Word: filming
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Even high caliber films from Saving Private Ryan to Platoon embody an overwhelming sense of the uncanny human ability to destroy. Thus, when the gods of film restoration rediscover a masterpiece like Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion, the film's social commentary and reflections on humanity appear dated and escape unnoticed if one is not careful...
Toted as the seminal World War I movie, Grand Illusion often garnishes critical accolades for its anti-war message as well as Renoir's masterful use of landscape shots. In 1938, a year after its release, the film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, the first foreign film ever to receive this honor. Joseph Goebbles, the Nazi propaganda chief, called the film "Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1." Sadly enough, after another world war, the Vietnam War and the melange of violence at home, Grand Illusion no longer has the sense of anti-war urgency that it possessed...
...incredibly well-preserved picture greets the viewer, and the opening scenes appear both surreal and promising. The film is set in 1916, before war-weariness had begun to be epidemic among troops and their homelands. The Germans shoot down a French reconnaissance plane that holds two of the movie's main characters, Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) and Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay). The film almost prompts laughter, for Erich von Stroheim's Captain von Rauffenstein invites the captured parties for a meal before sending them off to a prison camp...
...This obvious attempt to inject class is not only a shadow of Renoir's leftist leanings, but it also serves to set the grounding for the film's climax. The '90s viewer is accustomed to images of war camps populated with emaciated prisoners living in horrible conditions. Thus, Renoir's attempt to convey a POW camp is incredibly dated...
...transferred to a tighter security prison in the heart of Germany. The prison is a fabulous castle placed in the German countryside. The train-ride through the European backwoods creates nostalgia for the innocence and beauty Europe held before World War II. Claude Renoir, the cameraperson for this film, does an excellent job capturing a sense of movement and depth, especially given the crude technology he had at his disposal...