The Criterion Collection #1: Grand Illusion

Grand Illusion

In 1990 Jean Renoir's war classic was finally released on the home video market as the first film in the Criterion Collection. It had been a long road getting there. As explained by Renoir himself the film had been cut, edited, and censored numerous times by many different countries, and with the original thought to have been lost during WWII it seemed that Gran Illusion would fade into the abyss. However the German soldiers had actually saved the film in one of their film archives in Berlin. It was reclaimed when the American soldiers took the city back. The history of Grand Illusion is an interesting parallel to the theme's of the film itself, War and how it effects everything around.

As prisoner's of war, Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin ) experience first hand what war does. For an audience of the 21st century it may be a shock as all the prisoner's are treated exceptionally well as long as they follow the German laws. They even eat better then their captors as packages sent to the camps are delivered without a single item missing post inspection. Maréchal and Boeldieu are about to escape before they are sent to another camp controlled by Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim) who finds a kinship with Boeldieu.

In many ways there are almost three different movies going on. The war film that deals with what being a prisoner of war in WWI was like. An escape film with two major plots being shown to the audience, yet we are told that over there 18 month imprisonment both Maréchal and Boeldieu have tried to escape 11 times. And a character study of how different classes of people see war and where they fit in. For the most part this all works well to keep the film feeling fresh and moving, but by the last twenty minutes it slows down to a snails pace with a tacked on love story that could have been completely cut to keep the film going.

That being said as a historical piece or rumination on war, Grand Illusion still stand up in 2010 as a film with enough modern ideas and simple story telling that anyone who like a good war film should check it out.

4/5