Cheap Grand Illusion - Criterion Collection (DVD) (Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo) (Jean Renoir) Price

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Customer Reviews of Grand Illusion - Criterion Collection

The transfer is from an original camera negative thought to be lost for decades and it can't be rivalled for image clarity or sound quality (given that this is a 62-year old film). The DVD version of "Grand Illusion" looks as close as we can hope to its original state.

The film itself is a poignant examination of the conflict between class and national identity during World War I. Three French officers - an aristocrat (Pierre Fresnay), a rich Jewish banker (Marcel Dalio), and a working-class capitian (Jean Gabin) - are captured and imprisoned by a refined, arrogant German officer (von Stroheim). The French and German aristocrats share a deeper cultural and affetionate bond than they do with the men of their respective countries. When the French captives plan an escape, the aristocratic officer risks himself for a nationalism he doesn't believe in. The scenes between Fresnay and von Stroheim, arguably some of the tenderest scenes in the movie, display a ritual of noblesse oblige that seems absurd today (the people in the cinema where I saw it laughed at these men's tender missives to each other). And, indeed, these aristocratic manners are patently absurd in the theater of modern warfare. Pauline Kael has said that this film is "an elegy for a dying class" and that's partially true - it's also an examination of how tenuous the bonds of nationalism can be both within countries (as relations between the working-class Gabin and Dalio later prove) and between them (when a German guard hands Gabin a harmonica). And yet, the acting and writing are grounded so much character and detail that you can be very moved by this film without noticing these underlying theme (the audience that laughed at the aforementioned scenes, gave the film a standing ovation at the end).

"Grand Illusion" has been enormously influental - you can see traces of it in "Casablanca" (with Dalio, interestingly enough) and "Paths of Glory", for example. Renoir's direction is wonderfully fluid - even his minor characters have unique features. Along with "Passion" and "The Third Man", the Criterion version of "Grand Illusion" is one of the finest DVD releases of the year. Let's hope that they now do the same for "The Rules of the Game"

"Neither you nor I can stop the march of time"
To say Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion is simply a war film is to ignore its deeper layers of significance. The film's prison escape elements are suspenseful and exciting but its meditation on the decline of the old European order is its main theme. World War I not only ushered in the era of modern warfare but destroyed the illusion that gentlemen were still gentlemen in times of war. The film begins with French aristocrat Capt. de Boieldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and French commoner Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin) being captured by the Germans. Both men are taken to a prison camp where camp commandant, Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim) immediately identifies a blue-blooded kindred spirit in de Boieldieu. The captured Frenchmen bide their time and wait for an opportunity for escape while de Boieldieu lulls Von Rauffenstein into a state of comfort by giving him "gentlemanly assurances" that such an action would be dishonorable. Nevertheless, an opportunity for escape presents itself one night and Von Rauffenstein is forced to confront the fact that aristocratic class loyalty carries little weight in a world now belonging to the commoners. von Stroheim's performance of a man blinded by romantic notions of propriety is touching and tragic at the same time. The image he produced of a broken-bodied Von Rauffenstein in his neckbrace has attained iconic status in the annals of film history. The second half of the film follows a pair of escapees in their cross-country trek through German territory. The two men are hidden from German patrols by a farm widow who - like Von Rauffenstein earlier - sees a kindred spirit in the common Frenchmen. As both men find sanctuary and protection in the widow's household, Renoir puts a symbolic exclamation point on his message that it is now the commoners who have truly triumphed in the new world.

So....you like war movies?
grand illusion is so well known that is almost not worthy to comment on it other than it is the best war/antiwar film of all time bar none, and is also very funny. it has been copied by the great escape, stalag 17, paths of glory, just to name a few. so if you haven' t seen this; it is essential. if you have, you know exactly what i am talking about.

"quite frankly, i find the theatre is much to deep for me....i prefer bicycling"