La grande illusion (1937)

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writers:

Charles Spaak (scenario and dialogue) &
Jean Renoir (scenario and dialogue)

Release Date:

12 September 1938 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

During the First World War, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German POW camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are sent to a seemingly impenetrable fortress which seems impossible to escape from.

Plot Keywords:

Pow | Escape | Captain | Escape Attempt | Fortress

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar. Another 4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Jean Gabin	...	Le lieutenant Maréchal
Dita Parlo	...	Elsa - Farm Woman
Pierre Fresnay	...	Le captaine de Boeldieu
Erich von Stroheim	...	Le captaine von Rauffenstein (as Eric von Stroheim)
Julien Carette	...	Cartier - l'acteur (as Carette)
Georges Péclet	...	Le serrurier (as Peclet)
Werner Florian	...	Le sergent Arthur
Jean Dasté	...	L'instituteur (as Daste)
Sylvain Itkine	...	Le lieutenant Demolder (as Itkine)
Gaston Modot	...	L'ingénieur (as Modot)
Marcel Dalio	...	Le lieutenant Rosenthal (as Dalio)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jacques Becker	...	L'officier anglais (uncredited)
Habib Benglia	...	Le sénégalais (uncredited)
Pierre Blondy	...	Un soldat (uncredited)
Albert Brouett	...	Un prisonnier (uncredited)
George Forster	...	Maison-Neuve (uncredited)
Karl Heil	...	Un officier de la forteresse (uncredited)
Carl Koch	...	L'ordonnance de von Rauffenstein (uncredited)
Little Peters	...	La petite fille d'Elsa (uncredited)
Claude Sainval	...	Le capitaine Ringis (uncredited)
Michel Salina	...	(uncredited)
Claude Vernier	...	L'officer prussien (uncredited)

Directed by
Jean Renoir

Writing credits
Charles Spaak		(scenario and dialogue) &
Jean Renoir		(scenario and dialogue)

Produced by
Albert Pinkovitch	....	producer (uncredited)
Frank Rollmer	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Joseph Kosma		(music)

Cinematography by
Christian Matras		(photography)

Film Editing by
Marthe Huguet		(film editor) (as Huguet)
Renée Lichtig		(1958 version)
Marguerite Renoir		(film editor) (as Margueritte)

Production Design by
Eugène Lourié		(as Lourié)

Set Decoration by
Eugène Lourié		(as Lourié)

Costume Design by
René Decrais		(costumes) (as Decrais)

Makeup Department
Raffels	....	make-up

Production Management
Raymond Blondy	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Jacques Becker	....	assistant director
Robert Rips	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Alexandre Laurié	....	props (as Lourié)
Raymond Pillon	....	props (as Pillon)

Sound Department
Joseph de Bretagne	....	sound engineer (as De Bretagne)

Camera and Electrical Department
Jean Bourgoin	....	assistant cameraman (as Bourgoin)
Ernest Bourreaud	....	assistant cameraman (as Bourreaud)
Claude Renoir	....	assistant cameraman
Sam Levin	....	set photographer (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Suzy Berton	....	wardrobe (uncredited)

Music Department
Emile Vuillermoz	....	musical director (uncredited)

Other crew
Barnathan	....	location manager
Pierre Blondy	....	general manager
Françoise Giroud	....	script girl (as Gourdji)
Carl Koch	....	technical consultant
Robert Rips	....	set manager
Herman G. Weinberg	....	subtitler: English (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Réalisation d'art cinématographique (RAC) (as Réalisations d'Art Cinématographique)

Distributors

• Réalisation d'art cinématographique (RAC) (1937) (France) (theatrical)
• Eduard Weil & Company (1937) (Austria) (theatrical)
• World Pictures Corporation (1938) (USA) (theatrical) (English subtitles)
• Prisma (1948) (Germany) (theatrical)
• Coronis (1956) (France) (theatrical) (restored version)
• Continental Distributing (195?) (USA) (theatrical) (English subtitles)
• Studio Canal (2005) (France) (DVD) (digital new master)
• Studio Canal (2005) (France) (DVD)
• Cinédis (France) (theatrical)
• Filmsonor (France) (theatrical)
• Les Grands Films Classiques (GFC) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Barr Entertainment (199?) (USA) (video) (English subtitles)
• Continental Home Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• Coronis (France) (16 mm)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD) (Essential Art House edition)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (USA) (laserdisc)
• Epoca (????) (Argentina) (VHS)
• Home Vision Entertainment (HVE) (1998) (USA) (DVD)
• Janus Films (????) (USA) (all media)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1972) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Rialto Pictures (1999) (USA) (re-release)
• Süddeutsche Zeitung (2006) (Germany) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Smyth  music publishing (uncredited)
• G.M. Film  titles (uncredited)
• Luxtone  lighting (uncredited)
• Paris Studios Cinéma  filmed at
• Western Electric Management  sound post-production (as Western Electric System Sonar)
• Traonouez (Paris)  costumes (uncredited)

Also Known As:

"Grand Illusion" - Australia (video box title), International (English title) (informal title), USA
"La Grande Illusion" - UK
"A Grande Ilusão" - Brazil, Portugal
"Die große Illusion" - Austria, Germany (imdb display title)
"La gran ilusión" - Argentina (imdb display title), Spain (original subtitled version)
"A nagy ábránd" - Hungary
"De groote illusie" - Belgium (Flemish title) (imdb display title)
"De grote begoocheling" - Belgium (Flemish title) (reissue title)
"De grote illusie" - Netherlands (imdb display title)
"Den stora illusionen" - Sweden (imdb display title)
"Den store illusion" - Denmark (imdb display title)
"Den store illusjon" - Norway (imdb display title)
"Ha-Ashlaya Ha-Gdola" - Israel (Hebrew title)
"I megali himaira" - Greece (reissue title)
"La grande illusion" - Belgium (French title) (imdb display title)
"La grande illusione" - Italy
"Meta tin mahi" - Greece (transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title)
"Suuri illusioni" - Finland
"Suuri illuusio" - Finland (reissue title)
"Towarzysze broni" - Poland
"Velika iluzija" - Yugoslavia (Serbian title) (literal title)

Runtime:

114 min | 94 min (1937 release) | Germany:107 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | German | English | Russian

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:(Banned) (1942) | Finland:K-16 (1937) | Finland:K-8 (1959) | Malaysia:U | Norway:12 (1959) | Norway:16 (1937) | Germany:12 (f) (1948) | Portugal:M/6 | Italy:T (re-rating) (1947) | Argentina:13 | Australia:G | Germany:(Banned) (1937-1945) | Italy:(Banned) (original rating) (1938-1947) | South Korea:12 | Sweden:15 | USA:Unrated | UK:U (video rating) | UK:A (original rating) (cut)

Filming Locations:

Caserne de Colmar, Colmar, Haut-Rhin, France

Company:

Réalisation d'art cinématographique (RAC)

Trivia:

The uniform worn by Jean Gabin was actually owned and worn by Jean Renoir, who served in the air force during WWI.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lt. Maréchal is climbing down the rope from the watchtower the wooden window shutters can be seen closing above him even though he closed them himself minutes prior.

Quotes:

Capt. von Rauffenstein:May the earth lie lightly upon our valiant enemy.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Lotte Reiniger: Homage to the Inventor of the Silhouette Film (2001) (V)

Soundtrack:

It's a Long, Long Way to Tipperary

Classic film on the death of ancient regimes

In the old European order, pre-WWI, one nation's aristocracy made war on another's not out of love for king and country or hatred for the enemy, but out of a sense of honor and duty. War was what they did, these aristocrats of l'ancien regime. Their castles in the air, their noble worldview, their time-honored way--all would crumble, as they very well knew, if the line between the rabble and themselves were allowed to continue to blur. The masses had new and different loyalties.

"La Grande Illusion" in 1914 was the hope that that old order could be preserved in the face of surging democracy and noveau-riche power. Jean Renoir's film presents us with an irony: the martial elites of France and Germany needed the war to vouchsafe their very identities, and yet that conflict would prove their undoing. Whatever side won, the hoi polloi would gain the upper hand.

Restored from its original camera negative, the 1937 French film now on DVD sparkles like new. The restoration lets us see that nothing is dated about this work of genius, even if its POW-camp situations today seem stock and its characters stereotypes of nationality and class. The fine acting, the deft pacing, and the fluid camerawork make for a film that could have been produced last year. The whispered subtext, the nuanced conflicts, and the ironic complexity make for a film that is timeless.

The subtext is the eternal tension between "in the air" and "on the ground," "on high" and "here below," "from a distance" and "up close and personal." From a distance, war is no more rancorous than a chess game, with national boundaries as artificial as the squares on a chessboard. Up close and personal, war separates humans from their lives and aspirations, lovers from their beloveds.

The old elites loved nothing but their class and its accoutrements. It was peasant stock and noveau riche who belted out national anthems and honored the borders which in wartime could sever lover from lover but, paradoxically, also shield prison-camp escapees who made it across them to sanctuary. Renoir's genius was that he could show that an emergent new order, manifestly better on the ground, comes at a steep price, tragically, in the air.