Search - A Man Escaped on DVD

Content Advisory: Mild Violence Movie Release: 1956 DVD Release: 05/25/2004 Format: DVD - Black and White Audio Tracks: French Subtitles: English SwapaDVD Credits: 1 Number of Discs: 1 Run Time: 1 hrs 40 mins Studio: New Yorker Video Members Wishing: 12 Genres: Drama, Escape Film, Docudrama, Prison Film

In a genre crowded with quality films, director Robert Bresson's POW drama has become legendary, in part because it strips down the experience of a man desperate to escape to the essentials. That's in keeping with the approach Bresson took with all of his films. The filmmaker, who spent a year in a German prison camp during World War II, based this story on the experiences of Andre Devigny, a French Resistance fighter sent in 1943 to the infamous prison in Lyons, where 7,000 of the 10,000 prisoners housed there died either by natural means or by execution. Lt. Fontaine (Francois Leterrier) is certain that execution awaits him, and he almost immediately begins planning his escape, using homemade tools and an ingenuity for detecting the few weaknesses in the prison's structure and routine. For a time, he goes it alone, then takes on a partner, but only reluctantly. Fontaine does get some help from a couple of prisoners allowed to stroll in the exercise yard, but for the most part he is a figure in isolation. For Bresson, the process of escape is all, and in simplifying his narrative he ratchets up the tension, creating a film story of survival that many feel is without peer. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Francois Leterrier - Lt. Fontaine
Roland Monod - De Leiris the Pastor
Jacques Ertaud - Orsini
Roger Planchon

Legendary screen director Robert Bresson takes the helm for this suspenseful true-life drama documenting a French prisoner of war's dogged determination to escape a Nazi holding cell in German-occupied France, which arrives on DVD from New Yorker Home Video. Presented in its original 1.33:1 full-frame aspect ratio, this release offers audio rendered in French Dolby Digital Mono with optional English subtitles. Though extra features are minimal, an original theatrical trailer is included on the disc. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide