A Man Escaped

+ intro by independent filmmaker and critic Alex Barrett

Un Condamné à mort s’est échappé

Bresson’s riveting tale of a Gestapo prisoner determined to regain his freedom, based on real events.

  • Director

    Robert Bresson

  • With

    François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche, Maurice Beerblock

  • France 1956. 90min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    U

  • English subtitles

Based on the true story of a Gestapo prisoner who escaped from prison just hours before his scheduled execution, Bresson’s film is a suspenseful realist drama and a moving metaphorical fable about chance and redemption. Perhaps most remarkably, Bresson (himself a former prisoner of war) conveys how the significance of everything is transformed by incarceration; sounds offer information, and objects become potential tools for escape.

See other screenings of this film.