La Grande Illusion - 1937

Jean Renoir is considered one of the masters of French Cinema, if not the world. And La Grande Illusion is one of the reasons for this. The story of a group of French prisoners of war during the World War 1, a group who are constantly attempting to escape. The film is broken into two parts really. The first in a prison, which sees a large group of French POW's begin to tunnel their way out of the compound. It is fraught with danger, and Renoir's direction intensifies this. One scene has a dead french soldier being carried back into the compound after being gunned down attempting to escape in the same place the tunnel is digging toward. Before the escapees can reach their goal, they are transferred to a tigher security prison, overseen by Erich von Stroheim. This makes La Grande Illusion a valuable document of cinema. Renoir directing Stroheim saw two of the greats of early cinema involved in the same film. Stroheim later appeared in Sunset Boulevard which again was with a classic director.

The film is magnificent for its use of space, both in terms of movement and depth of field. Scenes are shot to give the entire set space, and the cast, especially the inmates pacing back and forth about the film space.

The film has an abundance of strong performances, not least from the aforementioned Strohiem as Captain von Rauffenstein who, the picture of decorum and ettiquette always wears white gloves and struggles with a neck brace, disabled in flight, but also the aviator who shot down aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu (played by Pierre Fresnay) and working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin). Gabin plays the hero of the piece, and along with de Boldieu and Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), a wealthy French Jew are the three prisoners who seek to undermine von Rauffenstein by escaping the prison at Wintersborn.

The film also addresses the class sytem in Europe during the First World War. Both de Boeldieu and von Rauffenstein are upper class and during de Boeldieu incarceration under the command of von Rauffenstein they spend time together, de Boeldieu treated to a certain level of dignity and respect as a result of his position in pre war society.

A classic of pre war France, it was described at the time as the most important anti war film ever made, and with two years of it release war was once again declared in Europe. A must see for any film fan, and one of Renoir best work.