Le Trou (The Hole) (Criterion Collection)

Jacques Becker's film tells the story of five men who attempt an escape from the Santé Prison. The men dig their way through the cell floor until they break through a ceiling of the Paris sewer system through which they can reach freedom. The main character is a young man from the upper class who is sentenced to prison after his wife falsely accuses him of assault and who arrives in the cell just as the escape is being planned. He is invited by his cellmates to join the escape; they fear that otherwise he will give them away. And then things begin to happen. I won't tell anymore, because I don't want to give the story away, but trust me, the film will grab your attention very quickly, and from then on you will be on the edge of your seat.

This film came at a turning point in French cinema. It opened in Paris on Friday, March 18, 1960, only two days after the opening of "Breathless," Jean-Luc Godard's great first feature film (in which Becker, idolized by the critics at the Cahiers de Cinema who became the core directors of the New Wave, even makes a brief cameo appearance). Like the early films of the French New Wave "Le Trou" made a major break with French films of the past. The sets are austere in the extreme, the actors were all unknown, and the film was about people down in their luck. The film is intense, exciting, full of human emotion, and with great dialogue. This is the first great French film noir. Becker might have become one of the pillars of the French New Wave. Unfortunately, he became gravely ill during the filming of "Le Trou" but managed to complete the editing before dying only a month before the opening.

"Le Trou" is a great film which holds our attention throughout. Its subject is not prison but people, and key elements of the story could be told in any setting. It is magnificently photographed, a delight to the eyes as well as to the heart and mind. This is a film that can be played again immediately after watching it without becoming less enjoyable or less moving. I recommend this film highly.

[The writer is grateful to Professor Richard Neupert of the University of Georgia, author of the excellent "A History of the French New Wave Cinema" (2002) (available at amazon.com), for supplying him with the release dates of "Le Trou" and Godard's "Breathless."]