GRAND ILLUSION
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Rialto Pictures Director: Jean Renoir Writer: Jean Renoir, Charles Spaak Cast: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Julien Carette, Georges Peclet, Werner Florian, Jean Daste, Sylvain Itkine, Gaston Modot, Jacques Becker, Marcel Dalio
The recent spate of war movies opening in the U.S. indicates at once a patriotic need to remember America's ideals and heroism ("Saving Private Ryan," "Return with Honor,") and the country's laments about fighting it should never have undertaken ("Regret to Inform," "Three Seasons"). While Steven Spielberg was robbed of his Oscar in the last Academy ceremony ("Ryan" was heads and shoulders superior to "Shakespeare in Love"), we might forget that some of the great war movies deal not with World War 2 or Vietnam but go further back to the struggle involving the U.S. with European powers during the period 1914-1918. If in fact we are to understand the rise of Hitler in Germany and the roots of World War 2, we must return at least to the First World War, and we must look to that tragic event to see war's irrationality once again.
When Jean Renoir made "Grand Illusion" in 1937, he hoped to show his own and future generations the futility of war even as he ironically pointed out the generosity with which supposed enemies treated one another. World War I, which ushered out many of the great monarchies and empires and Europe, was the last occasion that featured honor among gentlemen whatever their country of birth while at the same time underscoring the differences that separated those of distinct social classes. In fact what makes "Grand Illusion" a major accomplishment is only partly its dramatic antiwar motif or a depiction of heroism, but from its examination of conflicting loyalties: devotion to nation surrenders to affinity among like classes.
The story that gives these gentlemen of similar classes but different nationalities the opportunity for cordial treatment, begins as two French fliers, Marechal (Jean Gabin) and Capt. de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) take a reconnaissance mission over Germany, seeking to distinguish targets. (Renoir does not show the actual air battle: this sort of grandstanding would come later by Hollywood.) Shot down by Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), the French prisoners are invited to lunch for the very person who downed them before they are carted off to a jail that looks a lot like the summer camp I attended back in the Jurassic Age.
The prison that houses the wartime captives is anything but a Teutonic version of the Hanoi Hilton. POW's are allowed to receive food packages from home. One fortunate fellow, Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio)--a French Jew--shares his food generously with his countrymen. Meanwhile those in captivity prefer to leave and begin to dig a tunnel. Unfortunately the diggers have their venues changed and the tunnel goes unutilized while Rosenthal, de Boeldieu and Marechal are sent to Wintersborn maximum security facility.
Coincidentally, von Rauffenstein heads the prison after his retirement, giving Renoir the motive to explore his central theme: since the German and the French officers are equally upper class, de Boeldieu is treated in a singularly considerate manner, while the German warden ignores the captured officers who are of no distinguished caste--who include Lt. Marechal (Jean Gabin) and the French Jew, Rosental (Marcel Dalio).
Despite their more than fair treatment, the prisoners make escape attempts even after they are transferred to a more secure jail in another part of Germany. Ultimately one of the prisoners makes a heroic sacrifice of himself to allow some others to flee to safety in Switzerland.
Orson Wells is said to have remarked that if he had to save only one film, this would be the one. The performance, which sentimentalizes the relationship between the high-ranking German officer and the French captain who is of the same social class, is compelling. Renoir seems to turn Marxism on its head: here we have an international brotherhood, but not of workers--rather the camaraderie that crosses national boundaries applies to the aristocratic class. In a sense, this story is two films in one. The first half, which would appeal more to the men in the audience, has not a single important female role. We see only two old German peasant women in one shot tut-tutting outside the prison walls about the "poor boys" who have to spend the war incarcerated. The second half is more of a compelling chick-flick--a romance between a lonely German woman, Elsa (Dita Parlo) and the stunningly handsome Marechal--played strikingly by the great French actor Jean Gabin, who was thirty-three years old at the time and who could give Kenneth Branagh a run for the money in the looks department.
The black-and-white film has been lovingly restored after being sadly on shelves here and there for decades. It was banned by the Nazis (propaganda minister Josef Goebbels considered it cinema enemy number one), and no wonder. Not only is the Jewish character given favorable treatment for his generosity: Renoir subverts the entire basis of fascist thought by stating that nature knows no boundaries; that political differences are man-made and an illusion.
"Grand Illusion" is a must-see, featuring Renoir's signature deep-focus photography--in which the great director keeps the background images as clear as those in front of the camera. Women in the audience will swoon over Gabin, men will dig the fighting spirit of the French prisoners who are gutsy enough to sing their national anthem in front of their German jailers when the French had recaptured a significant fort. World War One seems, however, almost like a fun chess game than a battleground that left tens of thousands dead and foreshadowed the far less gentlemanly second major encounter.
Not Rated. Running Time: 114 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten
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