GRADE: 9.5
A listless and alienated teenager decides to help his new friend win the class presidency in their small western high school, while he must deal with his bizarre family life back home.
Original Title: Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut
Director: Robert Bresson
Country of Origin: France
THOUGHTS:
While I found Bresson’s distanced style a little too cool in Diary of a Country Priest, this one was every bit as austere, and yet utterly riveting from scene one. Fontaine’s determination in putting together and enacting his plot is fascinating to experience (reminding me, in its focus on technical, mechanical aspects, of the heist sequence from Rififi), and the dry narration leaves all the emotional resonance “between the lines.” Footsteps on gravel, sirens, guns in the distance, rapping on walls, single sentence conversations in the bathroom–these are the moments that put the ache in the heart. No further sentiment required.