On the surface A Man Escaped is a simple jailbreak movie, but at its heart it is about the conflict between free will and fatalism and the triumph of faith. The prison is a metaphor for predeterminism, and Bresson drives this point home as he repeats scene after scene of the prisoners walking like dehumanized robots as they collect their food and wash up, set to haunting music from Mozart. He directs every scene with a cold detachment, forgoing traditional drama and refusing to give in to cliches or sentimentality, creating a mechanical environment from which there is no possible escape. But, there is one man who works against the system and methodically prepares his escape, all the while inspiring…

A Man Escaped, or The Wind Bloweth Where It Listeth (French: Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut) - sorry, I'm a sucker for long titles - is by far the most conventional of Bresson's films I've seen. At the same time, it is also the most consistently effective.

The bulk of the time I have spent writing up the last three films has been occupied with trying to capture that (dare I say it) je ne sais quoi that Bresson expresses onscreen. There is something indefinable about not just the tension and the emotions he is able to stir but in the imperceptible manner in which he does it. I'm mindful that I…

On the surface A Man Escaped is a simple jailbreak movie, but at its heart it is about the conflict between free will and fatalism and the triumph of faith. The prison is a metaphor for predeterminism, and Bresson drives this point home as he repeats scene after scene of the prisoners walking like dehumanized robots as they collect their food and wash up, set to haunting music from Mozart. He directs every scene with a cold detachment, forgoing traditional drama and refusing to give in to cliches or sentimentality, creating a mechanical environment from which there is no possible escape. But, there is one man who works against the system and methodically prepares his escape, all the while inspiring…

I watched A Man Escaped nearly immediately after Antichrist - I was thinking of what I should watch next and remembered I'd obtained a copy of this film on the recommendation from the web.

I was very pleased with my choice from 'the off' - A Man Escaped is an exercise in pacing, which employs a voice-over dubbed over lots of footage of a man scratching at his door with a stolen spoon and putting his escape plan together. One can only imagine what shooting this film must have been like, with direct speech being so sparse. The performance from the main star is generally constrained, likely to make it easier to pair the voice-over with the footage. Although this…

Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped is a film that is completely unburdened from what viewers expect from cinema. There is almost no added music for suspense, no surprises in the editing, very simple camera work, and the film stars only non actors. The film is very matter of fact. We simply watch the main character Fontaine as he goes through his daily routine in the prison and looks for a way he can escape his cell. We see very little of anyone else in the film and when we do, there is very little added drama. There is no stereotypical evil or overly nice Nazi guard. The guards just exist- doing their job as they are told.

Please don't misunderstand…