Grand Illusion: Essential Art House
by Jean Renoir
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Erich Von Stroheim, Jean Dasté, Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, Pierre FresnayDirector: Jean Renoir
Brand: Image Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Black & White, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 114 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2008-09-09
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion Collection
Movie Reviews of Grand Illusion: Essential Art House
Movie Review: Great Anti-War Movie That Hasn't Prevented Any Wars
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Grand Illusion," ("La Grande Illusion") (1937) is a war drama, another of the classic black and white masterpieces of the French cinema. It stars the magnetic Jean Gabin (Essential Art House: Le Jour se Lève); and was directed by that acclaimed master, Jean Renoir(Jean Renoir 3-Disc Collector's Edition (Whirlpool of Fate / Nana / Charleston Parade / La Marseillaise / The Doctor's Horrible Experiment / The Elusive Corporal)): he of the painterly eye, son of the world-famous, greatly-loved, impressionist artist Pierre Auguste Renoir.
It concerns two French soldiers -- blue-collar Lt. Maréchal (Gabin), and genteel Capt. de Boieldieu (Pierre Fresnay--The Fanny Trilogy) who strive to overcome their differences while plotting their escape from German prisoner of war camps during World War I. Meanwhile, de Boieldieu finds a kindred spirit among his captors in a patrician German officer Capt Von Rauffenstein (an unforgettable performance by actor/director Erich von Stroheim--Five Graves to Cairo [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]). Marcel Dalio (so significant as the casino dealer in Casablanca (Snap Case)) costars as Lt. Rosenthal, a wealthy French Jew, and a friend of Marechal's. It also boasts a passel of one-name actors, presumably from the Comedie Francaise. It's genre film-making at its best, considered one of the first prison-break movies ever made, and one of the finest anti-war movies ever made.
Jean Renoir was a Communist and a humanist who looked at the proletariat with an unusually sympathetic eye, and if this magnificent film does anything, it clearly lays out the rigid class distinctions of the period. The acting is uniformly topnotch. It is, of course, beautifully and expressively filmed: the scenes in the ancient castle, retrofitted to be what was considered to be an impossible to escape prisoner of war camp, where Rauffenstein rules, are simply superb. It also illustrates one more time, though it was hardly needed, that Gabin was catnip to women. Renoir has been quoted as saying that people told him he made a great anti-war movie in 1937, but movies clearly don't have any influence on real life, because three years later World War II, the most destructive of all wars, broke out. However, the fact that "Grand Illusion" hasn't prevented any wars doesn't mean that you shouldn't see it.
Summary of Grand Illusion: Essential Art House
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