Wall of Paul

Robert Bresson’s existential masterpiece, “A Man Escaped,” is a deeply compelling motion picture, but, in conventional terms, anyway, nothing “interesting” happens until its final sequence. Bresson tells the story of a man named Fontaine (Francoise Letterier), a French Resistance fighter who, for the film’s entire running time, obsessively executes a plan to break out of a Nazi prison.

Since a single wrong move, or even a loud noise, can mean death for the protagonist, Bresson manages to wring unbearable tension out of such mundane activities as hiding a forbidden pencil stub, stealing a spoon, sweeping wood chips under a door, and peering at an almost bare courtyard.

Incredibly, the film is based on a true story, and that knowledge makes the situation all the more agonizing to watch. Bresson’s presentation of the material is as void of flourish as the painstaking, life-or-death activity he’s recording, and the results are unforgettable.

The opening sequence brilliantly establishes Bresson's bare-bones visual palette. We see a man’s hand slowly reaching for the door handle inside a moving car, gently pulling down on the handle, noting that the door isn’t locked, then returning to the man’s lap. Fontaine is riding in the back of a prison transport vehicle with two other captives, and he’s already checking to see if he can make a break for it. When the car slows down, and Fontaine is able to flee, Bresson lingers on the face of a remaining prisoner whose expression suggests utter defeat. The camera doesn’t barrel down the street with Fontaine, because there’s no need to— we’ll see soon enough that he’s been captured and brought back to the car. And, significantly, a guard will slap handcuffs on his wrists.

Later, after being beaten and thrown to the floor of a concrete cell, Fontaine falls into despairing sleep. Then, when he awakens, he returns to his plans of escape. Outside of occasional forays to a trough where he and the other prisoners wash up, his life will now consist of nothing but secret activities that might lead to his freedom.