THE GRAND ILLUSION

Jean Renoir’s masterpiece presents the multiple escape attempts of three French officers imprisoned in a German camp during the First World War: the nobleman De Boëldieu (Pierre Fresnay), the proletarian Maréchal (Jean Gabin) and the Jew Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio). Because of their escape attempts, the three men are transported to a special fortress, commanded by a German air force officer who shot down Boëldieu’s and Maréchal’s plane: the noble von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). The latter treats his prisoners with great humanity, which does not prevent them from trying to escape again… A nervous and intense drama, La Grande Illusion is told by the director with an energetic style that conveys, whether concerning collective episodes or individual situations, a sincere and human understanding. Renoir’s film, considered almost unanimously as an absolute masterpiece of cinema, stands out because of the intensity of its pacifist message and the profound humanism that emanates from each of its sequences.