Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

A Man Escaped Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 7, 2018

Robert Bresson's "A Man Escaped" (1956) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon/Artificial Eye. The only bonus feature on the disc is Pierre-Henri Gilbert's documentary "The Essence of Forms". In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The prisoner

The man (Francois Leterrier) looks indecisive and weak. As the car slows down, he suddenly opens up the door and runs away. Moments later, he is captured and dragged back into the car. Later on, he is questioned and beaten by Gestapo agents. It is when we realize that he is a French resistance fighter.

In his cell, the man thinks about the end. There is so much that he never had a chance to share with his family and comrades. He is convinced that it is only a matter of time now before the Nazis execute him.

A few days later, however, a fellow prisoner reveals to the man how to send a message to his comrades. Filled with hope, the man begins to plan an escape. It won’t be easy, but he knows that it can be done. He just needs time - the more, the better.

The man begins working. Very soon, he manages to take off a large piece of wood from his door, then another one, and then another one. He also makes a rope from his blanket and a hook from a piece of metal. A couple of his new friends already know that he is planning to escape, but none of them believe that he will succeed.

Eventually, the man concludes that he has done everything that needs to be done and gathered all of the tools he would need to climb the prison’s walls. Then the Nazis inform him that he will be executed. A couple of days later, the man gets a cellmate - a 16-year-old prisoner named François Jost (Charles Le Clainche), whom the man suspects is a Nazi spy.

Robert Bresson’s Un condamné à mort s’est échappé a.k.a. A Man Escaped tells the true story of French resistance fighter André Devigny, who was captured and sent to Fort Montluc in Lyon, a notorious Gestapo prison, where thousands of men and women were tortured and executed during WWII. A few days before he was to be executed, Devigny managed to escape from the prison and fled to Switzerland.

The film is dry and methodical. The focus of attention is not so much on the events leading to Devigny’s escape but on the atmosphere that surrounds them. As Devigny begins plotting his escape, the tension gradually rises, and eventually becomes unbearable.

The film is completely and convincingly stripped of glamor. Devigny often looks indecisive and terrified, a man who may not have the courage to finish what he has started. Bresson’s camera spends a great deal of time studying his face and shaky hands because they reveal perfectly that he is a real human being - hopeful but apprehensive, determined but desperate.

Bresson also uses silence to great effect. The occasional random noises disturb Devigny’s methodical work, and the film’s rhythm. They are maddening, painful, and, as Devigny often fears, quite possibly signaling the end.

The cast of non-professional actors and limited dialog give A Man Escaped a very distinctive documentary-like feel. Also, the only music heard in the film is a small fragment from Mozart’s "Great" Mass in C minor.

*In 1957, A Man Escaped won Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

A Man Escaped Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Curzon/Artificial Eye.

The release is sourced from Gaumont's 2K remaster of the film which both the French label and Criterion worked with for their respective Blu-ray releases. Common logic dictates that all three releases should look identical, but they don't. The French release is the most problematic one because it conveys a number of encoding issues, with the chroma noise and macroblocking being the two most damaging ones. Criterion's release is the best looking of the three because it eliminates the chroma noise and also has some adjustments that improve the overall gamma balance. This release also eliminates the chroma noise, but does not have the gamma adjustments. As a result, some of the black and gray nuances appear slightly elevated and in certain areas flatten the image a bit. On the other hand, I think that the remaster that is offered for licensing actually has some issues as well because even on the Criterion release there are sporadic light artifact-like effects that pop up during footage from the man's cell that appear to have been introduced by specific digital work. It is difficult for me to tell what their exact nature is, but from what I have seen on all three releases I can conclude that they are a byproduct of optimizations. Detail and clarity range from good to very good, but I think thatl both could have been more consistent. Image stability is very good. My score is 3.75/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

A Man Escaped Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: French LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The film does not have a conventional music score. Instead, it utilizes a variety of organic sounds and noises and as a result dynamic intensity is limited. Clarity, separation, and balance are very good. There are no stability issues to report either.

A Man Escaped Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• The Essence of Forms - this 2010 documentary film directed by Pierre-Henri Gilbert also appears on Gaumont's Blu-ray release of A Man Escaped. It features interviews with actor and director Francois Leterrier (Emmanuelle 3: Goodbye Emmanuelle), Iranian filmmaker Iradj Azimi (The Raft of the Medusa), French filmmaker Bruno Dumont (Flanders), and cinematographers Pierre Lhomme (Camille Claudel, Army of Shadows) and Emmanuel Machuel (Van Gogh, Casa de Lava), amongst others. In French, with optional English subtitles. (46 min, 1080p).

A Man Escaped Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If A Man Escaped was restored more recently, I think that the end result would have turned out to be better than the existing 2K remaster that Gaumont has available for licensing. It is not disappointing, but I see some weak spots on it that could have been avoided. If you reside in a Region-B territory and do not yet have the film in your collection, I think that you should plan to purchase Curzon/Artificial Eye's upcoming release. It offers a better technical presentation than the Region-Free release that Gaumont produced a few years ago. RECOMMENDED.