Le Trou
Le Trou
NR | 26 May 1964 (USA)
Le Trou Trailers

Four prison inmates have been hatching a plan to literally dig out of jail when another prisoner, Claude Gaspard, is moved into their cell. They take a risk and share their plan with the newcomer. Over the course of three days, the prisoners and friends break through the concrete floor using a bed post and begin to make their way through the sewer system -- yet their escape is anything but assured.

Reviews
Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.
FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.
Doomtomylo a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.
Ava-Grace Willis Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.
Anjum Muneer Claude Gaspard is the newest inmate to the prison and gets befriended with other four prisoners in the cell. Firstly he used to live in other block, then he was transferred. He was accused of attempted first degree murder, charged by his wife. So, the total five prisoners try hard their best to become escapists. At last, when their way of escape accomplishes, Claude Gaspard is escorted to the warden and there he's told that his wife lifted the charges against him, however the court finds it difficult to believe in the allegation made by his wife. Now he's free to go and he will make it with the other inmates except Geo. When they are ready to escape from the jail, they get caught red handed. Claude Gaspard was then transferred to a new block and you would feel sorry for him as Ronald says 'Poor Gaspard'. The hardship of their works to escape from the prison will get any spectator on nerves to the deepest. This movie will engage you utterly to the core and you will be in a state of 'nail-biting' and wondering what will happen next or will they be successful in their work?
Richard Chatten It was bold indeed of Jacques Becker to make another prison escape film so soon after Robert Bresson had created the genre's masterpiece, 'Un condamné à mort s'est échappé' (1956); but the gamble paid off handsomely.Like Robert Rossen's 'Lilith' (1964), 'La Trou' seen in isolation looks more like the debut of an exciting new talent than the valediction of a veteran in his fifties about to be taken before his time. Released shortly after Becker had died of a heart attack aged just 53, when confronted with such a fresh, modern-looking piece of filmmaking one is vexed by the question of where Becker would have gone next, which we shall never know. The film remains unusual for its lack of a music score (composer Philippe Arthuys, significantly, is actually credited at the end with 'Illustration sonore'), and I can even forgive this film for setting a deplorable precedent by being possibly the first to have no credits at the start; they all come at the end, to the accompaniment of a simple piano arrangement of Rubinstein's 'Melody in F' which may have been intended as discrete mockery on Becker's part of the grandiose use of Mozart's 'Mass in C Minor' at the conclusion of Bresson's film.Jean Keraudy, a veteran of the original escape, segues smoothly into the uniformly excellent cast; while among the staff, Jean-Paul Coquelin has a beguiling air of dry good humour in his scenes as the cell block lieutenant.
JasparLamarCrabb Certainly closer to an existential French play than a Hollywood prison film, the great Jacques Becker's final film is a masterpiece. A group of French cell mates dig a hole to a tunnel below the prison. They work diligently and without a break. It's all presented in such a matter of fact manner, it makes the ending even more unsettling. Untrained actors such as Michel Constantine, Phillipe Leroy and Raymond Meunier are among the diggers. It's hard to believe they'd never acted before. Chislain Cloquet's cinematography is pretty grim; sterile prison scenes and dank tunnels. Becker's direction is astounding as he's limited to very tight, claustrophobic locations. A very young Catherine Spaak has a brief role (the only female in the otherwise all male cast).
philcold2-614-250707 My son was 14 years old when he saw that movie for the first time. That was 2 years ago, in 2010, so this film had 50 years when he saw it. I tell everybody I can, that this movie became one of my son's favorites, and I tell this because I consider important, so far, that people do not think that today's cinema is the best and the only one that young people can like, but that youth have lots of old movies to discover, lots of good moments to share with adults and with other young people, discovering many movies which were made without special effects, without high budgets, but with good "savoir-faire", great ideas, good actors and a big dose of love for the cinema. How many moments is losing today's youth with video-games and stupid teenager movies, when they have a great treasure to discover in such old movies.Since then, my son is ready to see the old movies which I propose to him, being sure he will have a good time that will remain etched in his memory.