Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Le Trou Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 30, 2017

Jacques Becker's "Le Trou" a.k.a. "The Hole" (1960) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include documentary feature produced by Pierre-Francois Glaymann; archival interview with Roland Barbat; exclusive new video interview with actor Philippe Leroy; exclusive new video interview assistant director Jean Becker; and more. In French, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

The hole

The guy that emerges immediately after the opening credits and announces that with Le Trou his friend Jacques Becker has “recreated a true story in all its detail” is Roland Barbat. This is his real name, but in the film he is credited as Jean Keraudy. He is one of the five prisoners that attempted to escape from the notorious La Santé prison in 1947. The original script for Le Trou was co-written by another prisoner, Jose Giovanni, who also repeatedly tried to escape from La Santé and had quite a career in the film industry. Between the early 1960s and the late 1970s Giovanni contributed to such classic gangster films as Claude Sautet's Classe Tous Risques, Jean-Pierre Melville's Le Deuxième Souffle, and Henri Verneuil's The Sicilian Clan, and eventually stepped behind the camera to direct crime hits like Scoumone, The Gypsy, and Boomerang. He was a good friend of Alain Delon.

Le Trou pretty much replicates the style and atmosphere of Jules Dassin’s Rififi, only this time instead of a perfect robbery, a group of men plan the perfect prison getaway. Initially, the group has only four members, but after the authorities relocate another prisoner from a different area, it grows bigger. Marc Michel plays the young outsider, Claude Gaspard, who has gotten in trouble with the law after accidentally firing a gun during a heated debate with his jealous wife. The original members are Roland Darbat (Barbat), Manu Borelli (Philippe Leroy), Monsignor (Raymond Meunier), and Geo Cassine (Michel Constantin).

The plan is simple but quite brilliant. The prisoners request a large stack of paper sheets that need to be folded into boxes, and after they are delivered to their cell begin digging a hole which is later on covered with the same paper sheets. It is hard and dangerous work, but with Roland’s handmade tools they quickly reach an underground shaft and from there the central sewage system. Only two men are allowed to go into the hole. The rest remain in the cell and do all sorts of different tricks so that when the guards check on them, it looks like they are all asleep. One guy, typically Claude, is also asked to monitor the hallway with a miniature periscope.

Le Trou was Becker’s final film and without a shadow of doubt turned out to be his very best. It functions a lot like a carefully researched documentary feature, but it also does a lot of little things to create a very special atmosphere that makes it easy to understand what its characters are going through. It is a remarkable rollercoaster of emotions that for a short period of time effectively erases the fine line that separates reality from fiction.

All of the leads are brilliant -- even though at the time they were all essentially amateurs -- but Barbat’s performance is breathtaking. There are a lot of different sequences where he does things in the exact same way they were done when he was amongst his old pals in the cell. It is not coincidental that Becker frequently carefully observes how his hands move when he prepares different tools or breaks the stones -- these are not practiced moves, but the moves of someone who was once desperate to reclaim his freedom and was fully aware that even the tiniest error could have been disastrous.

The soundtrack utilizes a variety of completely unfiltered organic sounds and noises from the prison hallways and the digging of the hole for maximum effect.

Le Trou Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.67:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jacques Becker's Le Trou arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

The release is sourced from a strikingly beautiful new 4K restoration that literally makes the film look as if it was shot fairly recently. Frankly, it is painfully obvious that the people that completed it knew exactly what they were doing and were extremely careful when they were working with the digital tools that they had at their disposal. In terms of detail and clarity the improvements are really quite dramatic, and not only during the well-lit footage, but also during the darker underground footage where the prisoners are seen digging. Most close-ups, in particular, look fantastic. The grading is also very convincing -- the blacks are solid and stable, while the nuanced grays and whites appear beautifully balanced. Thee are absolutely no traces of problematic degraining or sharpening adjustments. I would like to mention that during the restoration some specific optimizations were made to ensure that overall image stability is improved as well. Unfortunately, the disc was encoded without specific optimizations and as a result there are a few areas where some compression artifacts sneak in. The most obvious examples are very into the film where one of the main characters are introduced, but there are also some other minor pop-ups that easily could have been avoided (you can see an example in sceencapture #7). My feeling is that most viewers will probably not be bothered by them, but I think that it is a bit disappointing that StudioCanal did not avoid them because this is one of the very best 4K restorations of a classic black-and-white French films that I have seen in a very long time. My score is 4.25/5.00. (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).

Le Trou 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 provide for the main feature.

The audio has been fully remastered and any traces of age-related anomalies have been effectively removed. I did a few comparisons with my DVD release and I could quite easily tell that in addition to clean up work, specific stabilizations were performed as well. To be perfectly clear, the unevenness that from time to time emerges on older films is simply not present here. Depth and sharpness are excellent as well.

Le Trou Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interview with Ginette Vincendeau - in this video interview, professor Ginette Vincendeau discusses the original event that inspired Le Trou and the film's history and style. In English, not subtitled. (8 min).

• Interview with Jean Becker - in this new video interview, director Jean Becker (One Deadly Summer, Love Me No More), who assisted Jacques Becker during the shooting of Le Trou, recalls some of the ideas and suggestions he had for his father; his impressions of Roland Barbat (the thief apparently lived in his car and at one point disappeared for a couple of days because he felt that he was again a prisoner); the casting process, the critical reception of the film and the work of the new New Wave directors; etc. The interview was conducted exclusively for StudioCanal. In French, with optional English subtitles. (21 min).

• Interview with Philippe Leroy - in this new video interview, Philippe Leroy recalls how he was cast to play Manu Borelli in Le Trou without having any acting experience, and discusses the atmosphere during the shooting of the film as well as his admiration for the King of Jailbreaks, Roland Barbat. The interview was conducted exclusively for StudioCanal. In Italian, with optional English subtitles. (6 min).

• Interview with Jean Keraudy - in this archival interview, Roland Barbat discusses his real life, the time he spent in prison (he escaped six times and each time his sentence was increased), and his involvement with Le Trou. In French, with optional English subtitles. (7 min).

• L'envers du Decor/Behind the Scenes - this documentary film takes a closer look at the fascinating history of Jacques Becker's Le Trou. Included in it are archival interviews with writer/director Jose Giovanni, actor, Marc Michel, assistant director Jean Becker, and others. The documentary was produced by Pierre-Francois Glaymann. In French, with optional English subtitles. (33 min).

Le Trou Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I truly hope that this terrific 4K restoration of Jacques Becker's final film will not remain exclusive to Region-B territories. Le Trou is simply too big of a film, and it would be a shame if it is not made available on Blu-ray in the United States. It was previously released on DVD by the Criterion Collection, so perhaps there is a good chance that the label can again license the rights for it and produce a domestic Blu-ray release. StudioCanal's Blu-ray release has two very good exclusive new video interviews with Philippe Leroy and assistant director Jean Becker, as well as an old but very informative documentary feature. I have to say, however, that the technical presentation should have been more convincing. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.