Bresson’s 1956 classic A Man Escaped is a film that I saw for the first time last year as part of my paper in French Cinema. It is a fantastic film that epitomises Bresson’s style. Roger Ebert has recently done a fantastic review that is worth a read. He does a great job of nailing the film down to its essence. In it he writes:

Watching a film like “A Man Escaped” is like a lesson in the cinema. It teaches by demonstration all the sorts of things that are not necessary in a movie. By implication, it suggests most of the things we’re accustomed to are superfluous. I can’t think of a single unnecessary shot in “A Man Escaped.”

You can see the rest of his review here.