La Grande Illusion (1937) La grande illusion (original title)

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 | Aristocrat

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)
• Nova Film (1937) (Netherlands) (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)
• Cinédis (France) (theatrical)
• City Film (19??) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Filmsonor (France) (theatrical)
• Les Grands Films Classiques (GFC) (France) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Nederland NV (19??) (Netherlands) (theatrical)
• Barr Entertainment (199?) (USA) (VHS) (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 (19??) (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)
• StudioCanal (2005) (France) (DVD)
• StudioCanal (2005) (France) (DVD) (digital new master)
• 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  sound post-production (as Western Electric System Sonar)
• Traonouez (Paris)  costumes (uncredited)

Also Known As:

"La grande illusion" - France (original title)
"Grand Illusion" - Australia (video box title), USA

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:

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) | 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 | Netherlands:14 (original rating) (1937) | Netherlands:14 (re-rating) (1947) | Netherlands:14 (re-rating) (1958)

Filming Locations:

Caserne de Colmar, Colmar, Haut-Rhin, France

Company:

Réalisation d'art cinématographique (RAC)

Trivia:

The battles in which Elsa's brothers died - Charleroi, Tannenberg and Liege - were all battles from 1914, the first year of the war. The Battle of Liège was the opening battle of the German invasion into Belgium, and the first battle of World War I. The Battle of Charleroi was fought on 21 August 1914 between the French and the Germans. The Battle of Tannenberg was in August 1914 and was fought between the Russians and the Germans.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: As the WWI German soldiers are celebrating a French fort's capture, the map on the wall of the officers club is clearly an inter-war (1919-1938) map of Germany.

Quotes:

Capt. de Boeldieu:May I ask you a question?
Capt. von Rauffenstein:Of course.
Capt. de Boeldieu:Why did you make an exception of me by inviting me here?
Capt. von Rauffenstein:Because your name is Boeldieu, career officer in the French Army. And I am Rauffenstein, career officer in the Imperial German Army.
Capt. de Boeldieu:But my comrades are officers as well.
Capt. von Rauffenstein:A 'Maréchal' and 'Rosenthal,' officers?
Capt. de Boeldieu:They're fine soldiers.
Capt. von Rauffenstein:Charming legacy of the French Revolution.
Capt. de Boeldieu:Neither you nor I can stop the march of time.
Capt. von Rauffenstein:Boldieu, I don't know who will win this war, but whatever the outcome, it will mean the end of the Rauffensteins and the Boeldieus.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Great Performances: Recording 'The Producers': A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks (#29.15)" (2001)

Soundtrack:

Il était un petit navire

A Humanist Classic

Grand Illusion is a movie about class that doesn't hate anyone. How often does that happen? Yes, there are namby-pamby movies that "show all sides" and bore everyone with their non-existent point-of-view, but that's not what I mean. And, of course, there are plenty of movies about class that reveal their biases from the start; I'm rather fond of Eat the Rich movies, myself. But Grand Illusion is about class without dismissing any of its characters. The aristocrats whose world is disappearing are presented as tragic figures, stuck in a code of life that is rapidly becoming meaningless. Both aristocrats know their time is past; the French one accepts this as probably a good thing, the German one doesn't (and blames the French one's sentiments on the French Revolution), but they both know their way of life is soon to be forgotten. And it would be easy for Renoir, when he made the film in the mid-30s a French communist with proletarian sympathies, to demonize these two. But he doesn't; he allows them their humanity, which is the most characteristic feature of Renoir movies in any event (he is the great humanist of movie history).

Nor does he show the collapse of the old way as an unfortunate preface to chaos. The bourgeois characters are good people. The world might be safe in their hands, as safe as in any other hands at least (except for the propensity among nations for war). All of the middle and lower-class characters in the movie are presented as people, not stereotypes. But Renoir doesn't accomplish this by collapsing all class boundaries into some homogenous universalism. These characters remain trapped within their class, and their class is clear to the viewer. The movie is not about the absence of class but about the crushing ironies of the very real existence of class in the lives of the characters. To show all classes without condescension, while retaining a particular point of view (that while people are good, it's best that the aristocratic world is in decline), is pretty amazing.

In Grand Illusion, the nominal hero is working/middle-class, but the upper class isn't evil and the lower class isn't romanticized or dismissed. And it's all accomplished in such a seamless way that many, if not most, first-time viewers might easily think it was a fine movie but something less than great. It sneaks up on you, and more than just about any film you can name, rewards multiple viewings.