Le Trou
As I have learned at the Berlinale this year, French movie makers seem to love breaking out of prison stories; in one entry (outside of the competition) this year, they showed a biographical picture on one guy who managed to escape prison multiple times. Perhaps this is related to French people’s general unhappiness with their „état“: While there never has been any successful revolutions in Germany, la Grande Nation can look back at a few of them. Maybe there is a relation between great revolutions and great films about prison breaks; at least „Le Trou“ is a good example.
I have heard of „A man escaped“ before, but never of „Le Trou“. After seeing it now, I am wondering why it did never got higher recognition. Now, of course the scope of the film is rather narrow: It really is about not much more than five men in a prison cell together attempting to escape and planning it out over a long time. So the only area where it gains depth lies in the realms of human relationships between the five. The 25th Hour is probably the last serious film I have seen about friendship, which is weird since normally you would expect it to be a similarly strong feeling as „family bounds“ (Little Miss Sunshine) or „love“ (I won’t even start with examples). And „Le Trou“ depicts the characters and their deep friendship to each other in a skillful way, and it adds to the immense suspense of the film. Every single time when I heard a sound, I was truly afraid that the guards would notice something – the fact that the director used no music in the film whatsoever is absolute genius in my opinion.
In these kinds of films, it is great when you ignore all your knowledge about movies and don’t try to predict the outcome of the film. I, for instance, felt a lot more enjoyment from being ignorant like that, and I wholeheartedly recommend this obscure gem of a film. And I want to see „A man escaped“ now, although I actually don’t expect it to be as great as „Le Trou“. That one is a nazi story after all and critics might be a little biased about it, who knows.
OMG it was so suspenseful I nearly died! Exactly because of the lack of music! I just squirmed with every bang of their tools. And the end! Creepy! *faints*
omg isn’t this film great?
while A man escaped is fantastic as well, this one is certainly more interesting as it explores that whole theme of friendship to quite an intense degree – it’s also a damn good thriller.
I guess Jacques Becker just isn’t as big a giant in cinema as Bresson was – but I enjoyed Le Trou more than any film by the latter director (who was a justly celebrated craftsman with incalculable influence, but probably made no film I’d call particularly entertaining)
Yeah, I completely forgot that the end was such a shock that I thought I would get nightmares from it!
This is an amazing thriller indeed, and I totally agree that many more acclaimed directors did not make films that are as suspenseful as “Le Trou” is.