy, yet delivering profound ideas and emotions. No wonder that A Man Escaped still remains a pinnacle of French cinema. Jean-Luc Godard once said of Bresson: "He is to French cinema what Dostoyevsky is to the Russian novel."

You might wonder, why should we watch a film released 68 years ago? I believe, in any art form, you must study the masters of the past if you want to further your understanding in your own time. The more you allow yourself to watch and enjoy the works of the old masters, the more inspiration you will have to draw from. At the same time, for all the aspiring filmmakers, it’s important to have interests beyond the artform of cinema or you will just continue to make derivative work.

The "movie brats" of the 70s—Spielberg, Coppola, Scorsese, De Palma—studied films from the 30s, 40s, and 50s before they could produce the groundbreaking work they did. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Bresson completed only 13 feature films, yet each one is an artistic triumph. Of all his films, A Man Escaped should be required viewing for film students and cinephiles alike.