The Grand Illusion

Jean Renoir's "The Grand Illusion" is a war story that today seems nostalgic. It was made in 1937, very soon before Hitler and the Nazi party shrouded the world with a dark cloud of anti-semitism and propaganda. The film takes place in World War I, when French and German soldiers were at war, but still kept their humanity in tact. As Renoir puts it in his introduction to the film "To a certain extent, the war of 1914 was almost a war fought by gentlemen."

If such a thing exists as a gentle war film, then "The Grand Illusion" is it. Renoir surrounds his film with men from different countries and backgrounds who fight the war, but they do it with a certain dignity and respect for the other side.

The film opens with two French officers name Lt. Marachel (Jean Gabin) and Capt. de Boeldieu who are on a mission but are shot down by a German pilot named Captain Von Rauffestein (Erich Von Stroheim). After they are shot down, Marachel is injured bu Von Rauffestein invites them for dinner with his officers. The visit is all very polite and courteous; Von Rauffestein treats them more as guests than as prisoners, he even apologizes for shooting them down, and there is a genuine respect between the two officers. There is even a rapport felt between Von Rauffestein and Boeldieu, as they are both from aristocratic families and perceive themselves as gentlemen.

As this introduction ends, Marachel and Boeldieu are sent to a POW camp where they meet in with a group of other french officers. As it is with other Prisoner of War movies, the usual consensus is to try and escape, which is the soldiers duty to do so. There is indeed a plot to dig a tunnel which is shown briefly, but it is left abandoned when the soldiers are transferred to another camp. Marachel makes a desperate attempt to tell the soldiers taking their place about the tunnel, but they speak English and can't understand his French.

Another officer is brought into the mix while at this camp, his name is Rosenthal, a Jewish businessman who comes from the same working class background as Marachel, and he pops up again when he and Boeldieu are transferred to a new camp which is run by non other than Von Rauffenstein, who has suffered a back injury and must be held in place by a neck brace, his flying days are over.

Jean Renoir was a cinematic humanist like many of the great French directors, I don't think there is ever a villain in any of his films. "The Grand Illusion" is about people who fight a war, they are committed to their country, and therefore must fight, even though they may get along with their enemies. I suppose the grand illusion that is eluded to in the title is that wars can be fought in a civilized way. That's the tragedy of the film, and we see it personified in Von Rauffenstein, a man who keeps his aristocratic ways, but is perceived as a mad man by his soldiers, and who is then betrayed by a man who he thought shared his same views. Von Rauffestein is a romantic, a sentimentalist, but as one character points out in the film "there is no room for sentiment in a war".

However Jean Renoir himself couldn't help but being optimistic, and chooses humanity in the end anyway, as we see two soldiers being allowed to enter Switzerland by Germans who choose not to shoot them.

"The Grand Illusion" is often cited as one of the greatest films ever made, and is usually found neck and neck with "Rules of the Game" as Renoir's masterpiece. Renoir fought in the first World War himself, he must've known another war was on the horizon when he made this film. "The Grand Illusion" was seized by the Nazi party and the original print was thought to be destroyed, however luckily, a print was found in Munich, and was joyously restored for a new generation to discover.

"The Grand Illusion" today seems to have been made when there was still order in war, it was played like a game which had its rules. When comparing the war in "The Grand Illusion" to the wars being fought today, it seems the difference is like night and day; it's not a game, perhaps it never was, perhaps that is the illusion. War is brutal, and the less we come to understand our enemy, the more it becomes maddening; Renoir knew this to be true, and he hoped that we would not come to this. "The Grand Illusion" shows there is still beauty in the world, and people, and you could see them as that even if they were your enemy, that's something I hope does not get lost in the face of war.