Has there been any word of 'A Man Escaped' being released any time soon? I watched this in a film class and it's brilliant. I can't believe it hasn't been released yet. Is it available in any other regions? I'm surprised criterion hasn't got their hands on this yet.

Talk about timing. DVDEmpire just put it up for pre-order:
http://www.dvdempire.com/Exec/v4_ite...item_id=594412

(I just noticed it in their "Recently Added" section, after seeing this thread)

Rob

A Man Escaped is masterly indeed, but if you liked it check out the very similar Le Trou by Jacques Becker; it's even better.

Also announced from New Yorker today is another Bresson, the mediocre Lancelot du Lac, the Italian Lamerica (Very good, but I'm yearning for Amelio's Stolen Children), and Jacques Rivette's fairly good La Belle Noiseuse.

All are pricey.

Its upsetting to no ends that New Yorker is releasing this film.

I can only pray that Pickpocket is among the many Bresson that Criterion now has a hold of.

Sorry to dissappoint, but New Yorker also owns the rights to Pickpocket. Criterion does have the rights to Au Hasard Balthazar, Mouchette, and Trial of Joan of Arc (Procès de Jeanne d'Arc).

For the multi-region capable: be aware that Artificial Eye (UK--Region 2 PAL) will be releasing three Bresson films on DVD on May 26th:

A Man Escaped (Un Condamné à mort s'est échappé) (1957)
Lancelot of the Lake (Lancelot du Lac) (1974)
The Devil, Probably (Le Diable, probablement) (1977)

Given New Yorker's dubious track record, it might be prudent to wait for the inevitable DVD Beaver comparison on A Man Escaped and Lancelot du lac before plunking down your money.

Amazon lists New Yorker's VHS of Pickpocket as Out of Stock, and that got my hopes up, you see.

There's always the chance, though, that Criterion could obtain (or New Yorker lose) the rights to some of these films. Its happened in the past, most notably with Ozu, Fassbinder, and numerous Herzog (bought up by Criterion/HVE, Wellspring and Anchor Bay, respectively).

I first saw this in film class too.

Sorry to disagree, but IMO A Man Escaped is much better than Le Trou.

That's your prerogative. I've never much taken to Bresson's particular brand of determined miserablism. I love his hyper-spare esthetic, but the man couldn't write a screenplay to save his life. He used the same unyielding terseness with all his characters, and they invariably emerged as hollow non-beings. The only film of his I've seen (which is most of them) where this distancing tactic was actually beneficial was the above-mentioned "A Man Escaped". The prison setting naturally infuses rigour and silent ritual in its inhabitants. His other films, showing people in free society all doing likewise, don't ring true. L'Argent, for instance, charts the outlandishly quick descent of a young man from accused thief to mass-axe-murderer, without providing the merest causal insight. Au Hasard Balthazar, a critics' darling (and Godard's favourite film) which Ebert just added to his "Great Films", has the same drawback of catatonic, uncommunicative characters, but adds incoherency to the mix: characters stroll in and out of the frame without introduction, and even the tragic central figure, the mistreated donkey-cum-cipher, is abandoned by the narrative for lengthy, apparently irrelevant, episodes.