[FILM REVIEW] La Grande Illusion (1937) by Jean Renoir

Just a few years before World War II broke out, Renoir directed his perhaps most famous film, La grande illusion, and it's probably the best example of his humanism.

Although it has been almost 80 years since it was made, the film has not lost any of its power and it still, even though it contains no actual war scenes, stands as one of the strongest anti-war films ever made. The central message of understanding and mutual respect was at the time not received very well by certain people in power. It was immediately banned in Nazi Germany. The German propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels deemed it "Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1", and after Germany occupied France in 1940 orders were given to destroy all copies of the film. Fortunately they didn't succeed. After the different parts of the film were found in various places, and from these they could piece together a fairly complete version of it. And after many years the original negatives were found in Toulouse.

The decision to name the film La Grande Illusion, The Great Illusion, was far from random. Jean Renoir, like many others, felt the tense political situation in Europe and where it all was heading. It's a title designed to make the audience reflect. Are the conflicts between nations really best solved by war? Is it not an illusion?

"Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot." - Lieutenant Rosenthal

Jean Renoir in part used his own experiences of the First World War when he made  La Grande Illusion. He served as a pilot during the war and Jean Gabin in some scenes actually used the exact same clothes that Renoir used as a pilot.  La Grande Illusion is set at the beginning of the First World War. Two French pilots, the aristocrat and Captain Boëldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), who has a working class background, are shot down during a reconnaissance mission and captured by German forces. The two are met with unexpected respect from von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), the German Captain and fighter pilot who shot them down. Von Rauffenstein, also an aristocrat, proves to be familiar with the Boëldieu family. As viewers you don't whether to think it's beautiful or sad that the two enemies of war are trying to cling to the illusion of their aristocracy. The bullets don't differentiate between people, and the civility and humanity they present to each other is hardly a reflection of what's going on in the battlefield.

The two Frenchmen are brought to a detention center with other prisoners of war; Englishmen, Russians and Frenchmen. All with varying military ranks and of varying social classes. Even here, they are treated with respect by their German enemies and a strong friendship is developed among the prisoners, but deep down there's of course all the time a thought of escape. With warm humor and exquisite camera work Renoir manages to paint an existence where boredom is a much bigger problem than suffering. 

The most striking aspect of the film is that the enemy is not nearly as hostile as you're used to. The Germans lack the diabolical traits that you would expect from a French director. There are no signs of national chauvinism and soldiers from different countries have no problems relating to each other. Paradoxically, it's a horrible phenomenon such as war that expose the fact that all people on a fundamental level are quite similar. In our civilization there are labels, classes and hierarchies, but when thrown in a cell all of that becomes insignificant. Classes and hierarchies is a theme that recurs in his other masterpiece, La Règle de jeu, The Rules of the Game (1939).

A fundamental approach by Renoir was the avoidance of close-ups. The characters in Renoir's films were not isolated from their environment. He didn't like the rapid montage editing, which he argued controlled the gaze and feelings of the spectator's in a very deliberate way. Renoir rather wanted to confront the viewer with a course of events, often so realistic that it seemed documentary. Therefore he tried to avoid studios, and instead chose to shoot his films in natural environments. He was also somewhat of an actor's director, where the scenes often were improvised in collaboration with the actors.

The main themes in  La Grande Illusion are pacifism and humanism. Even if it's commenting on dark tendencies of the time during which it was made (including anti-Semitism), the overall feeling is that of brotherhood and the hope in humanity. In one of the key scenes a prison guard shouts "Please, spare me suffering to have to shoot you," to an escapee. The film ends with an escape from German captivity, and describes how some of the French prisoners, tired, hungry and cold, are offered help by a poor peasant family.

Renoir's love for his characters always shines through and that's what makes the films so warm and human, in the midst of all pessimism. The brilliant acting from the leading troika Jean Gabin (Marechal), Pierre Fresnay (Boëldieu) and Erich von Stroheim (von Rauffenstein) is a joy to watch.  La Grande Illusion is an amazing, beautifully photographed and perfectly orchestrated film. It's a poignant, warm and occasionally actually really funny movie. In short: one of film history's greatest works.
                                                                                                                                 -SteemSwede