Le Trou (1964)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

They take hands to escape from the prison.One of them have a couple of experiences ,so he lead the rest of them.They create the course to outside a so primitive way.They part a bed frame and dug in on the ground.It takes a week to make it.But they do it at the end of this film.

It was bold indeed of Jacques Becker to make another prison escape film so soon after Robert Bresson had created the genre's masterpiece, 'Un condamné à mort s'est échappé' (1956); but the gamble paid off handsomely.Like Robert Rossen's 'Lilith' (1964), 'La Trou' seen in isolation looks more like the debut of an exciting new talent than the valediction of a veteran in his fifties about to be taken before his time. Released shortly after Becker had died of a heart attack aged just 53, when confronted with such a fresh, modern-looking piece of filmmaking one is vexed by the question of where Becker would have gone next, which we shall never know. The film remains unusual for its lack of a music score (composer Philippe Arthuys, significantly, is actually credited at the end with 'Illustration sonore'), and I can even forgive this film for setting a deplorable precedent by being possibly the first to have no credits at the start; they all come at the end, to the accompaniment of a simple piano arrangement of Rubinstein's 'Melody in F' which may have been intended as discrete mockery on Becker's part of the grandiose use of Mozart's 'Mass in C Minor' at the conclusion of Bresson's film.Jean Keraudy, a veteran of the original escape, segues smoothly into the uniformly excellent cast; while among the staff, Jean-Paul Coquelin has a beguiling air of dry good humour in his scenes as the cell block lieutenant.

Le Trou (The Hole) is directed by Jacques Becker and adapted to screenplay by Becker, Jose Giovani and Jean Aurel from Giovani's own novel. It stars Michel Constantin, Jean Keraudy, Philippe Leroy, Raymond Meunier, Marc Michel and Jean-Paul Coquelin. Jacques Becker's last film before he would pass away shortly after the film's completion, is a tightly wound prison procedural that deals in grim realism and claustrophobic sparsity. There's no prison movie clichés here, there's no sadistic prison staff, no Mr. Big who is in with the wardens and demands money with menace, and no rapists hovering about the place to seize by force and break the last inch of spirit of the victim, this is as pure and unfussily raw as it gets. Based on a real escape attempt at La Sante Prison in 1947, story has four men in a cell plotting to escape via digging a hole in their cell. When construction work within the prison means a number of prisoners have to be relocated, the four men are a bit perturbed to find they have another inmate thrust into their already overcrowded cell. While of course there's the small matter of the escape attempt that's planned, will they be able to trust the newcomer? Will he join in and help? Pertinent questions hang heavy in the sweaty air. Once Claude Gaspard (Michel) arrives in the cell, the narrative initially operates on a cat and mouse basis as the men sound out the newcomer. There's no histrionics, no threats of violence, an enforcement of machismo to intimidate the new cell mate, just human interaction with viable concerns. Much of these passages pulse with atmosphere as the men talk in hushed tones, or just exchange glances, and then once an accord is reached, all parties are comfortable with each other, it's time to put the escape plan into action. What follows is quite simply engrossing suspense as Becker deals in long takes of silence punctuated by animal strength as the men pound on concrete with metal. The camera stays static, filming as if in real time, the sound department ramp up the volume to splinter the ears. We observe as the men fashion devices to aid their escape and to remain undetected, some of it genius in its simplicity. And all the while there is the feeling of trust, a bond between the incarcerated males, where the two lead off men are entrusted to go out and beyond the bowels of the prison, working tirelessly in charting the course through a maze of murky masonry, and to then return back to "HQ" for some rest and updates of the progress… The use of non professional actors works brilliantly, adding further realism to the story, with one of them, Jean Keraudy, a bona fide prisoner from the actual event back in 1947. There's no music here, it isn't needed to emphasise or manipulate a scene, none more so with the denouement, a closure of some emotional magnitude, and once again it's without histrionics, and once again it works brilliantly. 9/10

A unique prison escape film, full of very specific, realistic details and devoid of almost any prison movie clichés. The characters all prove more complex then we assume at first glance. Perhaps that's because it's based on a true story. In fact the cast are all non-pros, and one was actually involved in the real escape plan. I was lukewarm while I watched the body of the film, but by the end it had an emotional and intellectual effect far more powerful than I expected. There were a couple of illogical moments that made me wonder if the real story was being followed honestly. But, ultimately that didn't really matter. Whatever the blend of truth and fiction this is a tense, powerful, entertaining film, one of the better prison films ever made.