La Grande Illusion (1937)
Year: 1937
Country: France
Director: Jean Renoir
Criterion Spine Number: 1
Reviewed: March 2014
Country: France
Director: Jean Renoir
Criterion Spine Number: 1
Reviewed: March 2014
And so, the Criterion Collection marathon begins with this, Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion. An incredibly famous film, often regarded as one of the greatest of all time, my viewing experience of this was not the best. I watched it in the lounge, with my mum playing video games loudly and my brother shouting at her to do this instead of that. I blame this for the fact
that I missed the most important aspect of the film, that these people were all of very different rank, which is absolutely essential to understand the meaning of the film. Once I read the accompanying essay (with the Criterion DVD) it all become very clear and I reflected on just how great this movie actually was. It’s filled with great and memorable characters particularly Erich von
Stroheim’s German commandant who is one of the best film characters I’ve ever seen. He’s noble in his position against the main characters, but we almost sympathise with him because it almost seems that in different circumstances, if there wasn’t a war going on, he’d be close to many of them. The most poignant moment of the film comes when he cuts the flower that he has been tending all film after he kills Boldieu, a fellow society man. The film is littered with several truly great moments, the drag scene which soon becomes a symbol of hope, the tense escape, the heartbreaking goodbye to Boldieu and Marechal’s doomed romance with Elsa. What makes this film so interesting and relevant is the way that it discusses war in an incredibly mature and different way. It focuses on the fact that war has a unifying effect on people, but that this is only for a short time, an illusion or distraction from the reality of not just the war, but of the class divides between them. The closest connection between characters comes from the fact that they shared a similar profession back home. Boldieu and the German Commandment were both of a higher society (and they lament that this is the end of their kind), while Marachel and Elsa are both more middle class. There’s the sense that they have created an order and a friendship because it’s easier for them to cope than to face the harsh reality of war, that everyone is equal, everyone can be killed. La Grande Illusion isn’t a film I particularly enjoyed and loved on first viewing, but ever since I saw it, I can’t seem to get it out of my head. I’ve thought about its themes and come to understand the resonance they shared both back in the time it was made, but now as demonstrative of the way we create a society, a class, a moral order, which is just a grand illusion.
that I missed the most important aspect of the film, that these people were all of very different rank, which is absolutely essential to understand the meaning of the film. Once I read the accompanying essay (with the Criterion DVD) it all become very clear and I reflected on just how great this movie actually was. It’s filled with great and memorable characters particularly Erich von
Stroheim’s German commandant who is one of the best film characters I’ve ever seen. He’s noble in his position against the main characters, but we almost sympathise with him because it almost seems that in different circumstances, if there wasn’t a war going on, he’d be close to many of them. The most poignant moment of the film comes when he cuts the flower that he has been tending all film after he kills Boldieu, a fellow society man. The film is littered with several truly great moments, the drag scene which soon becomes a symbol of hope, the tense escape, the heartbreaking goodbye to Boldieu and Marechal’s doomed romance with Elsa. What makes this film so interesting and relevant is the way that it discusses war in an incredibly mature and different way. It focuses on the fact that war has a unifying effect on people, but that this is only for a short time, an illusion or distraction from the reality of not just the war, but of the class divides between them. The closest connection between characters comes from the fact that they shared a similar profession back home. Boldieu and the German Commandment were both of a higher society (and they lament that this is the end of their kind), while Marachel and Elsa are both more middle class. There’s the sense that they have created an order and a friendship because it’s easier for them to cope than to face the harsh reality of war, that everyone is equal, everyone can be killed. La Grande Illusion isn’t a film I particularly enjoyed and loved on first viewing, but ever since I saw it, I can’t seem to get it out of my head. I’ve thought about its themes and come to understand the resonance they shared both back in the time it was made, but now as demonstrative of the way we create a society, a class, a moral order, which is just a grand illusion.
Best Scene: The German commandant's goodbye to Boldieu
Overall Verdict: 10
Overall Verdict: 10