353. Le Trou (The Hole) (book says 1959 wiki says 1960)

Directed By Jacques Becker

Synopsis

Four prisoners have a plan to escape, they get a fifth element and have to decide whether to trust him or not. You follow their best laid plans, which end up as best laid plans so often do.

Review

You might have noticed in my previous reviews that I often have problems with non-professional actors in films. Jacques Becker has managed, however, to have pretty much perfect casting, even if using non-professionals.

It probably helps that one of the actors was actually one of the prisoners who attempted the escape in the first place, lending the film and the acting, an air of verisimilitude which probably rubs off on the non-pro actors.

The film is extremely well directed, Becker knows perfectly for how long to keep a shot going, how to create tension and drop subtle hints about the characters. Like most great films the plot is secondary to the relationship between the people portrayed in the film. Really great stuff, another amazing prison escape film, we have had so many and from La Grande Illusion onwards they have been uniformly fantastic.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

It was called The Night Watch when first released in the United States, but is released under its French title today.

Whole film online, get it here:  http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=FDE78703216BC9C9 (sorry no embedding)