{ "id": "ept5cy47p4", "slug": "le-trou", "title": "Le Trou", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "label": "Released 1960 to 1965", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical", "label": "Drama and biographical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s", "label": "Drama films 1960s", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Le Trou (The Hole) is Jacques Becker's 1960 French-Italian prison-escape film, adapted from José Giovanni's novel about a real 1947 La Santé escape, with escapee Jean Keraudy among the nonprofessional cast; Becker's last film, later hailed by Melville.", "snippet": "Le Trou (The Hole) is Jacques Becker's 1960 French-Italian prison-escape film, adapted from José Giovanni's novel about a real 1947 La Santé escape, with escapee Jean Keraudy among the nonprofessional cast; Becker's last film, later hailed by Melville.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.drama-biographical.drama-films-1960s.yr-1960-1965", "markdown": "# Le Trou\n\n**Le Trou** (French for \"The Hole\") is a 1960 French-Italian prison-escape film directed by Jacques Becker, adapted from José Giovanni's autobiographical 1957 novel about a real 1947 escape attempt from La Santé Prison in Paris. It was Becker's thirteenth and final film; he died during post-production at age 53, and his son Jean completed the editing before the film's French release on 18 March 1960.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c7509de3-99b3-5fec-abf1-877f94639156/le-trou) • [2](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-le-trou-review-20170831-story.html) • [3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=21353)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / year | Jacques Becker, 1960; his last film, completed by his son Jean after Becker's death during post-production[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c7509de3-99b3-5fec-abf1-877f94639156/le-trou) |\n| Source | José Giovanni's novel *Le Trou*, published in 1957 in the Série noire, based on his own role in a 1947 escape attempt at La Santé[4](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2021/05/12/la-grande-evasion-misery-paterson-le-desir-de-liberte-en-six-films_6079911_3476.html) |\n| Cast | Largely non-professional actors, including Jean Kéraudy, an actual participant in the 1947 escape, who plays Roland and introduces the film on screen[2](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-le-trou-review-20170831-story.html) • [5](https://twilightroom.com/criterion-tuesday-le-trou-1960-review/) |\n| Sound | No music score; the soundtrack consists only of natural sound, including the digging itself[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c7509de3-99b3-5fec-abf1-877f94639156/le-trou) |\n| Key crew | Cinematography Ghislain Cloquet; editing Marguerite Renoir and Geneviève Vaury; produced by Serge Silberman for Play-Art, Filmsonor, and Titanus[6](https://www.criterion.com/films/668-le-trou) |\n| Award | Best Film, French Syndicate of Cinema Critics, 1961, tied with *Breathless*[7](https://www.laemmle.com/film/trou) |\n| Critical standing | Jean-Pierre Melville called it \"the greatest French film of all time\"[8](https://brattlefilm.org/movies/le-trou/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nFour long-term inmates sharing a cell at La Santé Prison, Roland (Jean Kéraudy), Manu (Philippe Leroy), Géo (Michel Constantin), and Vosselin, known as Monseigneur (Raymond Meunier), are partway through a plan to dig their way out when a newcomer, Claude Gaspard (Marc Michel), is assigned to their cell. Facing serious charges and with little to lose, they take the risk of bringing him into the plot.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_trou) • [10](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/le-trou-1960-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)\n\nThe escape proceeds by patient physical labor. Using a sawed bedpost as a tool, the men break through the concrete floor of the cell, conceal the hole and debris under stacked cardboard, and work their way toward the prison's cellars and the sewer system. The film follows the work in close detail: a periscope improvised from a toothbrush, twine, and a mirror lets them watch the corridor through the cell door's peephole, guards' nightly bed checks are fooled, and food parcels are methodically cut open and searched by the prison staff.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_trou) • [11](https://www.filmsite.org/trou1960.html) • [10](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/le-trou-1960-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)\n\nThe plan fails at the last moment. The warden, having identified the soft-spoken Claude as a source of information, tells him that his wife has withdrawn her complaint and that he faces release, and Claude betrays his cellmates. When the escape attempt reaches its climax, guards are waiting; the four are taken, and Claude is left alone in a cell.[12](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/le_Trou/9844) • [11](https://www.filmsite.org/trou1960.html)\n\n## Production and authenticity\n\nBecker bought the rights to Giovanni's novel and founded a small production company, les Films de juillet, with producer Serge Silberman to make the project on his own terms.[13](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/le-trou) The film was conceived, in the words of one French film-history association, as a \"Beckerian response\" to [Robert Bresson](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-bresson)'s *A Man Escaped* (1956), the other landmark French prison-escape film of the period; where Bresson follows a solitary prisoner's ingenuity, Becker shows what five men can accomplish with their hands, foregrounding brute force and collective effort.[13](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/le-trou) • [8](https://brattlefilm.org/movies/le-trou/)\n\n**Authenticity was a deliberate method.** In homage to Italian neorealist films such as *Bicycle Thieves*, Becker cast non-professionals as his convicts; several, including Michel Constantin and Philippe Leroy, went on to long acting careers. Several men involved in the real 1947 escape were central to the production: Giovanni wrote the novel and co-wrote the screenplay with Becker and Jean Aurel, and Roland Barbat, the plot's real leader, nicknamed \"the king of escapes\" for his three previous prison breaks, appears under the pseudonym Jean Kéraudy, vouching for the story in a prologue and playing himself. According to Becker's own statement in the release press book, most of the film was shot in sections of La Santé where the original attempt had taken place, with studio sets built under the supervision of the experts.[2](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-le-trou-review-20170831-story.html)\n\nBecker was already gravely ill during the shoot. He died on 21 February 1960, at fifty-three, during post-production, and his son Jean finished the film to his specifications before the 18 March release.[5](https://twilightroom.com/criterion-tuesday-le-trou-1960-review/) • [3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=21353)\n\n## Reception and legacy\n\nThe film's initial reception was poor. It arrived in French cinemas at the same time as Godard's *Breathless* and drew charges that it took the side of criminals; to boost its box office chances, producer Serge Silberman trimmed roughly 24 minutes from it, and for years afterward the film remained little seen beyond France. The French Syndicate of Cinema Critics nevertheless named it Best Film of 1961, tied with *Breathless*, and the complete version later circulated internationally through the Criterion Collection's release.[5](https://twilightroom.com/criterion-tuesday-le-trou-1960-review/) • [7](https://www.laemmle.com/film/trou)\n\nIts reputation has since risen steadily. [Jean-Pierre Melville](https://www.edgepedia.org/jean-pierre-melville) hailed it as \"the greatest French film of all time,\" and critics have repeatedly singled out its procedural detail, its natural-sound design in place of a score, and its portrait of solidarity under duress, ending in a betrayal that ranks among the most shocking in French cinema.[8](https://brattlefilm.org/movies/le-trou/) • [14](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/le-trou/) A 4K restoration by Studiocanal, with the support of the CNC, was released in 2017.[13](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/le-trou) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds a 95% Tomatometer from 19 critics and a 96% audience score.[9](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_trou)\n\nReported running times differ across editions and archives: the Criterion Collection lists 131 minutes, the CNC's 1960 visa record gives 124 minutes, and the BFI lists 123 minutes.[6](https://www.criterion.com/films/668-le-trou) • [3](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=21353) • [1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c7509de3-99b3-5fec-abf1-877f94639156/le-trou)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Le Trou (1960), British Film Institute](https://www.bfi.org.uk/film/c7509de3-99b3-5fec-abf1-877f94639156/le-trou)\n2. [Kenneth Turan, \"A prison-break classic is beautifully restored in Jacques Becker's 'Le Trou'\", Los Angeles Times, 2017](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-le-trou-review-20170831-story.html)\n3. [LE TROU, visa record no. 21353, Centre national du cinéma](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification?visa=21353)\n4. [Jacques Mandelbaum, \"« Le Trou » (1960) : une épreuve de vérité\", Le Monde, 2021](https://www.lemonde.fr/cinema/article/2021/05/12/la-grande-evasion-misery-paterson-le-desir-de-liberte-en-six-films_6079911_3476.html)\n5. [Le Trou Review (1960), Twilight Room](https://twilightroom.com/criterion-tuesday-le-trou-1960-review/)\n6. [Le trou (1960), The Criterion Collection](https://www.criterion.com/films/668-le-trou)\n7. [Le Trou, Laemmle Theatres](https://www.laemmle.com/film/trou)\n8. [Le trou (The Hole), The Brattle, text by Carson Lund](https://brattlefilm.org/movies/le-trou/)\n9. [Le trou, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/le_trou)\n10. [Amber Wilkinson, Le Trou (1960) review, Eye for Film, 2017](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/le-trou-1960-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson)\n11. [Le Trou (1960), Filmsite](https://www.filmsite.org/trou1960.html)\n12. [le Trou, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/le_Trou/9844)\n13. [Le Trou, ADRC](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/le-trou)\n14. [Le Trou, European Screen](https://europeanscreen.com/titles/le-trou/)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 1960s › Released 1960 to 1965*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/le-trou", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/le-trou.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Le Trou\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/le-trou. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Le Trou](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-trou)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/le-trou](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-trou). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Le Trou\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/le-trou. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Le Trou is Jacques Becker's 1960 French-Italian prison-escape film, adapted from José Giovanni's novel about a real 1947 La Santé escape, with escapee Jean Keraudy among the nonprofessional cast; Becker's last film, later hailed by Melville." }