Director: Jean Renoir
Distributor: World Pictures Corporation
Top Billed Actors: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 1 more:
Outstanding Production - Realization D'Art Cinematographique
Plot: French officer prisoners of war repeatedly try to escape all the while acting chummy with their German captors and then ask the age-old question - "War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing."
Distributor: World Pictures Corporation
Top Billed Actors: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay
Won 0 Oscars
Nominated for 1 more:
Outstanding Production - Realization D'Art Cinematographique
Plot: French officer prisoners of war repeatedly try to escape all the while acting chummy with their German captors and then ask the age-old question - "War. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing."
Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion (1937) is the first foreign-language film to appear in the Project. I'm unsure if that's a result of the Academy showing favoritism to American films or if the eligibility rule of showing in Los Angeles County excluded other great films from overseas, but if others are as profound and artistic as this, the Academy was sure missing out. Interestingly, this was nominated only for the top award and no other categories. In a world of eleven Best Scoring nominees, it's perplexing how this wasn't at least nominated for its music. But by the end of this review, you will be able to surmise that it should have been nominated for, well, pretty much every award. The background of the literal film of Grand Illusion deserves a movie in and of itself. The film was banned by both the French and Germans as World War II started to ramp up. The Germans thought it too anti-German (Joseph Goebbels called this Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1") and the French thought it too anti-war. Then, in air raid in 1942, it was assumed that the negative of the film was destroyed. However, a German film archivist smuggled it back to Berlin in 1945, where the Russians took control and brought it to Moscow. Other low-quality prints made the rounds in the ensuing years but the actual negative was finally discovered decades later, and we are now able to enjoy it in high definition today. In fact, it has the distinction as Spine No. 1 in the esteemed Criterion Collection. Speaking of esteem, this is on the list of Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" and is also Woody Allen's pick for finest film ever made. And when asked what two films Orson Welles would take on the ark, he responded with "Grand Illusion and something else."
Let's delve into a few aspects that make this one of Welles' ark-films. Firstly, the performances and characters are all pitch perfect. In a film that explores class, nationality, and economic stature during wartime, each actor is heard loud and clear on where they stand and how they compose themselves. Jean Gabin as Maréchal represents the everyday man who is affable and motivated. Pierre Fresnay as Boieldau is stoic and proper as he carries himself with great esteem as an aristocrat. Also as an upperclassman but on the German side, Erich von Stroheim uses his demeanor to create an aura of respect that travels with him. To cover a middle ground, Marcel Dalio plays Rosenthal, a Jew from "new money" who shares his bounty with his fellow officers but is still looked down upon from men such as von Stroheim's Rauffenstein despite his wealth. Because all of these actors are such a joy to watch, it's easy to get lost in the narrative of the prison escape attempts. It's something that's been done countless times in cinema history, but the way Grand Illusion uses it as a backdrop to present its themes on class and war makes the drama that much more rewarding. In one instant, you can be meditating on what a postwar world looks like for the social structures of Europe and in the next, you can be riveted by a prison escape or laughing at a musical number. This film is so well rounded that it entertains just as much as it tactfully posits its anti-war message.
I've only done this a few times in the Project, but I am taking up this penultimate paragraph to continue my praises rather than drum up some negative criticism. I alluded to the music before and how I thought that it should have been nominated for an Oscar. But how about the art direction with its fully realized POW camp and a majestic fortress of a castle? And what about the editing with its lack of cuts due to the ability to swivel the camera a lot more than other films of this era and its uncanny ability to make this feel like an epic in under two hours? And the cinematography with the aforementioned swiveling and slow panning and that wonderful shot of the stunned soldiers looking at their comrade in drag? And the writing with such lines as "Out there, children play soldier... In here, soldiers play like children" and the ironic comment that the widowed Elsa makes about her husbands and brother dying in Germany "greatest victories." I honestly think this should have had ten nominations as each and every aspect works in tandem to create one of the greatest films ever made.
Overall, the first foreign-language Best Picture nominee is a bona fide masterpiece. The themes on class and war are subtle but not difficult to decipher, the performances and characters are memorable and fit the story well, the editing enables an epic feel, and the drama is always present either at a high level within the overall war or within the confines of the POW camps.
My Score: 9/10
Let's delve into a few aspects that make this one of Welles' ark-films. Firstly, the performances and characters are all pitch perfect. In a film that explores class, nationality, and economic stature during wartime, each actor is heard loud and clear on where they stand and how they compose themselves. Jean Gabin as Maréchal represents the everyday man who is affable and motivated. Pierre Fresnay as Boieldau is stoic and proper as he carries himself with great esteem as an aristocrat. Also as an upperclassman but on the German side, Erich von Stroheim uses his demeanor to create an aura of respect that travels with him. To cover a middle ground, Marcel Dalio plays Rosenthal, a Jew from "new money" who shares his bounty with his fellow officers but is still looked down upon from men such as von Stroheim's Rauffenstein despite his wealth. Because all of these actors are such a joy to watch, it's easy to get lost in the narrative of the prison escape attempts. It's something that's been done countless times in cinema history, but the way Grand Illusion uses it as a backdrop to present its themes on class and war makes the drama that much more rewarding. In one instant, you can be meditating on what a postwar world looks like for the social structures of Europe and in the next, you can be riveted by a prison escape or laughing at a musical number. This film is so well rounded that it entertains just as much as it tactfully posits its anti-war message.
I've only done this a few times in the Project, but I am taking up this penultimate paragraph to continue my praises rather than drum up some negative criticism. I alluded to the music before and how I thought that it should have been nominated for an Oscar. But how about the art direction with its fully realized POW camp and a majestic fortress of a castle? And what about the editing with its lack of cuts due to the ability to swivel the camera a lot more than other films of this era and its uncanny ability to make this feel like an epic in under two hours? And the cinematography with the aforementioned swiveling and slow panning and that wonderful shot of the stunned soldiers looking at their comrade in drag? And the writing with such lines as "Out there, children play soldier... In here, soldiers play like children" and the ironic comment that the widowed Elsa makes about her husbands and brother dying in Germany "greatest victories." I honestly think this should have had ten nominations as each and every aspect works in tandem to create one of the greatest films ever made.
Overall, the first foreign-language Best Picture nominee is a bona fide masterpiece. The themes on class and war are subtle but not difficult to decipher, the performances and characters are memorable and fit the story well, the editing enables an epic feel, and the drama is always present either at a high level within the overall war or within the confines of the POW camps.
My Score: 9/10