A Surprising and Significant Film

Rating: 8/10 (8 September 2007)

As with so many films, I have to divorce to my social conscience from my aesthetic sentiments before I can comment. On aesthetic grounds, "Grand Illusion" is well deserving of all the praise it has received, and I have nothing to add. It is the film's significance as a cultural artifact that is worth mention --
If feel that "Grand Illusion" betrays a nostalgia, on Renoir's part, for a return to the 19th century. It is surprising that he was able to make the film as late as 1937, and I am quite sure he would not have been able to make it after the Second World War. He seems to desire a return to the days when it was still possible for Europeans to regard imperialism as something more or less benign--of course, Fascism and the Nazis shattered this illusion, or ought to have at any rate. For example, can one imagine the flippant remark, "Dirty Jew," used in such a way in a film made since 1945?
Since Renoir is also well regarded for his post-war films, I suspect he must have successfully fortified himself in an ivory tower by the time he made them--it seems unlikely he would have been able to have faced the present he found himself in honestly and remained functional as an artist otherwise.