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I went into this film blind not knowing, and still not knowing, anything about the director, the cast, or the history of this war it depicts.
What jumped out as me within about 15 minutes was the writing, which is sublime. La Grande Illusion is about class and war time, but more than that, it is about friendship, trust, poor pride and humanity.
Without divulging an array of plot and character names, the good stuff is every scene. A refugee soldier has a heart to heart with a cow. He's french and the cow is german. Both of them poor but both doing the best that they can. A prison camp commander befriends a french general. They are both royalty and prejudice is non existent despite one being a prisoner and one being the captor.
Escaping the camp, 2 french soldiers come across a cottage with a german woman living alone with child. They share Christmas together. A german, 2 frenchman, and one of them is a jew. How about that? All celebrating Christmas, admiring Joseph's beard when setting up the manger.
This is a very moving and tender film. It defies the walls that separate man and brings all of the scenes together in a story that speaks straight to the heart about the good nature in people.
There is a plethora of great lines, in fact, most every line is great and carries with it a profound human weight. Two men in the wild mountain snow comment on the imaginary lines that separate countries, and as they make their way home we see german soldiers fire towards them. Another officer says "don't shoot, they're in Switzerland". "Good for them", says the other. It's revealed the men are no more than a half a mile away in plain sight.
The Grand Illusion indeed. And there's so much more that's said in this film I feel a little guilty that my own account of it isn't better organized. The film itself is incredibly efficient. One story goes into the next focusing on a different set of characters once the first story ends, and we don't know it until it's all over. There is nothing to make us sick about this film. It's as healthy as they come considering the backdrop is war and struggle for power.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. It's not at all what I thought it was going to be. I consider it a gateway film for me to investigate some more films of the era. It didn't seem like this movie was from 1937, and I'm not sure why. There was zero pretension.
Highly Recommended!
La Grande Illusion (1937)
Director: Jean Renoir
Director: Jean Renoir
I went into this film blind not knowing, and still not knowing, anything about the director, the cast, or the history of this war it depicts.
What jumped out as me within about 15 minutes was the writing, which is sublime. La Grande Illusion is about class and war time, but more than that, it is about friendship, trust, poor pride and humanity.
Without divulging an array of plot and character names, the good stuff is every scene. A refugee soldier has a heart to heart with a cow. He's french and the cow is german. Both of them poor but both doing the best that they can. A prison camp commander befriends a french general. They are both royalty and prejudice is non existent despite one being a prisoner and one being the captor.
Escaping the camp, 2 french soldiers come across a cottage with a german woman living alone with child. They share Christmas together. A german, 2 frenchman, and one of them is a jew. How about that? All celebrating Christmas, admiring Joseph's beard when setting up the manger.
This is a very moving and tender film. It defies the walls that separate man and brings all of the scenes together in a story that speaks straight to the heart about the good nature in people.
There is a plethora of great lines, in fact, most every line is great and carries with it a profound human weight. Two men in the wild mountain snow comment on the imaginary lines that separate countries, and as they make their way home we see german soldiers fire towards them. Another officer says "don't shoot, they're in Switzerland". "Good for them", says the other. It's revealed the men are no more than a half a mile away in plain sight.
The Grand Illusion indeed. And there's so much more that's said in this film I feel a little guilty that my own account of it isn't better organized. The film itself is incredibly efficient. One story goes into the next focusing on a different set of characters once the first story ends, and we don't know it until it's all over. There is nothing to make us sick about this film. It's as healthy as they come considering the backdrop is war and struggle for power.
I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this film. It's not at all what I thought it was going to be. I consider it a gateway film for me to investigate some more films of the era. It didn't seem like this movie was from 1937, and I'm not sure why. There was zero pretension.
Highly Recommended!