Adapted from the first novel by mysterious ex-con José Giovanni, who based it on a real prison-break attempt he’d taken part in, and co-starring Jean Keraudy, another of the actual participants, Jacques Becker’s masterpiece commits itself to raw verisimilitude. A stripped-down focus on process, visceral physicality, and stunning use of sound bring hypnotic intensity to scenes unfolding in real time as the prisoners dig their way from their cell to the tunnels below. The film indulges an almost Hawksian pleasure in the company of the cellmates, five men willing to risk everything for freedom, as they hang out, work, shoot the breeze, and punish traitors. Noir master Jean-Pierre Melville, who owned the independent studio where it was shot, declared Le Trou “the greatest French film of all time,” adding, “And I weigh my words carefully.”