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Le Trou (The Criterion Collection)

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Jacques Becker's LE TROU (THE HOLE) is one of the most intense, powerful and thrilling crime movie in film history.

Men--convicts--in a prison cell plot a dynamic escape by digging a hole (hence the title) in their prison cell. This is the basic plot of it, that's all. And the dramatic arena is naturally very limited; basically everything in a confinement of a prison. The actions are also mainly limited to the act of digging.

By deliberately limiting his cinematic palette to bare-bone simplicity, Jacques Becker weaves out a complex web of human camaraderie and conflicts. You have to trust one another to commit this kind of escape, but at the same time, can you really trust these fellow inmates? All the dramatic ellements concentrate into this fundamental question about human relationship. And from there florishies a stunning, awesome drama of wild, strong men, naturally with the currents of their own vulnerabilities underneath, which quite often finds its way to burst in front of your eyes.

A superb ensemble cast including some of the finest character actors in french cinema and one man who actually experienced this story (Jean Keraudy, who introduces the film as his own story) creates an extraoridinary psychological as well as physical realism.

And the harsh, stark black&white cinematography can be easily pointed out as one of the highest achievement in attempting to create an imediate realistic experience as a cinematic imagery in film history.

In one word, this is a must see film, a masterpiece. Both an entertaining crime drama, and a true work of art.

*note: jacaues becker used to be assitant director to jean renoir in the 1930's, and appears into films such as Boudu Saved from Drowning and Grand Illusion

Based on a true story, "LE TROU" is a 42 year old French thriller that is little known in the U.S. but is being (re)discovered by videophiles as a tense, sweat-inducing masterpiece. The plot is amazingly simple: Five guys in a prison cell awaiting trial, plot an escape by digging a hole ("le trou") into the Parisian sewers. The perfect black and white cinematography, the ultra minimalist plot, confined setting and shifting character relationships make this a kind of Zen noir meditation on the primal, universal, desire to be Free. Director Jacques Becker died shortly after this film was completed, and this is a fitting epitaph to a truncated prize-winning career. The film opens with a statement that removes all obstacles to suspending disbelief. Jean Keraudy, one of the real life participants of the events depicted in the movie, and an actor in the movie, says, "My Friend Jacques Becker recreated a true story in all its detail. My story. It took place in 1947 at the Santé prison." The thing that intrigued Becker was the ingenuity of the scheme and the courage of the undertaking. Three members of the original escape served as consultants and Keraudy himself plays the character Roland in the film. The suspense never lets up as we participate with these desperate, ingenious, meticulous, men as a collective force seeking freedom. There's a feeling of real time and no music score to enhance or detract. The DVD has no significant extras. The widescreen transfer is clean and sharp and the sound is crisp. It's in French with optional, easy to read subtitles and there's a six page booklet with two interesting essays. Thanks to Criterion, this great film has been plucked from obscurity, beautifully mastered, and is now finding the appreciative audience it deserves. Don't miss it.

Finally! Jacques Becker, one of the most underrated GREAT filmmakers ever, on Criterion DVD. "Le Trou" (the Hole) is a highly unconventional prison drama, a different variation on the 'honor among thieves' theme Becker used so effectively in his Rififi-Bob-le-Flambeur-inspiring-archetype gangster classic "Touchez Pas Au Grisbi."

Here you get maybe the most Zen-like of all commercial cinema films, a radical departure from what Becker had done before in its restrained rather than extravagant style: 4 guys in a cell trying to dig a hole to freedom through a wall of rock, and THAT'S IT! But wait! This is REAL CINEMA, not the friggin' 'Great Escape'! Psychological complexity revealed through the camera that doesn't lie, as in EVERYTHING that goes on in their heads, not through any over-written dialogue, but by letting the cinema do the work: realistic reactions and gestures CAPTURED IN MAXIMUM REALNESS (of the slightly ramshakle French Prison variety, of course) from actors who have fully internalized these characters into an almost Robert De Niro level of Method Acting, without, I'm sure, being trained in any 'method nonsense' that would probably have confused the hell out of them unnecessarily (not surprisingly, one of them was a former inmate himself).

Becker died tragically young right after the film was completed and was at the time married to the beautiful Algerian born French actress Francoise Fabian who later appeared most memorably in Eric Rohmer's classic "My Night At Maude's" as Maude. Truffaut and Godard and the rest of the French New-Wave directors who had just begun making their own films, inspired directly from the great, early, mostly anti-studio-system films of Becker (Goupi Mains Rouges, Antoine et Antoinette, Edward et Caroline, Rendez-vous in July) hailed "Le Trou" as an instant masterpiece and it has stood the test of time through the 40 years since, although very few Americans are familiar with it. "Le Trou" isn't my own personal favorite Becker film (I prefer Antoine et Antoinette & Rendez-vous in July), but it can justifiably be called his most accomplished: in fact, it can almost be called an avant-garde film in the way it klangs mercilessly on huge pieces of rock for long periods of time, as if a sublime meditation was in progress, and before you know it, you, the viewer are pulled into it: a laboratory experiment of the soul.

A wonderful film, made my christmas. is a bit hard to add anything that hasn't been said in these eloquent reviews already but this is the most perfect film about camaraderie ever made. realistic is an over used word but when the guard cuts through the prisoner's sausages with a knife that has just been used to cut soap it gives one a frisson of the restrictions prison puts on a human being, when the four prisoner's are sitting eating said sausage in their cell it feels like you are sitting right next to them. When one character talks about his wife another asks him if she squeezed his blackheads after sex, its these details that take this hypnotic escape drama to another level, for the mechanics of the film the other reviews are more informative, i do not have enough time to do them justice here.

there is one breathtakingly surreal shot towards the climax of this film, gave me a thrill like all great suspense pictures and its effect is heightened by the fact that the camera until this point has been relentlessly trained on the 4 characters for the entire movie, it comes like a bolt from the blue.

Brilliant movie, deserves to be ranked with Bresson's a man escaped, i can't think of any english language escape films that come close to these two. And of the two the more accesible is this one

I really had (unfounded) doubts going into this DVD / film. I'm not sure why, perhaps because I've seen quite a few prison-escape type films (Alcatraz, The Rock, Stalag 17, The Great Escape, The Grand Illusion, The Shawshank Redemption) so I really didn't think there could be another, even though it came before most of the ones I mentioned, that could be that good. Well, I was happily surprised! This film is fantastic. Keep in mind that the director is very deliberate with the way he films scenes in that we see much more, the camera stays on the action much longer, than you might be used to. But this is a huge part of the overall effect and I think it works beautifully. I don't know about others but I really got a sense of claustrophobia while watching this film as so much of it is filmed "inside". I wish I could say more about it but I'm afraid of giving anything away. If you found yourself liking those other films I mentioned and you don't mind French dialog (perhaps you can play a dubbing track, can't recall) and black and white films, by all means check this one out - a bonafide cinematic classic!

To say this is the story of an attempted prison break-out does absolutely no justice to Le Trou, one of the great, subtle films of prison and men working together. Four men share a small cell in France's Santé Prison. There is Roland (Jean Keraudy), accepted by the others as their leader, a taciturn man who plans; Manu (Philippe Leroy), thoughtful but not one to let things slide by; Monseigneur (Raymond Meunier), more easy-going than the others; and Geo (Michel Constantin), who likes to prod and can use his fists. They all are tough men. Each is facing at least ten years in prison. Suddenly placed in their cell is the young Claude Gaspar (Marc Michel), something of an innocent who is charged with attempting to murder his wife. The four men now have a problem. Do they bring Gaspar into their secret? They plan to escape by digging through the concrete floor of their cell and into a sewer outlet, then through the dank basements of the prison, through another sewer line and out onto the streets. They have been planning this job meticulously and now are just about to start. They have no choice, so they bring Claude in. He agrees.

For the next two hours we watch these men, whose lives are controlled by the prison guards, hammer and tear through every obstacle they meet. They have to feign sleep and create dummies for the night-time prison checks. They make tools and a key, even a sand timer to tell time by. All the while they take turns pounding their way through stone walls and concrete floors. Becker's camera makes sure we see that the actors themselves are doing this brutal, grunting work. During all this punishing labor we begin to suspect that something isn't right. On one level, we know this is a movie and there can't be a simple, happy ending. But we also start noticing things. Someone may ask a question that seems unnecessary. Someone forgets a jacket and turns back to get it. It's apparent that Claude Garspar hasn't reached the same level of trust within the group that the other four have, but is this significant? All the while the clock is ticking and the men have no time; they must break through and get out before they are discovered.

I think the power of this film rests in two areas. First, there are no moral targets set up for us by the director and writer. There are no brutal guards and no brutal prisoners, just men doing what they are paid to do or told to do. In other words, there is no prison melodrama. Second, the movie seems to move at the pace of the five men. They have to keep going and we have to keep up with them. We see how they plan, how they improvise, how they do things. We also see how they have to live together in a small cell, brushing their teeth, urinating in an open toilet, being shaved in the hallway, sharing food packages and hunks of prison bread, undergoing cell searches with no warnings. It helps a great deal that Becker did not cast professional actors. We don't know these men, there's no film history, only what they do and say right now. The ending is not particularly bleak, unless you're a student of human nature, but because we've come to know these men it packs an emotional wallop.

The film was based on an attempted prison escape in France in 1947. Jean Keraudy, who plays Roland Darbant, was one of the prisoners who participated. After his release he earned his living as an auto mechanic. This is the only movie he ever made. Two of the other men who attempted the escape with him were hired by Becker as consultants. Much of the film was shot in the Santé Prison. This was Jacques Becker's last movie. The director of Casque d'Or and Touchez pas au Grisbi died of a heart attack two weeks after completing the film.

The Criterion DVD transfer is excellent. There are no extras. The DVD case contains an informative printed insert.

You maybe have not heard of French director Jacques Becker (he gets surprisingly little attention) - but if you see this movie you will understand immediateley why he ranks beside Bresson, Melville, and indeed Renoir (whom he worked with) - as one of the most polished and engaging of all French film makers. The film is an escape film - but unlike any other escape film - simply because of the way Becker is able to methodically connect us with the characters of the film - the ending of the film is a complete surprise - which may remind you of Henri Georges Clouzot's surprise endings!

Jacques Becker's LE TROU is the most detailed prison escape movie you'll ever see.

Because it was made in France in 1960 LE TROU is blessed with a few unique features - some of the prominent actors are amateurs, including Jean Keraudy, who was involved in the 1947 prison break this film depicts. There's no musical scoring of any type. The film is shot in black-and-white, with muted dramatics - the prison officials, guards and wardens, are actually nice enough people. So this is no exposé of harsh prison conditions, hardened criminals brutalized by hardened guards. Four prisoners have planned and are about to undertake a prison break. Young Claude Gaspar is suddenly thrown into their cell, and the four have to alter their plans to accommodate their new cellmate. Do they include him in their plans? Can they trust him?

Ultimately the second question proves to be the more important one. Before that question plays out to its final conclusion, though, LE TROU spends nearly two hours with the men as they laboriously, and I mean laboriously, chisel, pound, file and scrape their way through one barrier after another. First to go is a small, hidden corner of the floor in their cell, and the movie watches every blow of the improvised hammer as the thick concrete is finally broken into a hole large enough for a man to squeeze through. In most prison break movies you crack one hole and move on, but in this one it's just the beginning. Finally, the men must find the sewer, somewhere beneath the prison's cellar, and break their way out of whatever barrier they find when they reach it.

There's an understated, unforced feel to LE TROU. With its obsessive attention to detail, lack of false dramatics, and muted performances this doesn't feel so much like a docudrama as a true reenactment of events. Because the movie spends so much time over the prisoners' shoulders as they slowly chip and file their way to freedom we become wrapped up with their success. Even though they're criminals, and the movie expends little energy trying to prove they're innocent, or that they don't deserve the long prison terms they all face, it's hard not to become engaged with their quest for freedom and root for their success. If you're looking for a fast paced, violent prison movie LE TROU is not a good pick, but if you're willing to stay with a deliberately paced film this movie is a winner.

"Le Trou," ("The Hole"), is a black and white thriller, surely one of the greatest of all prison-break movies, and another triumph of French cinema, made by director Jacques Becker. Oddly enough, it was made in 1960, but not released in the United States until 1997. In a swift 131 minutes, it tells the story of the bourgeois Claude. While he is in prison awaiting trial for the attempted murder of his wife, he learns that the four inmates in a cell he has just been moved into, as his former cell is being remodeled, are plotting an escape. The four all face certain conviction and long sentences. They wonder: does their new young jail-mate have the same incentive to escape and if so can they trust him? They decide to include Claude in their plans, and he decides to go along with them -- only to learn that his wife has dropped the charges and his sentence has been reduced. He still agrees to participate in the jailbreak, knowing that he's risking his freedom by so doing.

This is director Jacques Becker's final film; he was quite ill, and knew it. He died two weeks after completing it. It is based on a true story of the hole dug by the inmates of the largest Paris prison, la Sante. The screenplay is taken from a novel by the distinguished writer and film-maker Jose' Giovanni, himself formerly a convict. Becker, a Communist, chooses to tell the story in the simplest, most stripped-down, neatest possible way. No music at all, only the sounds of a prison, and dry, sharp yet powerful dialog. The in-mates do their job, to try to escape. The director, Communist though he may be, avoids the annoying cliché, typical of American jail movies, of showing the wardens as sadistic torturers. The four prisoners are solid working class guys, as are the jailers, who, too, are only doing their jobs. Michel Constantin, who was to go on to be a major player in French movies, is making his first movie here. He plays Geo, one of the four inmates, who decides he cannot escape, as the police would hound his mother mercilessly, as they did initially, when they were looking for him; which hounding made his mother seriously ill. But Geo does not rat on his comrades, nor does he shirk his share of the work. In order to increase the verisimilitude of the film, the director has used mainly non-actors, including the man playing Rolland, another of the four inmates, who himself participated in the attempted 1947 prison break. Becker also hired the three other inmates who attempted the 1947 escape as consultants, and was therefore, able to reproduce la Sante to the smallest detail, to riveting effect.

Claude, as played by Marc Michel, is a weak, handsome Farley Granger type, a bourgeois if ever there was one. He has married a rich woman, is carrying on an affair with her pretty seventeen year old sister, as played by Catherine Spaak in a very brief scene, and apparently earns a comfortable living working--not too hard--for his father-in-law, selling used cars. There can be no doubt that Becker, with his Marxist outlook, has created a situation in which the working class men are bonded, look after each other, share their food and cigarettes, and are working desperately hard together, to dig their way out. And Claude is the man they cannot trust.

The inmates are also astonishingly handy, resourceful and hard-working; creating the items they need for the escape from the most common every day items around the prison, developing a system to send messages between cells, and figuring out how to tell time. They dig a remarkably intelligent escape tunnel. Furthermore, throughout the film, Becker gives us a rich level of detail: on the day to day life of the prison; on the prisoners' food; their clothing - they wear their own, and Claude has brought his pajamas with him. The photography is also outstanding, Becker is using a wide screen, Cinemascope process; yet he gives us some deep-focus shots that would be the envy of any film noir director.
Becker's film is as notable for what is left out as for what is included. There are no prison "types" created, his style is restrained to the point of being transparent. We get no display of the horrors of prison life; just enough of the regimentation, drabness of environment, and lack of personal space. Finally, there is no use of music to pump up the suspense. There is, however, a powerful and unique use of sound. We hear every thump, clang, and wail within the prison walls and during the digging scenes.

I began watching this film expecting that I wouldn't care for it; I don't generally like prison movies. Too many men, no women. I've read that Becker, who always enjoyed making gangster films, was playing with the script for his earlier film, Casque d'Or - Criterion Collection, but could not find financing to make it, until Simone Signoret signed on; he then, of course, had to integrate a star part for her into his script, and she became, beyond all doubt, the star of the film, giving a memorable performance. Well, I kind of wished Becker, who had been trained by the great French director Jean Renoir, had been forced to integrate some more women into this film, with substantial parts. Though, of course, it's pretty difficult to integrate women into a prison movie; and Becker undoubtedly wasn't going to do it on his last film, the masterpiece he wanted to leave behind. Well, I was soon totally engrossed in this film, cerebral, dark and gritty, understated as it is; and always suspenseful. Is this a rave? You bet.

I thought I had seen (or been aware of) every great film made. Then I saw THE HOLE.

If you love WAGES OF FEAR, you'll love LE TROU.

Comparing this masterpiece to other escape movies like THE GREAT ESCAPE (yes, Bresson's is an exception) is like comparing TAXI DRIVER to MANIAC COP 3 (Maltin,...).