The Grand Illusion (1937)

*SPOILER FREE

One of the biggest privileges that cinema and history have left in store for the world of art and the world of people is Jean Renoir's French masterpiece La grande illusion. A film of people and about people, above all borders and differences.

The Grand Illusion is an anti-war drama set during WWI, following a group of French officers imprisoned by the Germans. An aristocrat, a Jewish French man, and a working-class parisian held captive by a German officer who's respectful, kind, and a very gracious host. Despite how nicely they are treated at the prison camp, the French prisoners spare no effort to escape.

Why can't we all just come together in peace and harmony in spite of our national differences, race, class, ethnicity, religion, political ideology, and language? Is what the 1937 film is trying to say. Released two years before WWII would repeat the same shortcoming of man for the "illusion" that there's a benefit for anyone. The Grand Illusion couldn't be more resonant today.

Having gone through a miraculous passage of restoration and its historical significance, The Grand Illusion marks #1 in the prestigious 1156+ Criterion Collection.

The writing, editing, camera work, composition and tracking, a masterful filmmaking that's so ahead of its time.

The Grand Illusion is not a film about prison escape, war or politics. It's a meditation on humanism, the humanism that transcends all barriers, ideologies, and nationalist divisions.

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Available to watch on The Criterion Collection and on Amazon Prime Video

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