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Le Trou (1960)
Director: Jacques Becker
Writers: José Giovanni (novel), Jacques Becker (adaptation)
Cast: André Bervil, Jean Keraudy, Michel Constantin
Genre: Drama Prison
Language: French
Here we have utter cinematic realism with Le Trou, a fine example of French Realism.
If there's one thing that I've learned from my time here at MoFo it's that many movie watchers value realism and gauge a film's ability to be realistic as a yard stick. How many times have we heard people saying, 'Oh, that wasn't very realistic'. Of course realism isn't the only flavor of movie making, but it's a style that rings true to most people. So yeah this seemed really real and I dug it.
At 2 hours 11 minutes, the time flew by! I was hooked from the get go and fascinated to see the inventions that these men came up with to escape their prison cell. I loved the 'broken mirror' periscope for looking out their peep hole for approaching guards. And the half-hour glass that was made out of two bottles and a handful of pinched sand was pretty cool too.
I was surprised the film didn't venture into high drama and conflict between the five cooped up men. Even though I usually like lots of personal drama in a film, this time around I was glad that the film was purely focused on the details of escaping. Le Trou puts the viewer into a tiny prison cell (where everyone is so polite!) and lets us participate in the audacious escape.
I enjoyed this one!
Writers: José Giovanni (novel), Jacques Becker (adaptation)
Cast: André Bervil, Jean Keraudy, Michel Constantin
Genre: Drama Prison
Language: French
'In prison four long-sentence inmates planning an elaborate escape cautiously induct a new inmate to join in their scheme which leads to distrust and uncertainty.'
Here we have utter cinematic realism with Le Trou, a fine example of French Realism.
If there's one thing that I've learned from my time here at MoFo it's that many movie watchers value realism and gauge a film's ability to be realistic as a yard stick. How many times have we heard people saying, 'Oh, that wasn't very realistic'. Of course realism isn't the only flavor of movie making, but it's a style that rings true to most people. So yeah this seemed really real and I dug it.
At 2 hours 11 minutes, the time flew by! I was hooked from the get go and fascinated to see the inventions that these men came up with to escape their prison cell. I loved the 'broken mirror' periscope for looking out their peep hole for approaching guards. And the half-hour glass that was made out of two bottles and a handful of pinched sand was pretty cool too.
I was surprised the film didn't venture into high drama and conflict between the five cooped up men. Even though I usually like lots of personal drama in a film, this time around I was glad that the film was purely focused on the details of escaping. Le Trou puts the viewer into a tiny prison cell (where everyone is so polite!) and lets us participate in the audacious escape.
I enjoyed this one!