A Man Escaped
1956, NR, 95 min.
Directed by Robert Bresson, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring François Leterrier, Charles Le Clainche.

The final film in this Bresson series is regarded as one of the director’s best and most personal. Based on the account of Resistance leader André Devigny’s escape from Montluc prison fortress, hours before he was due to be executed, this story is certain to have struck resonant chords with Bresson, who himself was a prisoner of the Nazis. Of course, this being Bresson, the notion of escape takes on a metaphysical quality that references the overall human condition.

This article appears in September 29 • 2000.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.