Day 1: Grand Illusion (1937)

“Grand Illusion,” directed by Jean Renoir and starring Jean Gabin, Marcel Dalio, Pierre Fresnay, and Erich Von Stroheim, is a masterful tale, which well deserves to be the first film in the ”Criterion Collection” as well as the starter pistol in my race for a Criterion summer.

Hailed by Woody Allen as the finest picture ever made as well as the first foreign filmever to be nominated for “Best Picture,” this sweeping WWI epic follows two French pilots, the aristocrat Captain de Boeldieu (Fresnay) and the middle-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Gabin), as they are interned in a German POW camp after having their plane shot down. In the progressing months, Boeldieu and Maréchal lead a ragtag group of soldiers, all from different backgrounds and social classes, in several unsuccessful attempts to escape, which eventually lead the two men to be sent to Wintersborn, a inpenatrable mountain-fortress run by the very man who shot down their plane- Captain von Rauffenstein (Stroheim)- now reassigned to administrative work after being badly injured in the war.

Though one would think the pilots would have a sense of animosity towards their captor, the opposite is clear. All three gentlemen hold a certain admiration towards one another and Boeldieu and Rauffenstein have much in common- both raised in aristocracy and taught to enjoy its riches. They also understand that, no matter who wins the war, their past lifestyles and traditions are something a war torn society will not allow.  ”For a commoner, dying in a war is a tragedy,” Boeldieu states, ”but for you and me, it’s a good way out” Though a certain level of respect is found between the prisoners and their guards, Rauffenstein warns Boeldieu and Maréchal that escape attempts are not taken lightly at Wintersborn and any one caught running will be shot on sight. The two Frenchmen take the advice, but not to heart, and Maréchal soon begins concocting a plan of escape with fellow inmate and past POW camp aquantaince Lieutenant Rosenthal (Dalio)- a Jewish Frenchmen. As the plan goes forth and the gamble for freedom begins, two soldiers will reach home while death awaits the third.

“Grand Illusion” is simply a beautiful film with much to say about war, class, and the relationships of those involved in both. In fact, the title “Grand Illusion” is itself a reference to the book “The Great Illusion” by Norman Angell, which argued that war was obsolete, unscientific, and, in the simplest of terms, absurd. On its release in 1913, the book was a smash sensation and was often used as evidence that a long European war could not occur. Boy, were they wrong. Knowing his audience, Renoir used the title as an catalyst for discussion as well as a flag to show the film’s antiwar colors.

But it was those very ideals that would soon put Renoir in great danger and cause the film’s original film negative to go on a war adventure all its own. After the film won a prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1937, Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels declared Renoir ”Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1″ and ordered all German prints of “Grand Illusion” to be confiscated and destroyed. Even the French, fearing a negative influence on their country’s fighting morale, banned the film in 1940 for however long their new war with German would last.

When the Germans invaded France that very same year, the Nazi’s seized all prints of the film and in 1942, the film was thought to have been completely destroyed in an Allied air raid. Luckily for the world, one Nazi film lover, stationed in Paris, had smuggled copies back to Berlin for his own personal archive and, when it was eventually raided by the Russians in 1945, the copies ended up in an archive Moscow. Years later, in the 1960′s, the same Russian archive exchanged materials with an archive in  Toulouse and their copies of “GrandIllusion” were among the items transferred. It took another 30 years for archivist to realize that among the copies from Toulouse was the original print of the film, giving a whole new generation and a completely changed world its most beautiful and clean view of Renoir’s masterpiece.

“Grand Illusion” is certainly a film to be cherished and, long after the Nazis have met their demise, Renoir’s message of peace and understanding still remains alive and true.

For more on “Grand Illusion,” check out the Criterion’s page here.

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