Years & Movies: 1956

 The best film of world cinema of 1956, according to FilmGourmand, was recognized  "Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped)" by Robert Bresson. The film was released on the screens of French cinemas in November 1956.

The film is based on the memoirs of André Devigny, an officer in the French army and a member of the Resistance during the Nazi occupation of France. In his memoirs, Devigny described his escape from prison, from which it was supposed to be impossible to escape. Bresson was very close to this topic, since during the World War II he also spent almost a year in camp of prisoners of war.

At the Cannes International Film Festival in May 1957, Bresson's film was nominated for the main award - the Palme d'Or, but the jury of the film festival, chaired by the French famous writer Andre Maurois, gave preference to the American film "Friendly Persuasion" by William Wyler. However, in the company of the losers, along with Bresson and his film were Federico Fellini's “Le notti di Cabiria (Nights of Cabiria)”, Ingmar Bergman’s “Det sjunde inseglet (Seventh Seal)” and Andrzej Wajda's “Kanal”. Nice company!

But we must pay tribute, the aforementioned masters did not remain without awards: Bresson won the main award for directing, Bergman and Wajda won the Special Jury Prize, and "Nights of Cabiria" received a more than deserved award for best actress (Giulietta Masina).

A year later, Bresson's film was nominated for a British BAFTA Award, but British film academics preferred to award David Lean's "The Bridge on the River Kwai" with two highest prizes, but not to award a foreign film. Of course, "The Bridge on the River Kwai" is a great film, but two awards at the same time, both as the best British film and the best film of any origin, are, in my opinion, a bust.

The film “Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped)” is a rare, perhaps the only, film about which no negative reviews have been written. That's just not a single one. Neither in foreign film criticism, nor in domestic. But in the USSR, the film was not shown. Although, the film, one way or another, is dedicated to the fight against Nazism, and there is no mention of any "sedition", such as anti-Soviet or sex. Perhaps because the film shows in great detail, naturalistic, authentic and consistent the process of preparing for escape from prison. But the film distributors in a country where, as you know, it is not recommended to renounce scrip and prison, found such information harmful to moviegoers.

A modern cinema viewer around the world, like the western cinema viewer of the 50s, highly appreciated the work of Robert Bresson. 73% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film a rating of 8 to 10.

Based on the foregoing, the rating of the film “Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped)”, according to FilmGourmand’s version, is 8,506, and the film takes 326th place in the Golden Thousand.

In addition to the film “Un condamné à mort s'est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut (A Man Escaped)” the following films were included in the top ten films of world cinema in 1956:

- The Killing, director Stanley Kubrick, USA. Movie's Rating - 8,155; 529th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Карнавальная ночь (Carnival Night), director Eldar Ryazanov, USSR. Movie's Rating - 7,923; 845th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- В добрый час! (Good luck!), director Viktor Eysymont, USSR. Movie's Rating - 7,914; 856th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Весна на Заречной улице (Spring on Zarechnaya Street), directors Marlen Khutsiev, Feliks Mironer, USSR. Movie's Rating - 7,907; 865th Rank in the Golden Thousand.
- Biruma no tategoto  ビルマの竪琴 (The Burmese Harp), director Kon Ichikawa, Japan.
- Kanał (They Loved Life), director Andrzej Wajda, Poland.
- Somebody Up There Likes Me, director Robert Wise, USA.
- Сорок первый (The Forty-first), director Grigoriy Chukhray, USSR.
- Разные судьбы (Different Fortunes (Many Roads)), director Leonid Lukov, USSR.        
        

10 most "cinegenic"*, in our opinion, events of 1956:  

- Exposing the personality cult of Stalin. The XX Congress of the CPSU was held in the USSR, at a closed session of which N. Khrushchev spoke out with the exposure of the personality cult of Stalin. Mass demonstrations of the Georgian population in support of Stalin began in Tbilisi and other cities of Georgia. The main demands of the protesters were the removal of the new leadership of the USSR from power and the return of Stalin’s associates to leading posts. The speeches were suppressed using tanks and firearms. According to various estimates, the death toll ranged from 15 to 800 people, the number of those arrested - from 200 to 350.
- Poznan June. In Poland, in the city of Poznan, mass protests of the population against the communist government took place. The protests were brutally suppressed by the Polish army and the Internal Security Corps. According to various sources, the death toll ranged from 57 to 74, the number of wounded — about 500, including the military.
- Hungarian uprising. In Hungary, there was an uprising against the communist regime. The uprising was brutally crushed by Soviet troops.
Explosion in Cali. An explosion occurred in downtown Cali, Colombia. Seven army ammunition trucks, loaded with 1,053 crates of dynamite that had been parked in Cali overnight, exploded. 1,300 people were killed in the explosion, another 4,000 were injured. In addition, the explosion caused a 4.3 magnitude earthquake.
- An explosion at the Bois-du-Cazier mine. The Bois du Cazier mine exploded in the Belgian city of Charleroi. Killed 262 miners, of which 136 were Italian guest workers.
- Debut of the Soviet Union at the Olympics. In Cortina d'Ampezzo (Italy) the VII Winter Olympic Games were held, on which the national team of the USSR performed for the first time (and triumphantly). In the Melbourne (Australia) XVI Summer Olympic Games took place, at which the most successful was the performance of the Soviet national team.
- Grace Kelly's Wedding. The wedding of Prince Monacho Rainier III and American actress Grace Kelly.
- Suez crisis. Armies of Israel, UK and France forces invaded zone of the Suez Canal and unleashed hostilities against the army of Egypt. The Suez crisis erupted. USSR and then the United States, had provided a significant diplomatic support for Egypt.
- Granma. Fidel Castro, at the head of a detachment of 82 Cuban dissidents, sailed from Mexico to Cuba on the 12-seat yacht Granma to carry out the revolution. The Cuban armed forces attacked Castro's detachment, after which only 12 people remained in it, who had been hiding for a long time in the Sierra Maestro mountains.
- Asian flu. The first cases of Asian flu were recorded in China. After some time, the World Health Organization stated the beginning of a pandemic. According to various estimates, this pandemic has claimed the lives of 1 to 4 million people in the world.


Besides Lars von Trier and Giuseppe Tornatore were born. Kenji Mizoguchi died.

* -With "cinematic" in the present context, we mean events that either have already found their reflection in world cinema, or deserve to become the basis of the plot of a future film.