Few genres have been as reliable throughout the history of cinema asthe prison break movie, fromThe Great Escape,toEscape from Alcatraz,toThe Shawshank Redemption.Yet few have felt as authentic asJacques Becker’sLe Trou,translated in English asThe Hole.Becker spared no expense infaithfully recreating the 1947 escape attemptat France’s La Santé Prison, going so far as to cast one of the real inmates,Roland Barbat, to play himself. Barbat, appearing under the stage nameJean Keraudy, also served as a technical consultant, and he endorses the veracity of everything portrayed in a prologue, telling the audience, “This is my story.” Becker’s near-documentary approach lends newfound excitement to a tried-and-true genre, and influenced a generation of French filmmakers.
‘Le Trou’ Strips the Prison Break Movie of Artifice
AsLe Trouopens, prisoner Claude Gaspard (Marc Michel) is being moved to a new cell with four other inmates. Claude is in prison for attempting to murder his wife, which he claims was an accident, but could nevertheless keep him behind bars for the next 20 years. His new cellmates — Geo Cassine (Michel Constantin), Manu Borelli (Philippe Leroy), Vossellin (Raymond Meunier), and Roland Barbat — bring him in on theirplan to break outby digging a hole through the floor and into the sewer. Roland is the mastermind, creating makeshift tools from objects in their cell: a piece of glass attached to a toothbrush becomes a periscope, a leg from the bed frame becomes a hammer, a file is used as a saw, etc. They spend days breaking through the sewer wall, and freedom seems within their reach until the warden (Jean-Paul Coquelin) dangles the promise of an early release to Claude in exchange for information.
Hiring Barbat to both play himself and act as a technical advisor sets the tone for Becker’s directorial approach, which takes on an almost documentary realism. The camera only moves when absolutely necessary, and when it does, it never calls attention to itself. There’s a drabness to the art direction,shot in naturalistic black-and-white. There’s no flashy cutting, and in the scene where the prisoners start breaking through the floor, Becker holds the camera on their action for several uninterrupted minutes. Aside from the closing credits, there is no musical score, and the clanging and banging of the makeshift tools on the concrete reverberate in our ears throughout much of the runtime.
The 30 Best French Movies of All Time, Ranked
Including classics and modern favorites.
Perhaps the most extraordinary thing about this approach is that it doesn’t diminish the film’s entertainment value. If anything,the authenticity adds to the excitement.There’s the sense that you’re really watching a group of prisoners slowly break their way through the prison, first by creating a hole in the floor and then by making their way through the prison catacombs to the sewers. Our rooting interest grows the more we watch Barbat and his crew produce an opening in the wall, making the ending all the more devastating.
‘Le Trou’ Helped Influence the French New Wave
Born in 1906, Becker Jacques Becker began his film career as an assistant toJean Renoir, working on several of the legendary French director’s films, including the prison break dramaGrand Illusion.He only directed 13 films, including the period romanceCasque d’Orand the heist filmTouchez pas au grisbi. Le Trouwas his final film, as he had a heart attack anddied when the film was in post-production; he was only 53-years-old. His death in 1960 came at the dawn ofthe French New Wave, and although he wasn’t a part of that legendary film movement, he helped pave the way for it.
Unlike his contemporaries such as French poetic realistMarcel Carné, the leaders ofthe French New Wavedidn’t consider Becker to be passé.François Truffautcalled Becker’s work, “the triumph of something unique and fully realized that other filmmakers have not achieved: a total simplicity joined to a precision of tone that never falters.” A film likeLe Troupredicted the mission statement of Truffaut,Jean-Luc Godard, and the otherdirectors who got their startsinging the praises of Hollywood genre directors in the pages ofCahiers du Cinémabefore creating more realistic takes on those same genres.
