La grande illusion (1937)

User Rating:

8.0/10   

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writers:

Charles Spaak (scenario and dialogue) &
Jean Renoir (scenario and dialogue)

Release Date:

12 September 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

During 1st WW, two French officers are captured. Captain De Boeldieu is an aristocrat while Lieutenant Marechal was a mechanic in civilian life...

Plot Keywords:

French | Escape | Aristocrat | Officer | Castle

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean Gabin	...	Lt. Maréchal
Dita Parlo	...	Elsa (farm woman)
Pierre Fresnay	...	Capt. de Boeldieu
Erich von Stroheim	...	Capt. von Rauffenstein (as Eric von Stroheim)
Julien Carette	...	Cartier, l'acteur (as Carette)
Georges Péclet	...	Le serrurier (as Peclet)
Werner Florian	...	Sgt. Arthur
Jean Dasté	...	The teacher (as Daste)
Sylvain Itkine	...	Lt. Demolder (as Itkine)
Gaston Modot	...	The engineer (as Modot)
Marcel Dalio	...	Lt. Rosenthal (as Dalio)

Also Known As:

The Grand Illusion (USA)

Runtime:

114 min | 94 min (1937 release) | Germany:107 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | German | English | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1942) | Finland:K-16 (1937) | Finland:K-8 (1959) | Malaysia:U | Norway:12 (1959) | Norway:16 (1937) | Germany:12 (f) (1948) | Portugal:M/6 | Australia:G | Germany:(Banned) (1937-1945) | Italy:(Banned) (1938-1945) | South Korea:12 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | UK:U (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) (cut)

Filming Locations:

Caserne de Colmar, Colmar, Haut-Rhin, France

Company:

Réalisation d'art cinématographique (RAC)

Trivia:

The art director, 'Eugene Lourie', was the one who carved the nativity figures out of potatoes for the Christmas scene towards the film's end.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Elsa's rural farmhouse in the mountains has electric lighting in the 1910s.

Quotes:

Lieutenant Rosenthal: Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in D-I-M, Deus in Machina (2007)

Soundtrack:

Il était un petit navire

Class consciousness

Jean Renoir was a man behind this masterpiece of the French cinema. It stands as an anti-war document by itself. The incredible DVD version looks as great today, perhaps, as when the original film was released. The screen play by M. Renoir and Charles Spaak was the original model, which many other films that came later, copied and profited from.

"La Grande Illusion" presents us a group of men that come together because of the war. If there were no war, none of these men would have met, let alone, would ever have crossed paths in real life. The top brass in the European armies were headed by the aristocracy. These rich classes only intermingled with their peers; they only gave orders to their subordinates. WWII changed all that!

M. Renoir gets excellent acting from the three principals. Jean Gabin, as Lt. Marechal, shows why he was one of France's best actors. Pierre Fresnay, the aristocratic French Capt. Boeldieu, and Erich Von Stroheim, as Capt. Von Rauffenstein, his German counterpart, are amazing in the film.

Together with "The Rules of the Game", this film will always be one of the most cherished French films of all time.