Le Trou

I picked up a bootleg copy of Le Trou in Bangkok for $2. They had all these Criterion boots on the street. It was awesome! I bought at least 15. The quality of the transfer was really good. Le Trou was one of those boots. I would be happy paying $40 for this today. I don't care, it's fucking awesome.

John Pierre Melville hailed Le Trou as the greatest French film ever made. I wouldn't go THAT far, we may reserve that title for Breathless...but anyway, Le Trou rules. It's a genuine masterpiece.

Jacques Becker based his movie on a real life Parisian prison break in 1947. One of the guys involved penned a novel about it, and Becker actually cast him in the film. Becker used non-actors to heighten the realism of the film. It's pretty much done in documentary style. No music. Nothing fancy. Many scenes that don't further the plot whatsoever, but add to the viewer's perception of prison life. The mundane ritual. The monotony. The grim reality.

Talk about TENSION. This is edge-of-your-seat viewing for two hours. It's awesome, man. And the ending?! Fuckin a. It's as powerful as THX1138.

Prison movies rule. Especially older ones. You're just in awe at the real life ingenuity of prisoners. The shit they have to go through on a day to day basis. The creativity. It's just incredible. You take a fascinating subject like that and then put it in the hands of a skilled Director...it's gold! There's a certain romanticism to 60's prison, too (in a bizarre way).

Anyway, track down a copy of Le Trou. It's awesome.