"Illusion," like "The Breakfast Club," about Class

Rating: 10/10 (15 December 2008)

The first thing you need to know is that this WWI POW film has much in common with The Breakfast Club. But we'll get to that later. Despite it's masterpiece designation,Grand Illusion is as watchable as many modern dramas. You don't have to have a PhD in Film Studies to appreciate the movie.
The film tells the story of Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) and Captain de Boldieu, two French officers fighting the first world war. Marechal is a pilot and blue collar guy while de Boldieu is an aristocrat. They are shot down by Captain von Rauffenstein, a German aristocrat, while flying a reconnaissance mission. Von Rauffenstein, even in the midst of warfare, gives the officers a distinguished welcome and toasts their arrival, sharing wine with them at his table. Bullets might not care about your station in life, but von Rauffenstein is determined to preserve social order in spite of the chaos.
These opening moments tell us what will be at stake throughout the film. War and captivity to some degree strips combatants of their social standing. But von Rauffenstein will seek to preserve them. He will lay out rules for the men to follow as if they are playing a game. He knows the men will try to escape captivity--it is their role as officers--but he expects de Boldieu to behave in a manner befitting his bloodline. The old order will be preserved. In a conversation late in the film between de Boldieu and von Rauffenstein, they share a recognition that the old order is dying. The German captain is knowingly fighting a losing battle.
In fact, throughout much of the film, the soldiers all treat each other will surprising kindness. The German soldiers are workmanlike and never particularly cruel to their captives. The captives are surrounded by barbed wire and the guards all carry guns, but the mood among the men is generally upbeat. They put on stage productions and the American officers all carry tennis rackets.
If I had not first listened to the spirited introduction by director Jean Renoir included on the DVD, I would have been tempted to view these niceties as ironic, an absurd vision constructed to examine class conflict. But Renoir fought in the war himself and declares that World War I was a conflict fought between gentlemen before Hitler destroyed the "spirit of humanity." As a conflicted pacifist, I don't know whether to be disturbed by this vision of a more tidy war or to realize that Renoir is showing that social niceties could and were preserved in the more subdued prison camps.
And here is where we arrive at The Breakfast Club similarities. You have to think John Hughes watched Grand Illusion a few dozen times while penning his tale of teen angst and clique disintegration. (Incidentally, I always thought the ending of The Breakfast Club was far too rosy. I would have preferred if the movie featured a crushing epilogue in which Bryan (Anthony Michael Hall) shows up at school only to be punched by Emilio Estevez with Molly Ringwald on his arm while Judd Nelson ignores him and Ally Sheedy in the distance crumbles dead leaves with intensity. And is anyone else po'd that Sheedy's conformity is treated as triumphant. But back to Renoir...) Just as five teens discover common bonds while confined to Saturday detention, the prison camp forces the working class, the aristocrat, and people of different races and ethnicity into cooperation with one another. Renoir's vision isn't as pleasantly trite as that of Hughes, but they do share a similar theme.
Renoir seems to conclude that this cross class cooperation is an illusion and unsustainable. Not long after Marechal and the moneyed, Jewish captive Rosenthal leave the camp, they begin shouting at one another and name calling. When Marechal must cut short a war time romance with a German woman and vows to return to her, Rosenthal tells him that the idea is ridiculous and unrealistic. Captivity and conflict have ironically has brought out the better natures in some men. But the disappearance of inter-class struggle and resentment is chimerical.
The director regularly employs long takes and deep focus--objects in the foreground appear as clearly as those in background--in the film. We are given a great deal to observe at any given moment. Because of this, the film rewards multiple viewings. We can observe several actors reacting at once which often forces us to choose where to place our focus. From a technical standpoint, the use of long takes combined with a moving camera are a marvel as they require precision from the actors who must deliver lines without error and always be acting and for the production crew who must remain invisible. Where a director like DePalma will use the long take and appearance of a long take to wow you with his technical mastery, Renoir uses his in service to story. Renoir becomes unobtrusive and the actors, story, and setting solidify in our minds.
Grand Illusion is justifiably labeled a classic, but is also very accessible.