Grand Illusion
Short description
During World War I, two French officers are shot down and taken prisoner in Germany. Captain de Boëldieu comes from the aristocracy, while Lieutenant Maréchal is of working-class origin. Held in a camp alongside other French prisoners of various ranks and backgrounds, the men share their limited resources and organise activities as they follow news from the front. They work on a tunnel meant to take them out of the camp, only to be transferred elsewhere before the plan can be carried out. Their new prison is a fortress commanded by the German officer von Rauffenstein, the same man who brought down their aircraft. He treats the captured officers well, and he and the aristocratic de Boëldieu develop a bond that grows harder to reconcile with duty.
Jean Renoir directed and co-wrote the film with Charles Spaak. It is the earliest of five Renoir titles listed here, ahead of The Rules of the Game, The Southerner, The Golden Coach and French Cancan. Jean Gabin plays Maréchal, Pierre Fresnay plays de Boëldieu and Erich von Stroheim plays von Rauffenstein; Dita Parlo, Julien Carette and Georges Péclet are among the credited cast of 24. Albert Pinkovitch and Frank Rollmer produced.
The film drew strong approval from critics, who rated it 9.7/10 across 74 reviews, and from audiences, with 8.1/10 on IMDb from around 41,000 votes and 7.9/10 on TMDB from 804 votes. Its critical standing is noticeably higher than its audience scores, though all three show wide approval for this French war drama.
What's left behind the scenes
- For many years it was believed that the original negative was lost in 1942 during an Allied air raid. Copies of the film were discovered in 1958, and in the 1960s the film was re-released. Later it turned out that the negative had been sent back to Berlin for storage in the Reich Film Archive. In 1945, during the occupation of Berlin, the Reich Film Archive ended up in a zone controlled by the Russians and was sent to Moscow to the State Film Fund. The negative returned to France in the 1960s, but lay unidentified in the storage of the Toulouse Cinematheque for over 30 years, as no one suspected it had been preserved. In the early 1990s, when the relocation of the Cinematheque to the French Film Archive began, the negative was finally identified. The film, restored from it by Rialto Pictures, was released in August 1999.
- The film was banned in Germany by the Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels, who called it "cinematic enemy No. 1" and urged his Italian counterpart to do the same.
- For many years it was believed that the original negative was lost in 1942 during an Allied air raid. Later it turned out that the negative had been sent back to Berlin for storage in the Reich Film Archive. In 1945, during the occupation of Berlin, the Reich Film Archive ended up in a zone controlled by the Russians and was sent to Moscow to the State Film Fund. The negative returned to France in the 1960s, but lay unidentified in the storage of the Toulouse Cinematheque for over 30 years, as no one suspected it had survived. In the early 1990s, when the Cinematheque began to move to the French Film Archive, the negative was finally identified. The film, restored from it by Rialto Pictures, was released in August 1999.
- The film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture, despite the fact that the award was only given to films in the English language, while 'The Great Illusion' was filmed in French.
- Despite its success with audiences, the jury of the 1937 Venice Film Festival nevertheless did not dare to award the film the Grand Prix (although, according to some reports, the film pleased Mussolini) and invented a special consolation prize for it – for the best acting ensemble.
- According to Renoir himself, he unsuccessfully sought support for his project for three years, and eventually had to present 'The Grand Illusion' as an adventure film about escaping from captivity. But even the sponsors Renoir managed to find did not believe in the film's success, which affected its funding.
- The role of Rauffenstein was originally intended for theater actor and director Louis Jouvet, but, due to other commitments, Jouvet was forced to decline. As a result, Renoir invited his favorite filmmaker Erich von Stroheim, who found himself in France at the end of 1936 after being out of demand in Hollywood.
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