La Grande Illusion

Dir: Jean Renoir

1937

*****

Jean Renoir's 1937 masterpiece is a timeless classic that captures a temperament that will always have relevance. Set during the First World War, it sees a small group of French officers who are captured and sent to a German prison of war. The men are of different backgrounds, class and opinions but in such a situation they all find mutual friendship. The German soldiers are generally shown to be just that, soldiers doing their jobs and the film purposely contains absolutely no fighting or scenes of war whatsoever. The film begins with the rather aristocratic (and monocle wearing) Captain de Boeldieu (the great Pierre Fresnay) and working class pilot Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) agree to fly over a sight of interest, following recently taken reconnaissance photos. The next scene jumps straight to their introduction of Rittmeister Von Rauffenstein (the obvious influence to pretty much every Bond villain, played by the brilliant Erich von Stroheim) the Rittmeister responsible for shooting them down. Rauffenstein extends a hand of friendly respect and invites them to join him for lunch, apologizing for their injuries. The idea that war is nothing personal is made quite clear from the very beginning and that class is class, wherever you are whatever the situation. Rauffenstein and Boeldieu discover they have a mutual friend and spend much of the film talking together as friends. However, war being war and duty being duty, the officers cannot promise that they won't try an escape and they spend much of the rest of the film doing just that. The title of the film came from the 1909 book The Great Illusion, written by the economist Norman Agell who argued that war is futile due to the common economic interests of all European nations, to think of it as a positive and necessary plight is an illusion. Renoir, who was an aviator during World War I, wanted to examine contemporary politics and social ideology and to suggest that humanity transcends nationalism and racial and national boundaries, that our collective experiences should prevail above division and war. It was a timely statement, Renoir was rightly worried about the rise of fascism, the Nazis and a Second World War. This isn't just an anti-war film though, this is a pro-people film. Humanity should always come first is the message from the mouth of someone who lived and took part in one of the biggest and bloodiest battles ever fought. It is amazing that the film survived, it was thought lost in bombing raids and the Nazis also thought they had destroyed all copies. Some copies did survive and the original surfaced decades later in-tact and was refurbished in the 1990s. A good war film is an anti-war film but La Grande Illusion isn't preachy, it is matter of fact but only sees the good in people and the negatives of war. It's by far one of the greatest films ever made, a good reminder that we humans aren't all bad.