La Grande Illusion: Difference between revisions
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==The story== |
==The story== |
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During the [[World War I|First World War]], two [[France|French]] aviators Captain de Boeldieu (played by [[Pierre Fresnay]]) and Lieutenant Maréchal ([[Jean Gabin]]), embark on a flight to examine the site of a blurred spot on photos from an earlier air reconnaissance mission. They are shot down by an aviator and German aristocrat, Captain von Rauffenstein ([[Erich von Stroheim]]). Von Rauffenstein, upon returning to base, states that he has shot down a French plane and instructs one of his subordinates to find out if the aviators are officers, and if so, invite them to lunch before dispatching them to a [[Prisoner of War]] camp. During this scene we learn that von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu know each other through acquaintances, |
During the [[World War I|First World War]], two [[France|French]] aviators Captain de Boeldieu (played by [[Pierre Fresnay]]) and Lieutenant Maréchal ([[Jean Gabin]]), embark on a flight to examine the site of a blurred spot on photos from an earlier air reconnaissance mission. They are shot down by an aviator and German aristocrat, Captain von Rauffenstein ([[Erich von Stroheim]]). Von Rauffenstein, upon returning to base, states that he has shot down a French plane and instructs one of his subordinates to find out if the aviators are officers, and if so, invite them to lunch before dispatching them to a [[Prisoner of War|prisoner of war]] camp. During this scene we learn that von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu know each other through acquaintances—a depiction of the familiarity, if not solidarity, within the upper class (i.e. the aristocracy) across the myriad of national boundaries in Europe leading up to the first World War. |
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De Boeldieu and Maréchal are then placed in a camp, where they meet and befriend their fellow countrymen. Soon after their arrival, they participate in an attempt by their comrades to dig a tunnel underneath the camp to escape. However, just before the tunnel is completed, they are forced to switch camps, and are unable to pass word |
De Boeldieu and Maréchal are then placed in a [[Prisoner of War|prisoner of war]] camp, where they meet and befriend several of their fellow countrymen. Soon after their arrival, they participate in an attempt by their comrades to dig a tunnel underneath the camp as a means to escape. However, just before the tunnel is completed, they are forced to switch camps, and are unable to pass word of the tunnel to the incoming prisoners. |
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During the course of the war, Boeldieu and Maréchal are placed in camp after camp, arriving in Wintersborn, a fortress prison commanded by Von Rauffenstein who has since their last meeting been disabled in battle and reassigned. Wintersborn, it is alleged, is inescapable, but we soon learn that Boeldieu and Maréchal have a history of valiant escape attempts. |
During the course of the war, Boeldieu and Maréchal are placed in camp after camp, finally arriving in Wintersborn, a mountain fortress prison commanded by Von Rauffenstein who has since their last meeting been disabled in battle and reassigned. Wintersborn, it is alleged, is inescapable, but we soon learn that Boeldieu and Maréchal have a history of valiant escape attempts. |
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At Wintersborn, Boeldieu and Maréchal meet one of their fellow prisoners from an earlier camp, Rosenthal ([[Marcel Dalio]]), a wealthy Jew. The three together conspire |
At Wintersborn, Boeldieu and Maréchal meet one of their fellow prisoners from an earlier camp, Rosenthal ([[Marcel Dalio]]), a wealthy [[Judaism|Jew]]. The three together conspire their escape, coming across an idea by paying close attention to how the German guards respond to emergencies. Boeldieu concedes that their plan can only serve two, and suggests that Maréchal and Rosenthal escape, while he serves to draw the German guards' attention as they get away. After some commotion, the guards order an assembly of the prisoners in the fortress courtyard, and proceed to call the roll. When de Boeldieu's name is called he is not present in the assembly, and as they realize his absence, he makes his presence known high up in the fortress, drawing the German guards in pursuit. Maréchal and Rosenthal take the opportunity during the pursuit of de Boeldieu to lower themselves from a window by a home-made rope and flee. |
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In |
In the poignant sequence that follows, von Rauffenstein and his guards corner de Boeldieu, and von Rauffenstein pleads for him to give up. De Boeldieu refuses, and von Rauffenstein reluctantly shoots him. Nursed in his final moments by von Rauffenstein, de Boeldieu dies of his wounds expressing—in his last thoughts—a lament that their usefulness to society (as aristocrats) ends with this war, and that he has pity for von Rauffenstein who is left behind, alive, to find a purpose in this new, emerging social order. |
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The film continues with the plight of the fugitives Maréchal and Rosenthal as they journey across the German countryside seeking a route back to France. Rosenthal gets injured, slowing up the duo, and the two men take refuge in the barn of a German woman, Elsa ([[Dita Parlo]]), who has been widowed by the war. She generously takes in the two men. Maréchal begins to fall in love with her, but |
The film continues with the plight of the fugitives Maréchal and Rosenthal as they journey across the German countryside seeking a route back to France. Rosenthal gets injured, slowing up the duo, and the two men take refuge in the barn of a German woman, Elsa ([[Dita Parlo]]), who has been widowed by the war. She generously takes in the two men. Maréchal begins to fall in love with her, but he and Rosenthal must eventually leave for [[Switzerland]] (from there to [[France]] and return to the war), although Maréchal promises to come back if he survives. They depart. As the film closes, a squadron of German soldiers on patrol sight the two fugitives crossing a snow-covered valley. The soldiers fire a few volleys and miss, but are soon ordered to let Maréchal and Rosenthal go without incident, as they have apparently crossed the invisible Swiss border in the snow-covered valley below. |
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==Political and historical analysis== |
==Political and historical analysis== |
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Revision as of 19:05, 12 November 2004
La Grande Illusion is a 1937 film by renown director Jean Renoir (1894-1979)—son of artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir—and is regarded by critics and film historians as one of the masterpieces of French cinema. The screenplay was written by Renoir and Charles Spaak.
In English-speaking countries, the film was released as Grand Illusion.
Brief history of the film
Grand Illusion was released in 1937 to much critical acclaim. Even as late as 1970, almost every credible list of the top ten best films in cinematic history included the film.
In 1938, Grand Illusion was the first foreign language film nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Academy Award for Best Picture (often better known as Oscar). The film won as Best Foreign Film award at the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in 1938.
After it won a prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1937, the Nazis declared the film "Cinematic Public Enemy Number One" and Joseph Goebbels, Nazi Propaganda Minister, ordered the prints to be confiscated and destroyed.
As the German Army marched into France in 1940 during the World War II, the Nazis seized the prints and negative of the film, chiefly because of its anti-war message, and what were percieved as ideological criticisms pointed towards Germany on the eve of the Second World War. For many years, the negative was thought to have been destroyed in an Allied air raid in 1942, and prints of the film were only rediscovered in 1958. Subsequent to its rediscovery, it was preserved and restored during the early 1960s and re-released.
The original negative was captured by Russians as they occupied Berlin in 1945 and shipped to an archive in Moscow. Oddly enough, it returned to France in the 1960s, and sat unidentified in storage in Toulouse for over 30 years as no one thought the original negative survived. When discovered, in the 1990s, the original negative was restored and released as the inaugural DVD of the Criterion Collection, and is regarded as the most precise edition of the film since its 1937 premiere.
The story
During the First World War, two French aviators Captain de Boeldieu (played by Pierre Fresnay) and Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), embark on a flight to examine the site of a blurred spot on photos from an earlier air reconnaissance mission. They are shot down by an aviator and German aristocrat, Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). Von Rauffenstein, upon returning to base, states that he has shot down a French plane and instructs one of his subordinates to find out if the aviators are officers, and if so, invite them to lunch before dispatching them to a prisoner of war camp. During this scene we learn that von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu know each other through acquaintances—a depiction of the familiarity, if not solidarity, within the upper class (i.e. the aristocracy) across the myriad of national boundaries in Europe leading up to the first World War.
De Boeldieu and Maréchal are then placed in a prisoner of war camp, where they meet and befriend several of their fellow countrymen. Soon after their arrival, they participate in an attempt by their comrades to dig a tunnel underneath the camp as a means to escape. However, just before the tunnel is completed, they are forced to switch camps, and are unable to pass word of the tunnel to the incoming prisoners.
During the course of the war, Boeldieu and Maréchal are placed in camp after camp, finally arriving in Wintersborn, a mountain fortress prison commanded by Von Rauffenstein who has since their last meeting been disabled in battle and reassigned. Wintersborn, it is alleged, is inescapable, but we soon learn that Boeldieu and Maréchal have a history of valiant escape attempts.
At Wintersborn, Boeldieu and Maréchal meet one of their fellow prisoners from an earlier camp, Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), a wealthy Jew. The three together conspire their escape, coming across an idea by paying close attention to how the German guards respond to emergencies. Boeldieu concedes that their plan can only serve two, and suggests that Maréchal and Rosenthal escape, while he serves to draw the German guards' attention as they get away. After some commotion, the guards order an assembly of the prisoners in the fortress courtyard, and proceed to call the roll. When de Boeldieu's name is called he is not present in the assembly, and as they realize his absence, he makes his presence known high up in the fortress, drawing the German guards in pursuit. Maréchal and Rosenthal take the opportunity during the pursuit of de Boeldieu to lower themselves from a window by a home-made rope and flee.
In the poignant sequence that follows, von Rauffenstein and his guards corner de Boeldieu, and von Rauffenstein pleads for him to give up. De Boeldieu refuses, and von Rauffenstein reluctantly shoots him. Nursed in his final moments by von Rauffenstein, de Boeldieu dies of his wounds expressing—in his last thoughts—a lament that their usefulness to society (as aristocrats) ends with this war, and that he has pity for von Rauffenstein who is left behind, alive, to find a purpose in this new, emerging social order.
The film continues with the plight of the fugitives Maréchal and Rosenthal as they journey across the German countryside seeking a route back to France. Rosenthal gets injured, slowing up the duo, and the two men take refuge in the barn of a German woman, Elsa (Dita Parlo), who has been widowed by the war. She generously takes in the two men. Maréchal begins to fall in love with her, but he and Rosenthal must eventually leave for Switzerland (from there to France and return to the war), although Maréchal promises to come back if he survives. They depart. As the film closes, a squadron of German soldiers on patrol sight the two fugitives crossing a snow-covered valley. The soldiers fire a few volleys and miss, but are soon ordered to let Maréchal and Rosenthal go without incident, as they have apparently crossed the invisible Swiss border in the snow-covered valley below.
Political and historical analysis
(more coming soon)
It has a very strong anti-war message and portrays both the French prisoners and German captors in a sympathetic light. It is also one of the first films about an escape from a Prisoner of War camp.
One of the recurrent themes running through it is the difficulty that we face in overcoming the barriers of language and class; the optimistic message of the movie is that at least some of these barriers can be overcome with enough persistence. Maréchal, the character played by Jean Gabin, finally learns to speak a few words of German, although not quite correctly; Dita Parlo, who plays Elsa, speaks a few halting words in French.
On the other hand, those characters who already understand each other — the aristocrats de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim) — and feel a bond of kinship that transcends national divisions also understand that their days are numbered. One of them kills the other; the one who survives considers his friend and victim to be the lucky one.
Credits
Cast
- Jean Gabin as Lieutenant Maréchal, a French officer
- Erich von Stroheim as Captain von Rauffenstein, a German officer
- Dita Parlo as Elsa, a widowed German farm woman
- Pierre Fresnay as Captain de Boeldieu, a French officer
- Marcel Dalio as Lieutenant Rosenthal, a French officer
- Julien Carette as Cartier, the showoff
- Georges Péclet as An officer
- Werner Florian as Sgt. Arthur
- Jean Dasté as a teacher
- Sylvain Itkine as Lieutenant Demolder
- Gaston Modot as an engineer
Several members of the cast were not listed in the film's credits (as was common in early films) including:
- Jacques Becker as an English officer
- Albert Brouett as a prisoner
- Claude Sainval
- Carl Koch
- Michel Salina
Production Credits
- Producer: Raymond Blondy
- Director: Jean Renoir
- Written by: Jean Renoir & Charles Spaak
- Editor: Marguerite Renoir
- Musical Composer: Joseph Kosma
- Music Director: Emile Vuillermoz
- Art Director: Eugene Lourie
- Cinematographer: Christian Matras
Trivia
- Grand Illusion is the only war film in history that does not show even a single scene depicting warfare.
- Jean Renoir was an aviator for the French Army during World War I, actor Jean Gabin (as Maréchal) wears Renoir's uniform in the film.
- According to Renoir's memoirs, Erich von Stroheim, despite being born in [{Vienna]], Austria (then the Austro-Hungarian Empire) did not speak much German, and struggled learning the language along with his lines in between filming scenes.
- As the first movie depicting an escape from a Prisoner of War camp, scenes in Grand Illusion have influenced other films in the genre, especially influencing the digging of an escape tunnel in The Great Escape (1963).
- Likewise, the scene of the French prisoners singing La Marseillaise—the French National Anthem—to enrage their German prison guards, inspired a similar show of patriotic resistance in Casablanca (1942).
- The dialogue in the Grand Illusion passes through four languages (French, German, English and Russian), and was the only feature film made in the Western Hemisphere to do so until The Red Violin (1999).
See also
External links
- La Grande illusion at the [www.imdb.com Internet Movie Database]
- Roger Ebert's 1999 review of Grand Illusion