Le trou (Jacques Becker, 1960) André Bervil, Jean Keraudy, Michel Constantin
Distrust and uncertainty arise when four long-term inmates cautiously induct a new prisoner into their elaborate prison-break scheme.
Andrew Sarris 1964:
... It is as if Becker had left as his last will and testament a documentation of unself-conscious film-making in the service of pleasurable entertainment. But then Becker had always liked American movies and had never affected Pagnol’s grainy crudity for the edification of the cliffdwelling aesthetes of the art circuits—which is another way of saying that Becker's movies are always easier on sybaritic eyes than on angst-seeking souls. ...
As a stylist who valued entertainment above edification, Becker projected his personality not so much in his choice of plots, which are often ultra-conventional, as in the dream-like quality of his decor, itself an expression of the fatalistically, closed world of the studio movie. By integrating character and setting, Becker generally succeeds in persuading his audience that his plots can end only one way, and that Is Becker's way, the way of emotional logic. Village Voice.
Bilge Ebiri 2017:
There’s something weirdly Zen about these characters. Yes, they’re anxious to get out, but there’s an air of resignation about them, too. It’s not so much that they must escape, it’s that they couldn’t live with themselves if they didn’t try. Even as these men take care to hide their handiwork during the long weeks of digging, there are times when they leave themselves open to fate — points of no return at which they chance it all and risk going down together rather than playing it safe. Le Trou is not just a movie about tough guys trying to break out of prison; it’s a movie about doomed romantics. Village Voice.
Garry Gillard | reviews | New: 7 February, 2024 | Now: 7 February, 2024