Immediate background:Jacques Becker was dying when he filmed "le trou,and he made it his legacy;it's the tragedy of man caught on the web of life -an admirable metaphor shows two wardens feeding a spider in the undergrounds with a fly-,and anyway unable to escape from the final death.

The first thing to bear is mind is that,calling "le trou" a "prison movie" would be an insult.Although adapted from a Jose Giovanni's book -Giovanni had been himself in jail for some time and his depictions are as close to reality as can be-,Becker masterfully transcends his subject and gives something definitely new.Some said it was the final link between "la nouvelle vague" and what the highbrows pejoratively -and thoroughly unfairly- call "cinema de qualité" but Becker had predated that overrated new wave by almost ten years :"rendez-vous de juillet" had already almost everything the young Turks would bring later.

First shock is the use of the wide screen,the cinemascope,which Becker had never experimented before;and he achieved the impossible: using this device for a story which takes place ,either in the four walls of a jail,or in the undergrounds and the sewers .The only picture of the outside is seen when the two inmates open a manhole.And the second one is the sound:there's no music at all,except for the final cast and credits -saving the cast and credits for the end was very rare in the contemporary French cinema -But the soundtrack resembles some kind of musique concrete with its relentless thumps, the whispers and the screams inside the cell,the creaking of the doors ,the waters in the sewer;and the final cacophony -which is not unlike the one which Manliewicz used in "suddenly last Summer" the year before- packs a real wallop.

Another Becker's tour de force is his description of the prison life:he avoids all the clichés that mar so many "prison movies" (the overpraised "Whatsisname redemption" is no exception):here, the wardens are,most of the time ,kind and friendly,the relationships with the inmates remain polite ,maybe sometimes too much:particularly those between the young man (Marc Michel) and the head warden are almost paternalistic.

Another Becker's permanent feature comes back to the fore in "le trou" :friendship,solidarity ,which was already present in "rendez-vous de juillet" and "touchez pas au grisbi".Here it's pure manly friendship and it seems that a certain misogyny is infiltrating Becker's world:during the 2 hours + running time of the movie,we only see one young girl (Catherine Spaak) behind a grille,for a very short while.The only positive woman whom we' ll never see is (naturally) one of the five inmates ' s(Michel Constantin) mother("I almost killed her when I was sent to jail so I do not want to take a chance and try to escape")

SPOILER:But even this world where five inmates share everything,where their friendship is "more than I 've ever had "(Marc Michel's character) is collapsing;the first cracks were already here in "rendez-vous de juillet" when some of the young students were giving up on their plans ,to the main hero's (Daniel Gelin)disappointment.But "touchez pas au grisbi" took friendship over everything including money."Le trou" reveals the true nature of man,even if the informer seems completely desperate at the end of the movie.The mammoth task they did ,the hole '(le trou) is nothing but a cul-de -sac and it epitomizes,in a Hustonian way -we're closer to Huston than to Godard ,fortunately,the vanity of everything man can do to escape from his fate,and in the case of Becker ,to escape from death.END OF SPOILER

Had Becker ended his career with his three precedent movies (Ali-Baba,Arsène Lupin ,Montparnasse 19),his former masterpieces (Casque d'or,Goupi Main Rouges ,rendez-vous de juillet),could have been tarnished by association.But "Le trou" ,his final masterpiece stands in little danger of bringing this about.

Jacques Becker's swan song is a real gem of a film. Le Trou has such an amazing kinetic rhythm to it that one both feels and forgets the claustrophobic environs. Based on a real story turned into a novel by one of the "escapees", the film has excellent casting, wonderful (candel-lit!) cinematography and crisp dialog among its other advantages.

The director was terminally ill during the shoot and was to die after making the final cut. Watching this classic now some four decades since auteur's death, one can only wonder what an artist it would take to demand and achieve such breathtaking perfection in art while combating death at the same time.

Do not let yourself be put off by "yet another prison-movie!" talk. It is too good to be just that. So much so that it could merit comparison with Bresson's "A Man Escaped". A very deserving 10 out of 10.

I have seen many prison escape films that are fantastic, but perhaps never one in a foreign language, I found this French one in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, so I hoped it would be another great one. Basically four prisoners serving long sentences for their crimes in La Santé Prison in Paris, Jo Cassine (Michel Constantin),Roland Darban (Jean Keraudy),Manu Borelli (BAFTA nominated Philippe Leroy) and Vossellin aka Monseigneur (Raymond Meunier),and sharing a cell, are determined to escape. The prisoners soon find what could their way out, they remove the floor boards from their cell floor, use makeshift tools to dig through the rock, and break through to the chambers below. Through the chambers they find a door leading to the sewers, both ends of the sewer pipes are blocked by concrete, but the wall close to one of the concrete ends has a rock that can be chipped away so that they can dig a tunnel and go around it. While the digging is going on, new prisoner Claude Gaspard (Marc Michel) is put into their cell, they have no choice but to tell him their plan, at first he is enthusiastic to take part in the help the tunnel process and getaway. The tunnel is close to completion, but Monseigneur has a change of heart and wants to remain in prison, and also Gaspard is called into the warden's office and told that his charges may be dropped as the witness has changed their statement, but the others are suspicious that he was in the office for a long time. Finally the tunnel is completed, two of the prisoners head up the ladder and open the sewer lid to see the streets of Paris, all the prisoners are ready to escape, but they realise Gaspard has betrayed them to ensure his freedom, they are all captured before the escape can go ahead. Also starring Jean- Paul Coquelin as Lieutenant Grinval, André Bervil as the Prison Director and Eddy Rasimi as Bouboule. This black-and-white film really grabs you with the attention to detail by the prisoners to ensure they will not be caught and a feel of claustrophobia, and you actually do root for them to complete the tunnel and break for freedom, the characters and actors playing them are well crafted as well, a must see prison drama. It was nominated the BAFTA for Best Film from any Source. Very good!