Flashback: A Man Escaped (1956) – Robert Bresson’s spare and gripping jailbreak classic
Based on the memoirs of a member of the French Resistance, Bresson’s beautiful and minimalist film is as cinematically pure as non-silent cinema can be
This precision-made minimalist drama by French director Robert Bresson details the preparations a prisoner makes to escape from captivity. Cinema is an excellent medium for showing in a photojournalistic manner how things are done, although it’s rarely used for this purpose, especially given the contemporary obsession with characters and story.
But although the mechanics of the escape make up the totality of the film, it’s formed in a way that reflects the Christian faith of its protagonist. A Man Escaped (1956) refined the filmmaking styles and themes Bresson had experimented with in Diary of a Country Priest (1951), styles that would come to fruition in his classic Pickpocket (1959).
The film is based on the memoir A Man Condemned to Death has Escaped (1959) by André Devigny, a member of the French Resistance who escaped from a Nazi prison. It also reflects Bresson’s own experience of being imprisoned by the Nazis. It starts with Fontaine (François Leterrier), a member of the Resistance who’s been arrested for blowing up a bridge, trying to escape from the car that’s taking him to prison.
While incarcerated, Fontaine finds out he can remove his handcuffs with a safety pin. He then meticulously plans an escape by removing boards from a wooden door with a sharpened spoon and making climbing hooks out of a light fitting. The film shows his preparations, his interaction with fellow inmates via whispers and notes, his attempts to find a prisoner to break out with, and the escape attempt itself.