A Man Escaped (1956) on Netflix
In 1943 the Nazis hold Fontaine, of the French Resistance, at Montluc prison in Lyon. He chisels at his cell door with a sharpened spoon, weighing whom he can trust.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb8.1/1031,150 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Lyon, 1943. Fontaine, a member of the French Resistance, is captured by the Germans and held at Montluc prison, where he hears the gunfire of firing squads and no one knows his fate. Moved to a top-floor cell, he notices the door's planks are joined by softer wood and sharpens a spoon to chisel at the joints. He hides the shavings and disguises the damage, makes rope from his linens and the wire of his bed frame, and studies the daily routine he depends on staying unchanged. Knowing no one in the prison, he must decide whom he can trust with a plan that means certain death if it fails.
Cast
- Jean Paul Delhumeauas Hebrard
- Roger Treherneas Terry
- Jean Philippe Delamarreas Le prisonnier 10
- Jacques Oerlemansas Le gardien-chef
- Klaus Detlef Grevenhorstas L'officier de L'Abwehr
- Leonhard Schmidtas Le garde de l'escorte
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Man Escaped (1956)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- A Man Escaped is based on the memoirs of André Devigny, a French Resistance member and Compagnon de la Libération who escaped Montluc prison in Lyon in 1943. Director Robert Bresson had also been held by the Germans in World War II, though as a prisoner of war rather than a Resistance prisoner.
- The film shaped later directors: Poland's Krzysztof Kieślowski ranked it among the ten films that affected him most, and Christopher Nolan was influenced by it, along with Bresson's Pickpocket, when making Dunkirk (2017).
