The Wind Blows Where It Wishes: Metalepsis and the Gospel of John in Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped
Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped (1956) adapts its source material to refashion a French prisoner’s historical escape from Nazi captivity into an extended meditation on the Gospel of John. The film’s French title—Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut ("One Condemned to De...
| Subtitles: | Twenty More Years of Bible and Film |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
2025
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| In: |
Biblical interpretation
Year: 2025, Volume: 33, Issue: 4/5, Pages: 338-355 |
| Further subjects: | B
Metalepsis
B Gospel of John B Intertextuality B Robert Bresson B A Man Escaped |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | Robert Bresson’s A Man Escaped (1956) adapts its source material to refashion a French prisoner’s historical escape from Nazi captivity into an extended meditation on the Gospel of John. The film’s French title—Un condamné à mort s’est échappé ou Le vent souffle où il veut ("One Condemned to Death Has Escaped or The Wind Blows Where It Wishes")—takes its secondary designation from John 3:8. Bresson’s cinematic presentation creates ellipses in the viewing experience that require broad familiarity with John’s Gospel and encourage the readerly recollection of Johannine material that lies beyond the explicit citations—a poetic-literary device known as metalepsis. This methodology prompts viewers to recover unstated Gospel text and discover Christological figuration throughout the film. Metaleptic engagement with Bresson’s film vis-à-vis John situates A Man Escaped as a restaging of the Gospel story that highlights its protagonist’s ultimate freedom as an expression of Christian salvation. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5152 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Biblical interpretation
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685152-33450003 |
