A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.
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Reviews
Just perfect...
Great Film overall
A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Western Front, World War 1. Captain Boeldieu and Lt. Marechal are shot down and captured by the Germans. For them the war is over, it seems, but they have other plans.Interesting WW1 drama, written and directed by the famed French director Jean Renoir. Could be described as an anti-war drama, as it does not glamorize life in wartime at all. Quite original in that respect as most movies of the time (All Quiet On the Western Front would be another exception) romanticized war. Also quite novel for its time in that it shows life in a POW camp - it was only in the 50s and 60s that POW movies became popular (Stalag 17 and The Great Escape being the best examples).Not brilliant though, and hardly the classic I was expecting. The story isn't overly compelling nor profound and ends in fairly predictable fashion. Renoir's camerawork seems a bit amateurish at times, with jarring, clumsy panning shots. Some of the acting is a bit hammy, with Erich von Stroheim, as von Rauffenstein, to the fore.
While some say The Rules of the Game is Jean Renoir's best film, I say it's La Grande Illusion. A war film without the war manages to be the most poignant reflection on World War I ever made with some of the most humanistic and engaging performances ever captured on film, perfectly pacing and just the right amount of sentiment and pathos.The vast majority of the film follows two French aviators and their ordeals in a series of German POW camps after being shot down. This is a pivotal filmmaking decision as it strips all the false glory out of war and only leaves us with its ugly aftermath. There are no combat scenes, just men trying to escape and reacting to news of the war. In the third act, the setting shifts when one of the aviators and another French prisoner escapes thanks to the sacrifice of the other aviator. They hide out in a farm on the Swiss border where the aviator falls in love with the proprietress, a war widow, but is ultimately forced to leave her behind in order to escape over the border from the German pursuit.Renoir has also been terrific at coaxing great performances out of his actors and La Grande Illusion has one of the greatest concentration of truly great performances in a movie. The legendary Jean Gabin was never better than as the passionate Maréchal while the other French aviator, de Boeldieu, is played by Pierre Fresnay in a career-best performance that excellently conveys his character's aristocratic grace. The best performance of all is probably by the great director and actor Erich von Stroheim as the German officer von Rauffenstein. De Boeldieu and von Rauffenstein bond over the course of the film due to their shared background and attitudes towards the world. Fresnay and Stroheim have excellent repertoire with one another, helping make the moment when von Rauffenstein must kill de Boeldieu, who is sacrificing himself to buy time for Maréchal and another prisoner to escape, almost unbearably tragic. I would be remiss if I also didn't take the time to single out Marcel Dalio and Dita Parlo among the supporting cast, as they also give excellent performances as a French prisoner of Jewish descent named Rosenthal and the widowed German farmer respectively.This terrific cast is supported by Renoir's steady direction and writing. The film moves along at a brisk pace while at the same time knowing the right moments to stop and go into things more in depth. Renoir's camera-work is also fantastic as well, displaying his trademark deep focus cinematography, which makes the settings of the film, such as the Château du Haut-Knigsbourg and the Alps, come alive on screen.Renoir manages to imbue the film with a great sense of humanism, making it staunchly pro-war without coming across as didactic. All nationalities and social classes come across as human; no one is vilified which helps make the film's appeal more universal rather than being limited to those of a specific country or socioeconomic background. There is no great diatribe against the war. Instead it can all be summed up by the film's closing line, spoken by a German soldier as Maréchal and Rosenthal escape across the border: "All the better for them!"
When I saw the ending of this film, I realised I saw this film as a boy many decades ago.Jean Renoir's, La Grande Illusion is set during The Great War. The film was made in 1937 and so its depiction of the Germans has not been tainted with the actions of the Nazis in World War 2.The story begins with two French officers, Lieutenant Marichal (Jean Gavin) and Captain De Boeldueu (Pierre Fresnay) taken to a Prisoner of War camp where the inmates have been digging a tunnel. After several attempts to escape, the French officers get sent to a castle high up the mountains run by Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim.) He is an intimidating looking, flamboyant but courteous officer we met earlier on in the film who treated the captured French officers very civilly.Rauffenstein sees in De Boeldueu an old way of life run by the aristocracy which is now at risk with the growing middle class in Europe with their newly acquired wealth. There are many times we know that De Boeldueu's word as an officer counts more to Rauffenstein.The film as another sub text about people in this camp trying to get along with people of different classes, religion, colour and nationality. One of the person Marichal will eventually escape with is a French Jew, one of the inmates in the camp who is ignored at times by the officers is black. When Marechal is leaving the first camp he tries to tell the incoming British officers about the tunnel they have been digging it falls to deaf ears as they cannot understand French.The inmates are united as they plan to escape, dig the tunnel and hide the dirt. They feel camaraderie when the British officers boost morale by putting on a stage show and the looks on their faces when one of them appears in drag for the first time, highlighting the fact that they have not seen a female for months or years.The film is in French but has a smattering of German and English. In some ways the film set the template for the second world war POW films like The Great Escape but this movie dos not have the tense excitement of such an action film that would follow three decades later. Then again it is more than just a film about prisoners escaping, more a character piece which also makes the film slightly stage bound and even slow moving at times.
Jean Renoir's "The Great Illusion" (1937) is often celebrated as the greatest anti-war film. It takes place during the First World War and was made just before the Second. Back in the day, Franklin Roosevelt stated that everyone who believes in democracy should see the film. Detaching from such political idealism, one might claim that every human being should see it. It's the film in which Renoir's humanism crystallizes, showing that humanity can preserve even in the darkest of nights. A story about POW camps and people escaping them is a tale of eternal love, friendship and yearning for freedom. A proof of its cinematic power is that without showing a scene of actual combat, "The Great Illusion" is the most accurate portrayal of WWI. It seems that every film about the First World War much deal with its mythological position as the death of cultural innocence. Although "The Great Illusion" begins with the war already going on, its opening scene works as a metaphor for the period before the war. We see a man singing in a café when all of a sudden he is called for a mission to transport a general which sounds easy and quick, but then turns into a long and unpredictable chain of events -- talk about dancing off to war. Not only does Renoir reach the fact that WWI was pointless and a consequence of ostentatious nationalism -- arms race, alliances and hostilities -- but also the feeling of transience as aristocracy begins taking its final breaths. In the hour of disappearance, two aristocrats, Bouldieu and Rauffenstein (aptly played by Erich von Stroheim), unite. The old general in "The Rules of the Game" (1939) might say that they are a vanishing breed. It is beautiful and moving that Renoir's nostalgia considering this social transition has no irony whatsoever, despite Renoir's apparent sympathy for the working class. The nostalgia is very tender. All that matters to Renoir is humanity. It is precisely this human sympathy which is the strength of Renoir's cinema. This is present in Renoir's characterization, treatment of the class theme, and his anti-nationalist philosophy of the great illusion. André Bazin's timeless words are worth repeating at this point: "the grand illusions are the illusion of hatred, which arbitrarily divides men who in reality are not separated by anything; the illusion of boundaries, (...) the illusion of races, of social classes (...). The war, the product of hatred and division, paradoxically reveals the falseness of all the barriers of prejudice separating man from man."One of the many reasons for the survival of "The Great Illusion" in the test of time is its realism (that is not afraid of poetry) which travels from the director's style to his world view and attitude towards life in general. Bazin thought that the film was based on the authenticity of human relations. I believe this is a key into understanding the film and its legacy. War is the great illusion because it separates us from one another. Yet, despite darkness and disappointment, Renoir continues to believe in love and humanity.