1937 Poster - Directed by Jean Renoir
This film, regarded so highly by both contemporary and modern critics, was somewhat of a disappointment to me, who had been expecting so much. Apparently, it is seen as one of the masterpieces of French cinema and among the greatest films ever made. Orson Welles, no mean producer and director himself, said (in 1970) that if he could only save a handful of films that were not his own for future posterity, it would be one of those films; in fact, it would be one of two movies he would take with him "on the Ark".
2006 DVD - Studio Canal
The storyline is quite straightforward. Two French airmen, the aristocratic Captain Boëldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the working-class Lieut. Maréchal (Jean Gabin), are shot down by the German aviator and aristocrat, Rittmeister von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). Taken to a PoW camp, they are involved in digging an escape tunnel. Apparently, due to several failed escapes (never specified) they are moved from one camp to another, finally arriving at Wintersborn, a mountain fortress commanded by Rauffenstein, who, so badly injured in battle, is now the C.O. He tells the pair that the castle is 'escape proof'. The captives are reunited with a fellow prisoner, Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), a wealthy French Jew. (he talks of his ancestor, Jesus!) Boëldieu, distracts the guards, allowing Maréchal and Rosenthal to escape down an outside wall by a rope. Rauffenstein has to shoot Boëldieu (aiming for his legs, he shoots him in the stomach), who expires. Maréchal and Rosenthal take refuge in a German woman's farmhouse. Elsa (Dita Parlo) has lost her husband at Verdun and three brothers on the Eastern Front, but she does not betray them. She and Maréchal fall in love; they subsequently successfully gain the Swiss frontier, with Maréchal promising to return to her after the war is over. Fini!
It is clearly an anti-war film. The Germans are portrayed sympathetically and there is little ill-treatment of the French. Although shown in 1937, there is no reference to Nazism and the wealthy French Jew is the subject of some playful, but nevertheless anti-Semitic, comments. However, he is also shown as a symbol of humanity across class lines, sharing his food parcels, from his wealthy parents, with everyone. The one black soldier, however, is ignored by the others and not accepted as an equal. The film is essentially a story of human relationships and Class.
Boëldieu and Rauffenstein
Boëldieu and Rauffenstein represent an aristocratic class - cosmopolitan men, who can speak several languages (ironically, Erich von Stroheim could hardly speak any German!), dine at Maxim's in Paris, and use English to hide certain more intimate comments from their lower-class compatriots. But what they represent, according to Renoir, is in decline. Seeing military service as a duty, both men are laudable but tragic figures. The dying Boëldieu is comforted by the idea that for a commoner, dying in war is a tragedy. But for you and me, it's a good way out.
There are lighter moments, such as the vaudeville concert put on by the French PoWs. The Germans have taken Fort Douaumont in the epic Battle of Verdun. Then, during the performance, news arrives that the French have recaptured the fort. The PoWs break into a spontaneous rendition of La Marseillaise! (Shades of the later Casablanca?). The discussion on illnesses was amusing: Syphilis used to be our privilege, but we've lost it. Like so many others. Everything is mainstream. Cancer and gout aren't working-class diseases, but they will be, believe me... What about the middle classes? Liver and intestinal ailments. They eat too much. We would all die of our social group diseases, if war didn't make all germs equal.
Tim Newark in his book Fifty Great War Films, tasks the film with being a little naïve, and that's probably one of my problems with it. There is no feeling of the brutality of War, unlike All Quiet on the Western Front. Both emphasise the near futility of such conflict; but Renoir's take is bordering on the anaemic. The New York Times contemporary critic said the film owed much to the cast. I mildly disagree; I thought many of the performances were wooden.
Let's leave it with another's opinion: If Grand Illusion had merely been a source of later inspiration, it wouldn't be on so many lists of great films. It's not a movie about prison escape, nor is it jingoistic in its politics; it's a meditation on the collapse of the old order of European civilization... Fair enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment