DVD Pick: Grand Illusion

Length: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Languages: Predominantly in French with some German, English, and Russian

Jean Renoir's 1937 masterpiece of world cinema La Grande Illusion, which is usually called Grand Illusion in the United States, is a lyrical film with an unconventional narrative structure. I loved this subtle movie the very first time I saw it, but repeated viewings have been richly rewarded by a much deeper appreciation of it. Set during World War I, the story in La Grande Illusion is about a French pilot who is captured by the Germans, imprisoned in POW camps, and eventually escapes. But La Grande Illusion is one of the most unusual films ever made about war since it contains no combat footage, the POWs are never mistreated, and no character ever behaves villainously. It seems to me Renoir wasn't interested in showing the grim realities of war and POW camps; instead he wanted a dramatic framework on which to hang his ruminations on nationality, social class, language, and ethnicity. But Renoir approached these issues without rancor or bitterness, and he avoided the heavy-handed didacticism usually found in films on such subjects.

The film opens with a five-minute prologue where three of the four major characters are introduced. In the officers mess of a French air squadron, we meet the ruggedly masculine Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin), a mechanic in civilian life who has been pressed into wartime duty as a pilot. Marechal is ordered to take a man from the general staff on an aerial reconnaissance mission, and that man turns out to be the slender, patrician Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay), a career officer who comes from a titled family. Marechal and Boeldieu fly over enemy territory, where their plane becomes the twelfth to be shot down by German ace Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), a stiff, aristocratic Prussian career officer. But Marechal and Boeldieu survive, and Rauffenstein has them join him for lunch at his air squadron's officers mess, where the two Frenchmen are treated with great civility. However, military police soon arrive and take Marechal and Boeldieu to the officers' POW camp at Hallbach.

The next 40 minutes of the film, which might be thought of as Act I, takes place at Hallbach, where the Germans treat their POWs well and many of the rules are not enforced. At this camp Marechal and Boeldieu meet another captured French officer named Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), the movie's fourth major character. Although the haughty Boeldieu remains aloof from the other prisoners, Marechal and Rosenthal forge a friendship.

The genial, cultured Rosenthal comes from a family of famous Jewish bankers, and his packages from home enable the French prisoners to eat pate de foie gras and drink cognac while the German guards eat cabbage. The French prisoners like Rosenthal, but at one point they can't resist needling him about being Jewish. But the Vienna-born Rosenthal good-naturedly deflects their jibes by saying, "For all your French roots, none of you owns an acre of your country. In 35 years, the Rosenthals have acquired three chateaux with hunting preserves, farms, orchards, stud farms, and three galleries of bona fide ancestors. If that's not worth escaping to fight for!"

To keep their spirits up, some of the French and British POWs at Hallbach work together to stage a variety show, and eventually we see some of the performance they put on for the other prisoners and the German guards. A French actor (Julien Carette) sings a lively music hall song called "Marguerite," followed by some British officers in drag doing a jolly rendition of "Tipperary." Then Marechal learns that the French have recaptured the strategically important fortress at Douaumont, and he interrupts the performance to announce the victory to the audience. One of the British officers wearing a dress snaps to attention, removes his wig, and leads the prisoners in singing "La Marseilles." But Marechal is punished by being put in solitary confinement, and soon Douaumont is retaken by the Germans.

During their entire time at Hallbach, the French POWs are slowly digging a tunnel through which they will be able to escape. But only hours before they expect to complete the tunnel, they are assembled for transfer to another camp. When Marechal sees incoming British officers waiting to occupy the room that he and the other French POWs have just vacated, he tries to tell one of the Brits about the escape tunnel. But unfortunately Marechal speaks no English, and although he enunciates carefully as he says something like "trou ... partir ... un trou," the British officer understands nothing.

At this point in the film there is a brief entr'acte: a montage indicating that the French prisoners are moved over a period of time through a series of POW camps in Germany. At last, we see a foreboding-looking fortress perched atop sheer slopes. This is the POW camp at Wintersborn, which is where the next 40 minutes of the film, which might be thought of as Act II, will take place.

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