What is considered one of Jean Renoir’s greatest films, this is a profoundly humanistic war drama centering on French officers navigating class relationships in a German POW camp during World War 1.
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. Following several escape attempts, the men are transferred to a high-security fortress where they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu. This is a masterful anti-war statement, bringing humane insight and an undercurrent of ironic humor to an unusual relationship between captor and captive. As Orson Welles said: “If I had to save only one film in the world, it would be ‘La Grande Ilusion”.(Subtitles)
France 1937 Jean Renoir 113m
