A Man Escaped
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Movie Reviews of A Man Escaped
Movie Review: Best film to get started with Bresson
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first Bresson film I ever saw and it stunned me. Since then, I have seen most of his other films and each one is remarkable, though a few stand out: Diary of a Country Priest, Au Hazard Balthaaar, Pickpocket, L'Argent. Still, this film is unique in that it retains the austere, minimalist and ultimately spiritual style of the others, and at the same time is a gripping thriller.
You might say of this film -- though Bressonian purists might hate me for saying this -- that Bresson uses his anti-Hollywood style to outdo Hollywood style. What I mean is: Bresson is known for revealing only what is absolutely essential, a gesture, an item, two hands engaged in an activity, feet walking. This has the effect of encouraging the viewer to pay attention, but also, because it forces no specific interpretation upon these items, encouraging the viewer to participate in the unfolding of events, and become more than merely a spectator. Hollywood style tends also to eliminate much of what is inessential, but to a much different end: to eliminate moments where the viewer might be distracted and think about something other than the film; the aim is to replace thought with the action on the screen, rather than to stimulate thought. In the case of this film, however, where the subject matter is a prison breakout (standard Hollywood fare) the minimalist style employed by Bresson is able to achieve both a high degree of tension, and a high level of involvement. From the moment the prisoner is in the prison, nothing is shown except what is relevant to the single-minded focus of the prisoner: to escape. In that sense, it is not at the end that the man escapes (as already announced in the title of the film), but from the very beginning he is escaped in the sense that he never accepts the status of imprisonment. The film is able to show this without ever having him discuss the matter with anyone. Remarkable.
Movie Review: Suspenseful
Summary: 5 Stars
Based on a true story, Andre' Devigny, a member of the French Resistance was imprisoned by the Germans and set to be executed, so he skillfully plots his escape. He narrates his plot with detail.
The stark black and white confinement of the prison is haunting. The camera often places the viewer in his small prison cell and often looking out. It is quiet. Prisoners line up only to wash up and outside their line up to empty their pots of waste. It is reported that French Director, Robert Bresson himself was imprisoned and that this knowledge slowed him more expertise.
No violence viewed
Apprehensive about prison movies, I don't want to see brutality, but there was absolutely none in this movie. We often hear the sounds of gunfire. When the man made his first escape, we only see him with blood dripping from his head. And, the only other time was when he literally had to kill a guard, we only know the guard was killed; and we aren't sure how he did it, what happened, or how long. It is just done and over.
Suspenseful.
Simple as that, this was extremely suspenseful and tense. Throughout the movie, we have hope that he will escape, but each time he plots something, we are driven into the thrill of anxiety and suspense. There is no music to enhance the suspense; we are on our own.
I recommend other Bresson film, Pickpocket - Criterion Collection and Diary of a Country Priest - Criterion Collection And, a remarkable film by Bresson, Mouchette - Criterion Collection...Rizzo
Movie Review: A Man Escaped
Summary: 5 Stars
There is a great deal of naturalism, and a great economy of style, in Robert Bresson's A MAN ESCAPED. Clothes are dirty and unfamiliar faces unshaved. Non-professional actors come within a shade of convincing us it's a documentary, and not art retelling a `true event', that we are watching.
I've been leery of foreign films boasting an amateur cast. Not only do I have to chase subtitles, but I don't think they can pull it off. Might as well sent junior out to videotape a high school play. I enjoy good acting too much to feel otherwise. It's with those conditions that I flipped this dvd into the tray. By the end of this GREAT movie my opinion had turned about completely. I'm convinced that this is not a movie Hollywood, or anyplace with image conscious stars, could have pulled off.
The story, the director assures us on an opening card, is `true and unembellished." A French resistance fighter is imprisoned by the Germans in a Nazi-occupied Parisian prison. The movie documents his plans to escape.
The hero, who looks an awful lot like a young Alan Alda, spends most of his time alone while delivering a voice-over narrative. A smart use of an amateur actor with an expressive enough face. His tone is flat, as are the brief conversations he has with his fellow inmates over the wash stalls, which last until an off-screen guard barks `No talking' or `Keep quiet.'
As a general rule professional actors don't play `flat' very well, even when the story demands it. A MAN ESCAPED is appropriately gray and subdued. A full palette of emotions would have been out of place.
Highly recommended, especially for fans of movies dealing with World War Two.
Movie Review: You must face the life no matter what...
Summary: 5 Stars
Bresson made his most epical film in all his artistic career.
This film is a monumental ode to the power of will , tenacity and high freedom spirit , a homage to the best a man can do when he's persuaded for get that goal under the worst conditions.
The story is simple. A prisoner makes his first attempt for escape and he's back to prision. But he's convinced with such passion and inner power that his fellow realize about that and help him for his achievement. He creates a vortex around him and thanks to that magic poetry of this unique film maker all the efforts made will prevail at the end of the road . The presence of the teenager is a complement of the masterful vision of Bresson.
Lyrical and surrounded for arresting images, a perfect script , under the direction of the master of masters, Robert Bresson.
What the genius has of beauty is that it looks like the rest of the world and however, nobody looks like him. (Balzac)
This work is one of the supreme treasures of the french cinema and one of the best top five films all around the world ever filmed.
Movie Review: Bresson at his restrained best
Summary: 5 Stars
A Man Escaped is one of those films that improves with repeat viewings. Bresson makes a strange choice in omitting the opening chapter of the memoir the film is based on which deals with the hero's curiously distant emotional response to killing a collaborator, which does throw some light on the sudden apathy and inertia that paralyses him once he is on the brink of making his much-delayed escape, but in other respects it's a perfectly contained and executed movie.
The performances are very strong (Bresson was still aiming for naturalistic performances at this time) and the Christian allegory - that we want redemption but instinctively back away from it - is not overstrained: although this time round I noticed a few more references to religion than I recalled, it's there if you want to see it but never at the cost of turning the movie into a sermon.
New Yorker's source material is not especially good, but considering how bad most 35mm prints that go round the revival circuit are, it may well be a case of making the best of what material was available to them.