Les Évadés (1955)
Directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois

Film Review

No sooner had director Jean-Paul Le Chanois delivered one box office winner, in the form of Papa, maman, la bonne et moi (1954), than he showed up with another, Les Évadés, a film that starts out as the classic prison-escape drama - à la The Great Escape (1963) - but quickly settles into another groove, one that is the forerunner of the modern road movie.  Recounting an incredible bid by three French prisoners-of-war to reach neutral Sweden after escaping from the supposedly escape-proof German Stalags, the film is more fact than fiction, since it is supposedly based on the memoirs of the French actor Michel André (entitled Un certain soir...).  André not only scripted the film, he also plays himself in one of the three principal roles, alongside the far better known Pierre Fresnay and François Périer.  Realistic dramas about the Second World War continued to be popular in France (as they had done for over a decade) and Les Évadés, a well-scripted and well-acted piece, had no difficulty attracting an audience of almost four million.

By this time, Le Chanois was at the apogee of his popularity as a director, his obvious concern for important social themes such as education (L'Ecole buissonnière), the scarcity of housing (Papa, maman, la bonne et moi) and childbirth outside marriage (Sans laisser d'adresse) earning him the respect of both critics and audiences.  Whilst there were still some successes to come - notably his epic Les Misérables (1958) - Les Évadés was one of his last great films and a worthy recipient of the Grand prix du cinéma français in 1955.  The film makes a decent companion-piece to the director's earlier documentary Au coeur de l'orage (1948), an insightful exposé on the activities of the French Resistance filmed during the war.  The fact that both Le Chanois and Michel André had first-hand experience of the war is evident in the film's visual and emotional authenticity, although the casting of Pierre Fresnay as the most patriotic of the three protagonists is ironic, given that the actor was branded a collaborator after the Liberation (through his association with Continental-Films) and spent several years trying to win back his lost reputation.

Even though most of Les Évadés is confined to one small set - the cramped interior of a railway wagon - it is never dull and has no difficulty holding the audience's attention, such is the mesmeric quality of the sympathetic performances from Périer, Fresnay and André.  The narrative even finds the time to give a quick lesson on solid geometry, with Fresnay scribbling mathematical formulae on a board to work out how to ration the precious water supply (the teacher later has a rude awakening on learning that war is not mathematical.).  The film's slow pace and confined setting focuses our attention on the developing relationship between the three main characters and allows us to see how the experience of war has effected them in different ways.  There are some dramatic interludes along the way, and one or two hair-raising shocks, but for the most part Les Évadés is a character study of the most subtle and compelling kind.  One of the most adult and thoughtful meditations on WWII to feature in French cinema of this era, it also rewards with its poignant study in male bonding.

Film Synopsis

In 1943, during the Second World War, two French prisoners-of-war, François and Michel, succeed in escaping from Stalag B377 in the north of Germany.  As they make their way across country, careful to avoid being recaptured, they meet up with another escaped prisoner, Pierre Kellermann, disguised in the uniform of a German officer.  The three men agree that their best hope is to make for Sweden, the nearest neutral country.  After a long stretch on foot, they conceal themselves in one wagon of a train bound for the coast.  The journey will be a long one and they must carefully ration the small supply of water they have.  When the water runs out, François makes a foolhardy attempt to replenish their supply, only to be separated from his comrades....