Very Cool!!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Director Robert Bresson's 'A Man Escaped' is the real-life story of André Devigny, a member of the French Resistance sent to Montluc prison by the Nazis, and is true to history. The style is stark and minimalistic, and while that doesn't necessarily make it dated, I suspect it had much larger impact in 1956, just a decade after the war, than it does today (artistically and emotionally). There are moments of real tension, starting with when the protagonist gets another prisoner assigned to his cell and wonders how to proceed with his escape plans, one option being to kill him. There are unfortunately also moments of tedium. Bresson is honest to the experience of imprisonment, but that doesn't make for riveting viewing. The Nazi guards seem remarkably absent - we see them at times administering punishment briefly, or bringing food, but they are in the background, and if the film wasn't based on a true story, you might think it unrealistically so. That may be part of the point, that there is an interior battle here, to never surrender hoping, to not give in, and to be brave, but when it's combined with under-stated emotion from the actors, I think it takes away from the realism that Bresson was striving for. I wish the ending could have been expanded upon as well. A solid film, but not one I'd want to watch again, or recommend without reservations.

An ultimate story! What else do you need for a perfect movie: a story of a niemand: an anonymous soldier / partisan that is sentenced to death. And his head is set to escape: and the same way as it happened in reality, he escapes.A tense, existentialist movie - that, for once has a (most simple) story.I wasn't bored for one millisecond...

Those who have been brought up on Hollywood prison escape films may find their patience tried by "A Man Escaped." This isn't an especially dramatic prison break movie, and we don't learn much about the main character, certainly not enough to have a huge rooting interest in him. We want him to escape because he's been imprisoned by Germans during WWII and we know the Germans were the bad guys in that conflict, but we don't think much about it beyond that. The bulk of the film details the meticulous and even rather mundane preparations that accompany this particular escape -- breaking apart a wooden door with nothing more than a spoon, making a rope out of whatever found objects one can re-purpose. I honestly wasn't that in to this movie. I appreciated its minimalist approach and its depiction of an escape as the way it would much more likely be in real life rather than the histrionic scenarios we've seen play out in other movies. But those very same qualities also by definition make it a bit less exciting. I realized that maybe what I want out of my prison break movies are unrealistic Hollywood trappings after all.Grade: B

"A Man Escaped" is a 1956 French film by Robert Bresson, starring Francois Leterrier and Charles Le Clianche. It's the story of a resistance member, Fontaine (Leterrier) who is imprisoned by the Nazis. He spends all of his time plotting a detailed escape, using items like a spoon, clothing, lantern hooks, whatever he can get his hands on that will help him in his quest. Still, even when Fontaine has it all worked out, he hesitates to go for it. Then he learns that he is to be executed. If that isn't bad enough, he gets a roommate, Jost (Le Clianche). Fontaine has to escape quickly now, but supposing his new cell mate is an informant? Should he take him along...or kill him? This may be the most nerve-wracking movie I've ever seen. It's absolutely agonizing. I kept saying out loud, go already! I was a wreck for this man. The film is done so painstakingly, with the character of Fontaine narrating.Leterrier, with his thin face and haunted look, essays the role of Fontaine perfectly. As his cell mate, Le Clianche is excellent, a young man whose motives can't initially be read.Very tense, very suspenseful, you'll find it hard to breathe or swallow. Highly recommended for a totally involving experience from one of the French post-war masters, Robert Bresson.