La Grande Illusion is a film by Jean Renoir which depicts his memories of the First World War, based on his own experience as a pilot. Set in the German prison camps, it creates a rather mild reality in which the prisoners are allowed to receive parcels with food and clothes and are able to entertain themselves. But these are not ordinary prisoners- they are officers and therefore are treated with respect from the German guards. The French officers have a simple moto: "Prisons are to escape from them". They manage to preserve their spirits and form friendships. A few characters are distinguished in the film, and they are almost stereotyped. Renoir offers his social analysis of the French society. Marechal, played by the big star Jean Gabin, is a charming pilot who is representative of the working class. He gets along quite well with Rosenthal, a wealthy jew who is shares his parcels of food with everyone. Rosethal,however, doesn't have an aristocratic background like de Boieldieu, who differs in manners from everyone else. Having said that, these 3 characters are extremely entertaining, each one with his own style. For example, Renoir uses Jean Gabin to establish the working class hero, who is able to convey any type of emotion in a minimalistic way. De Boieldieu is a theatrical actor, standing out from the rest and portraying the symbolic distance between nobility and working class.
The prisoners of war bond together from the very beginning and dig a tunnel to escape. Unfortunately, they are moved to 16 other camps. The final one is a fortress commanded by a German aristocratic officer- Von Rauffenstein. He can not help but form a friendship with Boieldieu, both realizing that their class is inevitably doomed after the war. While in the fortress, de Boieldieu decides to make a sacrifice and help the other 2 French officers to escape. He consciously take this decision,caused by the lack of desire to wait and experience the miseries after the war. Von Rauffenstein never looses his admiration to his French friend.
In the third part of the film, Marechal and Rosenthal have escaped, but their affinities are tested by many obstacles. However, they stay together and meet on their way Elza (Dita Parlo), a German widow living alone with her daughter who offers them shelter. Marechal and Elza fall in love, even though they speak different languages. Renoir implies that the relationship between 2 people from different nationalities can be stronger than from the same nationality but different social class. It is also interesting how he plays with the title of the film, giving us an option to think what the illusion is. Maybe it is about the illusions of the prisoners that the war will soon be over, or that Marechal will come back to Germany and see Elza after the war.
By all means Renoir manages to create a social realism in his film and engage us even 70 years after its making. In the DVD special edition, there is a comment by the director that he intended to present the Germans as normal human beings full with nobility, in the time before Hitler.
In 1937 the film wins the best film award in Venice, and a few years after it's banned.
Renoir is one of the rare examples of coming from a family with and extremely tallented and famous father, thousands of opportunities to meet with leading arstists, consequently forming himself as one. His family is full of cinematographers, film makers, painters and actors.
In his early career, Renoir was influenced by the social realisim in French literature (Balzac, Zola) which he manages to develop and successfully portray in his films. His way of telling a story is quite easy to follow with witty and amazigly entertaining dialogues, an approach that has been taken forward by some later French filmmaker.
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