Adapted from a novel by ex-con José Giovanni, who based it on a real prison break he'd taken part in, and costarring another of the actual participants, Jacques Becker's masterpiece commits itself to raw verisimilitude. A stripped-down focus on process and stunning use of sound bring hypnotic intensity to scenes of the prisoners digging their way from their cell to the tunnels below. Noir master Jean-Pierre Melville declared Le Trou, "the greatest French film of all time," adding, "And I weigh my words carefully." In French with English subtitles.