That's how François Truffaut greeted Robert Bresson's 1956 masterwork. It was the golden rule in the offices of "les Cahiers Du Cinéma" to hammer the common production of French cinema and to hail the filmmakers who tried something new and groundbreaking for the future of French cinema. So it's no wonder Bresson was one of the darlings of the Young Turks of the New Wave.
"Un Condamné à Mort s'est Echappé" was Bresson's unique big French hit and it's sure easy to see why. It's essentially an optimistic piece of work in the filmography of a filmmaker whose pessimism will increase with the years, especially in his final works such as "le Diable Probablement", 1977 and "l'Argent", 1983. But here, this optimism is expressed by the title itself and lieutenant Fontaine's energetic behavior. The persistence with which he leads his plan in a hostile isolated place has a communicative power with the audience and it's impossible to resist to it. This yearning for freedom is present from the very first shot after the opening credits that showcases him in a car driving him to the fort with his hand touching the handle of the door.
This sequence as well as the few shots that open the film on a Mozart music set the scene for Bresson's cinematographic approach to relate this great escape. The filmmaker favors many shots with hands handling various objects and has little care for action sequences. In the first moment when Fontaine manages to escape from the car but is soon arrested, the action is perceived from the same angle. Moreover, German soldiers are reduced to shadows and very often, one can hear them but one can't see them. Then, Bresson kept a principle from "le Journal d'Un Curé De Campagne" (1951) with a recitative voice-over that relates the actions, gestures or thoughts of the main character on the screen. Priority is given to the image and sound. Rarely has sound been so well served here. And of course, Bresson asked his "models" for a deliberately bland acting. The amount gives a visual, narrative tour De force and marks in a significant way the evolution of Bresson's art of film-making.
So, is "un Condamné à Mort s'est Echappé", the most decisive French film of the fifties"? Not really but in Bresson's filmography it is a crucial step for what will follow afterward.
"Un Condamné à Mort s'est Echappé" was Bresson's unique big French hit and it's sure easy to see why. It's essentially an optimistic piece of work in the filmography of a filmmaker whose pessimism will increase with the years, especially in his final works such as "le Diable Probablement", 1977 and "l'Argent", 1983. But here, this optimism is expressed by the title itself and lieutenant Fontaine's energetic behavior. The persistence with which he leads his plan in a hostile isolated place has a communicative power with the audience and it's impossible to resist to it. This yearning for freedom is present from the very first shot after the opening credits that showcases him in a car driving him to the fort with his hand touching the handle of the door.
This sequence as well as the few shots that open the film on a Mozart music set the scene for Bresson's cinematographic approach to relate this great escape. The filmmaker favors many shots with hands handling various objects and has little care for action sequences. In the first moment when Fontaine manages to escape from the car but is soon arrested, the action is perceived from the same angle. Moreover, German soldiers are reduced to shadows and very often, one can hear them but one can't see them. Then, Bresson kept a principle from "le Journal d'Un Curé De Campagne" (1951) with a recitative voice-over that relates the actions, gestures or thoughts of the main character on the screen. Priority is given to the image and sound. Rarely has sound been so well served here. And of course, Bresson asked his "models" for a deliberately bland acting. The amount gives a visual, narrative tour De force and marks in a significant way the evolution of Bresson's art of film-making.
So, is "un Condamné à Mort s'est Echappé", the most decisive French film of the fifties"? Not really but in Bresson's filmography it is a crucial step for what will follow afterward.