Battle the door

Wednesday 1/28/26

In Robert Bresson's 1956 film, A Man Escaped--a title with myriad meanings--a member of the French resistance named Fontaine is held prisoner by the Germans.

Fontaine spends his days trying to structurally weaken the door of his cell by removing fibers of wood with a tool he fashioned.

His fellow prisoners don't understand why he bothers. What it is he's doing.

"I battle the door," Fontaine says, which says everything.

Freedom in all its forms--internal and external--is a case of battling the door.

Battle the door. It's the only way to be free in any way.