LA GRANDE ILLUSION
France, 1937, 114 minutes, Black and white.
Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Carette, Marcel Dalio.
Directed by Jean Renoir.
La Grande Illusion was nominated for an Oscar in 1937 – missing out to Leo Mc Carey’s The Awful Truth. However, it was one of the earliest foreign language films to be Oscar-nominated.
The film was directed by Jean Renoir, the son of the painter Pierre Auguste, Claude Renoir being his nephew. He had fought in World War One, earning a Croix de Guerre. He began making films after World War Two, especially for his wife.
From the mid-1930s he made a series of very successful films starting with this film, La Marseillaise, La Bete Humaine, and The Rules of the Game. He spent World War Two in the United States making such films as Swamp Water, The Southerner. He remained in the United States for some time, becoming an American citizen. He returned to France to make films in 1954. He died back in the United States in 1979.
There are no battle scenes in La Grande Illusion, though this is a war film. It focuses on pilots, on the French and the German side. Its main action takes place in prisoner-of-war camps – interestingly anticipating the many British films of the 1950s with presentation of British prisoners in German camps. However, the men involved in World War One were part of the generation which had known the other wars between France and Germany, had many links beyond the wars, and had a code of chivalry. This could be exaggerated and exploited – as was seen best in Stanley Kubrick’s Paths of Glory (1957).
Jean Gabin portrays a mechanic, Pierre Fresnay an aristocrat. They are imprisoned and Erich von Stroheim (who had been prominent as actor and director in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s) moves from camp to camp so that the encounter him – a gentleman but also relentless in administering the no-escape policy.
There are many scenes of life in the camp, especially the putting on of a play and musical, with the singing of It’s a Long Way to Tipperary.
Ultimately, the mechanic escapes with the aristocrat and a son of a Jewish businessman (with some dialogue indicating the tones of anti-Semitism of which the director was critical.
The Jewish man and the mechanic find themselves sheltered in a farm, looked after by a German woman with her daughter. The film has the final escape, the two men going into Switzerland – with the mechanic determined to return after the war.
There is a lot of dialogue about war, illusions, the ambitions of war, the hopes for escape..., quite a number of meanings for the title. The film is considered one of the great films of all time.
1. The film as a classic, from France, the 1930s, the films of Jean Renoir, its Oscar nomination?
2. Europe in 1937, twenty years since World War One, the memories of the war, the dangers in Europe in the 1930s, the fascist governments, the rise of the Nazis? The film as prophetic? A film of hopes after World War One – that were to be dashed?
3. The black and white photography, the musical score, the cast and their prestige?
4. France at war, Germany at war, the prisoner-of-war camps, the German countryside, Switzerland, the farms, the mountains? The feel for Europe?
5. The significance of the title – the irony, war, past wars, peace, the peace always being threatened, escape from war?
6. The French establishment, involved in wars with Germany, the Franco-Prussian? wars? The memories of the 19th century? The French and their knowing the Germans? Sharing experiences in France, education in the UK? Manners, codes, courtesies? The sense of duty? The deadly relentlessness?
7. Marechal, the introduction, the background as a mechanic, the flights, the sightings and information? Going to see the girl? The encounter with Captain de Boeldieu, the flight, their being captured?
8. Captain von Rauffenstein? German manner, proper, yet welcoming the prisoners, his regrets? The dinner? The apologies about the deaths? Shared memories? His treatment of the prisoners, the later commanding of the castle? Apologies, yet ruthless? At de Boeldieu’s death?
9. The camps, life, the French prisoners, the British prisoners, the German soldiers? The young soldiers, their routines? Possibilities for escape? The digging of the tunnel, the hazard, getting rid of the soil? Solitary? The parcels from home? The concert, the costumes, the rehearsals, A Long Way to Tipperary, the humour of the drag, the performances? The MC, his acting background, type? The chorus? The news about defeats, recaptures of towns? The French singing the Marseillaise?
10. Status and levels in the camp, echoes of the old world – which was being destroyed by World War One?
11. The transfer to different camps, the collage of the different camps, the final castle, escape-proof?
12. The escape, Marechal, de Boeldieu, Rosenthal? De Boeldieu being shot, his final words, with von Rauffenstein, his death? Rosenthal and his difficulty with his leg, the clash with Marechal, reunited ,? Marechal and his anti-Semitic remarks?
13. The farm, the widow, her child? Helping, the difficulties of language, Rosenthal translating? Staying, recuperating, the work on the farm? The bond, Marechal and the widow? French and German relationships, his wanting to come back, post-war friendship – and its failure with the rise of Nazism?
14. The farewell, the final coffee, the soldiers looking at the escapees, not shooting because they were in Switzerland?
15. A film of 1937 – memories of World War One, World War Two looming? Seen in the retrospect of World War Two and the succeeding decades?
