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February 12, 2005
A Man Escaped
A Man Escaped (1956), Robert Bresson:
My first Bresson and I really liked it. Bresson strips down the prison escape to its barest frame without making it any less compelling or captivating. Gone is Steve McQueen's bomber jacket and William Holden's defensive flippancy, but not the irresistable drive for freedom or the makeshift prison society.
The actual mechanics of the jail break loom large on the screen for lack of another subject. The spare environment allows the human element to fill the empty space without necessarily dominating the progress of the movie. It doesn't have the wide declarations of La Grande Illusion, the other outstanding human prison drama, but it probes the depth of humanity much deeper.
15/15
Posted by bing at February 12, 2005 01:07 PM