Trivia

After seeing the film, Jean-Luc Godard said that Robert Bresson was "to French cinema what Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is to German music and Fyodor Dostoevsky is to Russian literature".

Robert Bresson himself had been a prisoner of war during WWII.

Robert Bresson insisted on complete authenticity. Original author André Devigny served as adviser on the film, which was actually shot in the same Montluc prison where he was incarcerated. André Devigny also loaned Robert Bresson the ropes and hooks he had used in his escape.

The first film of Robert Bresson's where he used a completely non-professional cast.

François Leterrier was a philosophy student at the Sorbonne when he was chosen to play the lead.