The simplest and most elegant prison-escape movie: A Man Escaped

I'd say Robert Bresson's A Man Escaped is not as fine a movie as Pickpocket, in part because of the strict limitations of place and the narrow, almost obsessive focus of the protagonist - a French resister imprisoned by the occupying Nazi army, who does everything in his power to figure out how to escape from the prison in Lyon. As many have noted, Bresson uses amateur actors and almost no dialogue (the narration is voice-over - as it's based on true events, perhaps drawn from a book or memoir?). Within its tight confines - which appropriate do build in us a sense of gloom, imprisonment, and entrapment - the movie is quite inventive, including some really fine scenes as the protag manages to smuggle out messages, hide contraband, carve away an opening in his cell door, build an alliance with a fellow prisoner. The opening sequence, when he tries to escape from the car taking him to prison, is extremely powerful; Bresson also does a great job building tension and doubt - we never quite know which if any of the fellow-prisoners is a stoolie, likely to rat out the protag in return for favored treatment. After the initial sequence, there's very little violence and in fact very little contact between the prisoners and their Nazi guards; it seems surprising how easy it is to smuggle in contraband and to smuggle out letters - but the presence of the Nazis is eerily conveyed by the sounds of occasional blasts from firing squads. It's a stark, simple movie - not nearly as rich as another great French resistance movie, Army of Shadows, but it's a very clean narrative with a limited cast (no women at all), but which, like the protagonist, has a single point of view and never wavers. It's less an action drama and more of a psychological drama and logistical puzzle, probably the simplest and most elegant of the many prison escape movies.