It’s a film which I stumbled upon purely by accident. Upon my numerous searches through IMDb and the internet to find the next masterpiece and this is what it conjured up. I found this when I was adding the 1955 French noir classic Rififi. While this does rival Le Trou my heart beckons to this film more. When I added this to my watch list I just added it to my watch list because of the high rating it has received on IMDb of an 8.5, the same score as in my opinion the greatest movie of all time Apocalypse Now. Le Trou doesn’t have the same popularity as that masterpiece, but maybe the fact it is this gem in the vast world of cinema is what makes it so endearing to me.

The story is rather simple four prisoners receive another prisoner, an effeminate man who never had a rough day in his life. They quickly take him and accept him. Although they have to take him in this cell is special. In this cell, the four men who have long sentences have a plan to escape. What follows is a film which shows us the ability of man to show the best of their abilities given any form of adversity. I don’t want to give much away as you have to watch yourself to see what I mean.

I can’t find a fault in this film at all. There aren’t many films which I can say that but this is on that Mount Rushmore. Jacques Becker directed this film and died only a few weeks after finishing it. It was entered into Cannes of 1960 and got a nomination for the Palme d’Or but lost unfortunately to La Dolce Vita by Federico Fellini. What you see with Becker is how much of a master craftsman he was. The film is an intimate affair there is no waste and what is wonderful is you see these prisoners as people, you feel like you are the 6th prisoner watching them do all the hard work, while you are just sitting back in a perpetual sense of fear of what will happen next. There is an underlying terror in this film as you hear and see what the men see. I think by not having any soundtrack really adds to the tension of story as are ear becomes weary to every sound.The use of black and white captures beautifully the isolation and tightness of the prison. The acting within the story is first class and the fact that Becker used non professional actors really adds to the story of ordinary men, not film stars trying to escape to another level of realism in the early days of the French new wave. One of my favorite characters Roland played by Jean Keraudy was a prisoner himself in La Sante and was the only film he starred in. This to me, adds to the legend of the film.

I think a problem people may see is that it’s in french and it’s in black and white but don’t let that get in the way. This film is a diamond in the rough. And don’t take my word for it the great french film director Jean-Pierre Melville regarded the movie as the greatest French film ever made. This the same guy who would go to direct such greats as Le Samouraï, The Army of Shadows and Le Cercle Rouge to give that level of recognition is a statement in itself. I should be objective when talking about films but this is one I love.

10/10 – Masterpiece