The Great DElusion

Rating: 6/10 (5 March 2014)

That seems to me, the appropriate translation for the french title. MOst reviewers appear to think, that the depicted life in a German prison camp for officers shows the real thing. Of course not! Therefore, the film seems to me more of a fairy tale -depicting, on purpose, the romanticized view of the general public in the 1930 's of such a place. An ironic fairy tale, that is. Hence the title: La Grande Illusion.
The horrors of the First World War seem too heavy to be treated as a feel good comedy, with only a title as a reference to something else. Maybe this review is influenced by the viewing of WEstfront 1918 by WG Pabst, one week earlier. That film depicts the real war, in the trenches.