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Today's film was the excellent Criterion restoration of Robert Bresson's

Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut / A Man Escaped (1956)

A captured French resistance fighter is arrested and imprisoned.

Bent on escape, he improvises and calculates and labors to make his desire work.

We know he is successful as he is the narrator. That is the part which changes our way of watching.

Bresson has worked wonders with small space and a "star" who has the charisma and intensity (same thing?) to hold us tightly throughout.

It is not the same as a regular escape film because it focuses on the extremely limited communications that can occur with great benefit under the worst of conditions.

Plotting, creating friendships, recruiting allies, developing trust. This is a great film and I would not mind seeing it again. A definite 4 out of Netflix5.

Labels: films