La Grande Illusion

La Grande Illusion (The Grand Illusion) is a striking anti-war film directed by Jean Renoir and released in. Although the film seems to tell the story of French soldiers captured by the Germans during World War I and their escape, the anti-war sentiment is presented to the audience in a very impressive way, with the story told through the friendship of the French captain and the German officer.

There is a class conflict between Captain Boeldieu and Lieutenant Marechal. While the captain comes from an aristocratic, bourgeois family, the lieutenant is a technician from the working class. Even though they come from the same country and the same nation, they are very different. The other aristocrat in the film is German Captain von Rauffenstein. A friendship develops between French Captain Boeldieu and German Captain von Rauffenstein because they come from the same class. They get along very well with each other. With the friendship of German and French officers, Renoir shows that class interests can take precedence over national interests.

La Grande Illusion does not show the absence of classes, but that class differences always exist and cannot be overcome even under conditions of freedom. In the film, soldiers from different classes are forced to live together in a German and French prison camp. In this process, class differences diminish over time and a friendship develops among the soldiers. However, when the soldiers manage to escape from the camp, class differences reemerge. In one scene, Marechal, a manual worker, and Rosenthal, the child of a wealthy family, meet on the road. Marechal insults Rosenthal for being Jewish. Mutual insults fly in the air. This scene shows the characters returning to their character and class in civilian life. These scenes seem to prove that captivity can strengthen the bonds of brotherhood, but even in freedom, the class distinction in people's temperaments can remain with the same rigidity.

There is another dimension to the film about racism and discrimination. While the exclusion of a black officer demonstrates the perspective of black people at that time, the friendly attitude of Rosenthal, a Jewish soldier, is a stand against antisemitism.

This movie is a masterpiece in the poetic realism movement in cinema. I strongly recommend it. Enjoy watching.