Blu-ray Review: La Grande Illusion - Renoir's Masterpiece Has Never Looked Better
Everyone who has ever claimed to be a movie buff should own this film, and this is the best version of it that has ever been released.
rating: 5
Only a couple of the barriers crossed in Jean Renoirs La grande illusion are physical; the film is more concerned with the abstract concepts the big illusions that are wedged between the characters. The most persistent is class, but barriers of nationality, religion and sex can be just as entrenched. Renoir, the great humanist, looked past these distinctions and saw the good, or at least the humanity, that such categories can obscure. He set up barriers only to blur them to undermine them. The characters in the movie are not perfect, but the film never makes fun of them; it looks up to all of them, regardless. Perhaps the most enduring film in the history of French cinema (i.e., the history of cinema), La grande illusion is intrinsically linked with its own history. Historical context for a movie should not necessarily affect how one reads the text, but the history of this film is so neatly linked thematically to the story that it is difficult to ignore. Set during the First World War (and inspired by Renoirs own experiences and acquaintances from that war), the picture was released in 1937. The heartfelt, humanist take on war was, as much as anything, a response to the rising threat of Fascism in Europe. Renoir was not afraid to show the similarities between a German and a French soldier; he went as far, in fact, to suggest that upper-class French and German soldiers have more in common than upper and working class soldiers on the same side. Joseph Goebbels labelled the film Cinematic Public Enemy Number 1 and prints were seized and destroyed. The film wasnt released again until 1958, and the original negative was not discovered until the early 1990s.
The narrative could, loosely, by described as an escape story, and certainly prison escape movies made since have drawn heavily from it. Jean Gabin plays Maréchal, an everyman fighter pilot shot down along with the wealthier upper-class Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay). They are taken to a prisoner-of-war camp where they discover a group of prisoners already hard at work on an escape tunnel. Maréchal, a serial escapist, is moved from prison to prison until he eventually ends up at Wintersborn, a fortress from which escape is near impossible. He is joined by de Boeldieu and a wealthy Jewish prisoner called Rosenthal (Marcel Dario). Their captor is Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), a German aristocrat who takes an immediate liking to de Boeldieu; they are both survivors of a class system that is being gradually eroded, and which seems to have little relevance on a battlefield. There are individual moments and performances in the film that are rightly famous in and of themselves. Gabin, one of the greatest of French film actors, had an effortless, Bogart-like charisma in front of the camera; you never caught him trying to act. Fresnays acting style is a little more old-fashioned, which is entirely apt. Dario is warm and generous; his character deliberately questions Jewish stereotypes. Among the most famous sequences is a scene in which the French characters, who have learnt of a victory on their side, sing an impromptu version of Le Marseillaise; it influenced a similar scene in Casablanca, but even that cannot match this movie for its power and artistry. 
If any director in the history of cinema was an artist, it was Jean Renoir (himself son of the Impressionist painter). Yes, it is essentially about a prison escape, but art transcends its subject matter, and poetry shines a new light on the familiar. The details are perfect: look at von Rauffenstein, a potential cliché elevated to something noble. The most moving moment in the film may be the moment when de Boeldieu, creating a deliberate distraction, forces von Rauffestein to shoot him. Von Rauffenstein desperately does not want to; he is a gentleman shooting another gentleman, and he will never forgive himself. He walks with a back and neck brace that holds him almost unnaturally upright; a perfect metaphor for the constraints of class. He keeps a flower in his room; it is the only flower in the fortress. Maréchal, meanwhile, is grittier and earthier, and less tragic because more human. The war itself is abstract to him another great illusion and when, after escaping, he sees a beautiful young woman (Dita Parlo as the only young woman in the entire film), the barriers of nationality and politics simply arent there; those things may ultimately keep them apart, but they never delay them falling for each other. He looks at her, and she looks at him, and they see past all the barriers that are supposed to separate them. Renoir had a similar relationship to his characters. It is fitting that the film ends with Maréchal and Rosenthal crossing a border. Though spotted by the Germans, they are not shot at because of the arbitrary distinction of having crossed an invisible line into another country. Perhaps we need illusions like that nationalism, class, sex to make sense of the world and our place in it. But theres a price to pay, and the movie demonstrates the danger of building a wall between those distinctions and the desires of an honest human heart. FILM: 5 out of 5 Regardless of context, this is a timeless work of art and an enduring masterpiece of world cinema. If that makes it sound like hard work, its also entertaining, funny, engaging and moving. QUALITY: 4.5 out of 5 One has to be relative with this category after all the movie was made in 1937 in black and white and mono but I think its safe to say that La grande illusion has not looked this good in 75 years. The restoration is beautiful, the picture is crisp, and the sound is clear and lucid. Though a film this old, with such a complex and troubled history, may never look perfect, I struggle to imagine anyone complaining about this transfer. EXTRAS: 4 out of 5 As with other Studio Canal releases there are several fairly academic, slightly dry, discussions of the film, including an introduction and a featurette on the history and controversy associated with it. Theres an interview with a script girl (who is responsible for the sequence where Maréchal and Rosenthal fall out) and a couple of other shorts on the films lasting impact, as well as two trailers and a restoration comparison. Best, however, is a The Little Match Girl, a 1928 short co-directed by Renoir and based on the Hans Christian Andersen story; its a haunting, beautiful adaptation with some genuinely wonderful imagery. PRESENTATION: 4 out of 5 A (skippable) promo trailer for Studio Canals Blu-ray collection is followed by a nicely-designed, easy to use menu. OVERALL: 5 out of 5 Perhaps it could have done with a good commentary or a longer documentary, but lets not look a gift horse in the mouth. Everyone who has ever claimed to be a movie buff should own this film, and this is the best version of it yet to be released. 
La Grande illusion: 75th Anniversary Edition is available in the UK from the 23rd of April.