★★★★★
La Grande Illusion follows the fortunes of First World War French aviators Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and Maréchal (Jean Gabin) who, after being shot down by the distinguished Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), are transferred to a prisoner-of-war camp, where they spend their time aiding their fellow French inmates in digging an escape tunnel after dark. Before it is completed however, the Officers are transferred to a high mountain fortress that happens to be commanded by Von Rauffenstein, and it’s there that Boeldieu and Maréchal begin to hatch a more foolhardy escape plan.
Though driven by dreams of escape, the main thrust of Renoir’s humanist thinkpiece becomes the film’s subtle and deft interplay between characters of different social, ethnic and militarial backgrounds. Boeldieu has a prim and gentlemanly upper-class sensibility, which puts him out of step with the more uncouth Maréchal, something which Maréchal admits to fellow comrade Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), who himself has a wealthy background but has seen fit to share his lavish packages of fine food with the rest of the crew. Later in the film, Rosenthal’s Jewish descent is also subtly jibbed at; a point which still sits uneasy considering the horrors that were to unfold later in the real world.
Fascinatingly, a character of African descent is also given one significantly small but all too telling scene, where he attempts to show the white French soldiers a drawing of his but is met with frosty, wordless dismissiveness. It’s played somewhat for laughs, but make no mistake of it’s subtext.
Underneath each social exchange is a sly examination of the benefits of comradery in a time of captivity, and conversely the pitfalls of petty delineating lines, the likes of which were slowly degenerating each nation into a climate of divisiveness and war (and would continue to after the film’s release, culminating in World War II).
Boeldieu, it turns out, finds a more fitting personality match with his captor, the aristocratic Von Rauffenstein, who in turn gives Boeldieu preferential treatment over the other prisoners. Renoir’s depiction of a mutual alliance between two supposed enemies is indeed a progressive one, and speaks of the film’s unerring, optimistic humanism, even though the relationship’s outcome, as it must, ends unhappily for both of them.
Renoir introduces many grand illusions throughout the film: the tragic irony of Maréchal’s constant insistence that the war will be short, the idea that this war would be the last, and the dreams of escape all take place within the bubble of the prison, which, with it’s many amorous connections and friendships, was itself an illusion far removed from the horrific realities of what was happening on the frontline.
A few years after it’s release in 1937, La Grande Illusion was deemed by Nazi propaganda director Joseph Goebbels as “Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1”, and prints of the film were subsequently confiscated and destroyed upon Germany’s invasion of France in 1940. Not only that, but France’s own culture ministers called upon a ban during the same period due to fears that the film’s sympathetic, anti-war message would impede on the country’s own attitudes towards war. Therein lies the biggest tragedy of Renoir’s stirringly realised and deeply felt message: no matter how prolonged, the suppression of our natural humanity, commonality and co-hability is civilisation’s grandest illusion of all.
Studiocanal together with Cinémathèque de Toulouse are releasing a digitally restored print of the film on DVD and Blu-Ray on April 23, but you can catch it in selected cinemas starting today (April 6). Be sure to revisit one of the greatest and most resonant odes to pacifism ever made.
Reviewer: Pierre Badiola
Release Date: April 6 2012
DVD/Blu Ray Release Date: April 23 2012
Director: Jean Renoir
Writer: Charles Spaak, Jean Renoir
Cast: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Marcel Dalio, Dita Parlo
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