A Man Escaped
A Man Escaped ★★★½ Un Con damne a Mort s'est Echappe, Ou le Vent Souffle ou il Vent; A Man Escaped, or the Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth; A Condemned Man Has Escaped 1957
There's an excruciating realism about Bresson's account of a WWII Resistance fighter's escape from a Nazi prison just before he was to be executed by the Gestapo. It's the sounds and lingering camera shots, not the wham bam variety of action, that create and sustain the film's suspense. Bresson, who had been a Nazi prisoner, solicited the supervision of Andre Devigny, whose true story the film tells. Contributing to the realistic feel was the use of non professional actors. An awardwiining film that fellow director Truffaut lauded as the most crucial French film of the previous ten years. In French with English subtitles. 102m/B VHS, DVD . Francois Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Roland Monod, Maurice Beerblock, Jacques Ertaud, Jean-Paul Delhumeau, Roger Treherne, Jean-Philippe Delamarre, Cesar Gattegno, Jacques Oerlemans, Klaus Detlef Grevenhorst, Leonard Schmidt; D: Robert Bresson; W: Robert Bresson; C: Leonce-Henri Burel. Cannes ‘57: Director (Bresson).