A landmark in cinema that is difficult to interpret fully

Rating: 8/10 (4 February 2011)

Grand Illusion is one of those movies that so often makes the list for some of the greatest films ever made. And deservedly so. Jean Renoir's 1937 World War I classic is stirring, intellectual, intricate, and deep. It's a film that has sustained the test of time and is remembered as one of the greatest statements on the absurdities of war surrounding the human condition. It focuses on French soldiers who are imprisoned in German POW camps and their relentless attempts to escape. This isn't a film that delivers what you would expect from a POW movie. It is something quite different and unexpected. It is a much more human look at the subject and becomes a much more realistic interpretation of the relationships of soldiers fighting a politician's war.
If you only take Grand Illusion at face value, chances are you will get nothing out of it. What makes it so renowned is the vast amount of interpretations that can be drawn from the film. There is no clear cut way to decipher this film. It is a mash up of all different sorts of ideas and motives. Overall it is a statement on war, but there are so many elements that go into this statement that it makes it a chore to analyze and then subsequently articulate everything about this film. But that is sort of a reflection on the whole point the film pushes. You can't fully analyze the human condition. It is a constantly changing entity that can never be tangible. Grand Illusion captures these paradoxes and existential aspects of humans perfectly and then tells an engaging story that is both humorous and dramatic. It is entertaining as well as moving. It is an excellent embodiment of life as we know it.
And of course no interpretation of the human psyche would be complete without fantastic visual sophistication to blanket it. Jean Renoir directs this film with such compassion and meticulous determination. And yet the direction isn't even the most prevalent thing in the film. Instead of taking over the story and characters the direction lifts them and locks in perfectly with them. Renoir keeps his camera present but not overbearing. For a director with such vision and prowess this can be a hard thing to accomplish. It's easy to go overboard and really push an aesthetic point, but Renoir keeps it all at bay and makes sure that the characters, storyline, and direction all come together as one glorious entity.
There is a lot to Grand Illusion and that can put some people off. To understand this movie fully takes a lot more effort than the average film. You have to work to get the full enjoyment out of this film. On the surface it is still a good film, but there is a phenomenal amount of hidden beauty in its subtext. After one watch it was clear to me that I missed out on a lot of the subtle brilliance of Grand Illusion and thus I look forward to watching this film again. It is obviously a very subjective film, so I hope that through repeated viewings I can come up with my own personal interpretation of this film. But for now I will accept this film is the deep masterpiece that it is. I can tell it's a masterpiece, but I can't quite grasp what makes it such quite yet. However, it is still a tremendous film.