Some Movies are Just Classics

Rating: 10/10 (12 July 2009)

Some movies are just classics. La Grande Illusion, or Grand Illusion in English, is one of those.
It's a French movie about a group of French officers taken captive by Germans during WWI, and their plight to escape. Although, on a deeper level, it's about the proletariat taking over Europe from the upper class, the nobles and all the other various bourgeois. It's not a Marxist piece, but it's more about the dying of the bourgeois because they aren't needed anymore. It's a celebration of the common man, but somehow still placing the nobles above them. The projected theory is like a nobleman's view of communism, if that makes sense.
There are lots of flaws in it. For example, I watched the first ten minutes twice, and never did understand what was going on. After that, it's coherent, but the first bit is horrible. It's badly edited as well, although that's a result of it being created in 1937, and probably being lost several times. And the actors are a product of their acting generation, being trained in the theatrical style, very evidently not the same caliber as actors of today's generation.
But the story is nothing short of genius. It has been ripped off by many other movie classics, from The Great Escape to Casablanca. It's not a terribly serious movie, even though it's about prisoners of war. They're all captains, so they are treated like guests in a palace, and yet they still try to escape. That is the most striking message to me, about everyone's search for freedom. At first, it's unclear who are the main characters. But then it focuses on three men. All are high- ranking officials, but one is from a noble name, a long lineage of the bourgeois, somehow above the others. It is about the indomitable nature of man, his yearning for freedom, and his obligation to honor, and his love, and the beauty of it all.
Jean Renoir is the director, and he is a genius, despite the sloppy beginning. For any movie to be truly great, the director has to be great, because he or she is the one creating everything the audience sees. They craft the actors and the dialogue, interpret the story, even shape the audience's view of characters and their expectations. Renoir is great at that. His panning and focus on what is most important in the story is amazing. So often great directors are too focused on the vision, when in reality, the vision is secondary to storytelling. Vision is most important when the story is particularly challenging or deficient. Otherwise, it's a distraction. Renoir knows this and shows the story, like telling a fairy tale to a child, to spectacular effect.
For a much better analysis of this great movie and its interesting history, check out Roger Ebert's "Great Movies" essay on it. It can be found on his site.