Grande Illusion, La (1937)
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Director: Jean Renoir
Honors:
Out of France comes a picture directed by the famed
filmmaker Jean Renoir that tells a story of war torn Europeans that in its own
unique way gives hope for humanity despite being about prisoner of war camps. Renoir’s
masterpiece feature is a beautiful film that took ahold of cinema lovers on
both sides of the Atlantic Ocean and nearly saw its existence completely
cleaned of the map of motion picture history. Decades later filmmakers would
claim it as one of the very motion pictures ever produced, and still captivates
cinema lovers long after affecting audiences before World War II.
La Grande Illusion is a French war picture telling the story of
French prisoners of war in World War I Germany, the relationships with each
other and their enemies, and their plotting
to escape. The plot follows primarily two French officers (played by Jean Gabin
and Pierre Fresnay) who were shot down over Germany, captured, and detained at
a prisoner of war camp. There they meet a colorful array of fellow prisoners
and learn to pass the time while planning various ways to escape. The human
aspect of the story tells of their relationship between the prisoners and even
their captures, sharing their similarities and natural human emotions of caring
for their fellow man.
The picture turns strictly to an escape story as failed
attempts by fellow prisoners hinder your heroes, but on one night an uprising
helps prisoners Maréchal (Jean Gabin) and Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) escape their
fortress of a prison and try to make their way out of Germany without being
discovered. The men are taken in by a young farm widow, Elsa (Dita Parlo),
showing that not all Germans wish to harm upon their enemies. A romance begins
to bloom between Elsa and Maréchal despite a language difference, and as Maréchal
and Rosenthal finally take their leave and cross into the Switzerland Maréchal dreams
of a day when war is over and can return to be with Elsa.
The picture makes for a masterpiece not about war, POW
camps, escape attempts, or even about fugitives on the run in a foreign land.
Though containing all those aspects Renoir creates a film about the universal
humanity that surpasses boundaries of race, nationalities, or political
beliefs. It is a beautiful motion picture that manifests how men gather to
bring joy to one another in poorer times and how love can blossom from two
individuals that are on different sides of the war, while both heavily affected
by it, and even with both lying on different sides of a language barrier. The picture
is wonderfully filmed with creative shots, lighting, exposition, and reveals,
arranged beautifully in editing to form moments that can stir audiences. It is the
common experiences of man that makes this film so enjoyable.
Director Jean Renoir, a former aviator of the World War I,
takes some of his understanding of the Great War and produces a masterpiece of
French cinema. Star Jean Gabin would even wear Renoir’s original World War I
uniform for the film. After creating some of the more unique films out of
France that made small marks in the United States, The Grand Illusion, released state-side in 1938, would become a
transcendent hit for the filmmaker. Awards abound for Grand Illusion in 1938.
The feature would be honored with titles of best foreign feature films by both
the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review. On top of those
high honors the most notable tribute for Grand
Illusion was it being the first foreign film ever nominated for best
picture at the Academy Awards.
Many of the film’s cast would have attempts to make a
transition to Hollywood after the strong success of Grand Illusion. Erich von Stroheim, of course, had been in
Hollywood for a long time, dating back as far as 1914. In fact von Stroheim
struggled to speak German for the film, because of being away from Europe for
so long while working in America. Jean Gabin, the film’s primary star, would be
flooded with offers to come to Hollywood, which he turned down until the
outbreak of World War II. Once in America he shared an affair with Marline
Dietrich, but his stubbornness while in Hollywood would quickly end his
American career. Dita Parlo, who played the lovely widow Elsa that wins the
heart of the film’s hero, would try her luck in America and came close to
working with Orson Welles at the beginning of his time in Hollywood, but with
no success. Pierre Fresnay would stay in Europe, noting that he had appeared in
Hitchcock’s original film The Man Who
Knew Too Much in 1934. Marcel Dalio too would go to Hollywood, but never
make it past playing stereotype Frenchmen on many occasions.
The story of La Grande
Illusion does not end with the final credits of the film, but its tale of
near loss that takes place during the Second World War. Due to its depiction of
Germans and the humanism of the pictures plot the film was banned in Nazi
German. The same would be said in Italy by Benito Mussolini, even after the
film winning for “best artistic ensemble” at the 1937 Venice Film Festival. All
prints in German were ordered destroyed, and when Germany marched into France during
the war all French prints too were to be destroyed. A few surviving prints would
keep the film alive for future generations, but would begin to deteriorate in
time. It was later discovered that an original negative survived and was
preserved, but went unknown for years until the 1990s when it was unearthed and
allowed a new, clean print to be created and enjoyed. The high praise for the
picture would make it a treasure for many movie lovers.
Years after its
original release La Grande Illusion
stands as one of the finest films to transcend international cinema in the
1930s. To imagine this motion picture to be lost would have been a tragedy.
Like All Quit on the Western Front,
this film becomes one of the greatest anti-war films ever, and not long before
the outbreak of World War II. Filmmaker, stars, timing, beauty, writing, and
cinematography all make it one of the finest examples of great cinema that a film
lover would enjoy, as it has done so for many already. A masterpiece of French
film, La Grande Illusion is a
treasure with a magnificent history to go along with it.
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