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IMDbPro

The Grand Illusion

Original title: La grande illusion
  • 19371937
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 1h 53m
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
36K
YOUR RATING
The Grand Illusion (1937)
Trailer for Grand Illusion
Play trailer2:05
1 Video
67 Photos
  • Drama
  • War
During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.During WWI, two French soldiers are captured and imprisoned in a German P.O.W. camp. Several escape attempts follow until they are eventually sent to a seemingly inescapable fortress.
IMDb RATING
8.1/10
36K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Jean Renoir
  • Writers
    • Charles Spaak(scenario and dialogue)
    • Jean Renoir(scenario and dialogue)
  • Stars
    • Jean Gabin
    • Dita Parlo
    • Pierre Fresnay
Top credits
  • Director
    • Jean Renoir
  • Writers
    • Charles Spaak(scenario and dialogue)
    • Jean Renoir(scenario and dialogue)
  • Stars
    • Jean Gabin
    • Dita Parlo
    • Pierre Fresnay
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 148User reviews
    • 94Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 6 wins & 2 nominations total

    Videos1

    Grand Illusion: 75th Anniversary
    Trailer 2:05
    Grand Illusion: 75th Anniversary

    Photos67

    Jean Gabin and Dita Parlo in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Erich von Stroheim in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Julien Carette, Marcel Dalio, Pierre Fresnay, Jean Gabin, and Gaston Modot in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Erich von Stroheim and Pierre Fresnay in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Pierre Fresnay and Jean Gabin in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Pierre Fresnay and Jean Gabin in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Erich von Stroheim in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Jean Gabin and Dita Parlo in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Pierre Fresnay and Jean Gabin in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Jean Gabin in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Jean Gabin and Dita Parlo in The Grand Illusion (1937)
    Julien Carette, Marcel Dalio, Pierre Fresnay, Jean Gabin, and Gaston Modot in The Grand Illusion (1937)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Jean Gabin
    Jean Gabin
    • Le lieutenant Maréchal
    Dita Parlo
    Dita Parlo
    • Elsa
    Pierre Fresnay
    Pierre Fresnay
    • Le captaine de Boeldieu
    Erich von Stroheim
    Erich von Stroheim
    • Le captaine von Rauffenstein
    • (as Eric von Stroheim)
    Julien Carette
    Julien Carette
    • Cartier - l'acteur
    • (as Carette)
    Georges Péclet
    • Le serrurier
    • (as Peclet)
    Werner Florian
    • Le sergent Arthur
    Jean Dasté
    Jean Dasté
    • L'instituteur
    • (as Daste)
    Sylvain Itkine
    • Le lieutenant Demolder
    • (as Itkine)
    Gaston Modot
    Gaston Modot
    • L'ingénieur
    • (as Modot)
    Marcel Dalio
    Marcel Dalio
    • Le lieutenant Rosenthal
    • (as Dalio)
    Jacques Becker
    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)
    Georges Fronval
    • Le soldat allemand qui tue le capitaine de Boeldieu
    • (uncredited)
    Karl Heil
    • Un officier de la forteresse
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Jean Renoir
    • Writers
      • Charles Spaak(scenario and dialogue)
      • Jean Renoir(scenario and dialogue)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Joseph Goebbels made sure that the film's print was one of the first things seized by the Germans when they occupied France. He referred to Jean Renoir as "Cinematic Public Enemy Number 1". For many years it was assumed that the film had been destroyed in an Allied air raid in 1942. However, a German film archivist named Frank Hansel, then a Nazi officer in Paris, had actually smuggled it back to Berlin. Then when the Russians entered Berlin in 1945, the film found its way to an archive in Moscow. When Renoir came to restore his film in the 1960s, he knew nothing of Hansel's acquisition and was working from an old muddy print. Purely by coincidence at the same time, the Russian archive swapped some material with an archive in Toulouse. Included in that exchange was the original negative print. However, because so many prints of the film existed at the time, it would be another 30 years before anyone realised that the version in Toulouse was actually the original negative.
    • Goofs
      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: For me it's simple. A golf course is for golf. A tennis court is for tennis. A prison camp is for escaping.

    • Connections
      Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: La monnaie de l'absolu (1999)
    • Soundtracks
      Si tu Veux... Marguerite
      Music by Albert Valsien

      Lyrics by Vincent Telly

      Performed by Julien Carette

    User reviews148

    Review
    Top review
    10/10
    How language separates us
    What makes Grand Illusion a great movie, and the reason that some of us keep returning to it, is that it can't be reduced to a single simple proposition, the way that recent war movies like Platoon ("war bad," to quote Tarantino's synopsis) or Saving Private Ryan ("war senseless") can. It's easy to be sentimental about war, even while deploring it, by focusing on the horror of it or by making heroes out of those who are forced to fight. Renoir deals instead with the far more complex mesh of differences and alliances that separate and divide our characters. And while his main characters all have a clear class/national/religious identity, he makes much more out of them than just sociological categories.

    But trying to explain why Grand Illusion is such a great movie by charting all the conflicting bonds of nationality, class, religion, etc. doesn't explain why the movie is so powerful. To me it is in those scenes in which language either separates our characters (as when Marechal tries and fails to tell the British prisoners about the tunnel or asks why de Boeldieu uses "vous") or unites them (as when von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu speak in English or the English officer (in drag) sings the Marseillaise or when Marechal finally learns a little German). In these cases, Renoir uses language-without hitting us over the head to make the point-to illustrate the conflict between his ideal of sympathy between humans and the differences of class, nationality and religion.

    Now I know that this sounds just as dry and academic as other attempts to explain Grand Illusion. Maybe it is; the movie really does not need to be explained to be enjoyed. But these are the scenes that, for whatever reason, have always made the greatest impression on me.
    helpful•133
    15
    • Henry-59
    • Aug 27, 1999

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 12, 1938 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • France
    • Languages
      • French
      • German
      • English
      • Russian
    • Also known as
      • Grand Illusion
    • Filming locations
      • Château du Haut Koenigsbourg, Orschwiller, Bas-Rhin, France
    • Production company
      • Réalisation d'art cinématographique (RAC)
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross worldwide
      • $20,356
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      1 hour 53 minutes
    • Color
      • Black and White
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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