Recasting the heroic resistance ideal: Robert Bresson’s Un condamné à mort s’est échappé

Abstract

This article argues that a re-reading of Un condamné à mort s’est échappé (1956), directed by Robert Bresson, is timely because of its sophisticated insight into the nature of resistance, how it came about, and how it was sustained in daily life. Much Bresson criticism focuses almost exclusively on the visual quality of his films and the timelessness of his themes. Many have suggested this film’s wartime setting is a mere backdrop for the playing out of a drama that transcends its historical location. Others simplistically describe it as the near perfect articulation of the ‘Gaullist myth of resistance’. Un condamné à mort s’est échappé is relevant to the ongoing debates about resistance in France because it redefines the heroic resistance ideal and because of its emphasis on process rather than outcomes. It speaks to a new generation of historians aiming to supplant the unsustainable and misplaced epic representation of resistance with one that is more in keeping with the lived experience of resisters and the everyday decisions that rooted them in their local communities. More than solidarity, the film depicts the complementarity of the roles of the protagonists and calls into question the false dichotomy between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ resistance.