La grande illusion
By: Julian Jackson
Contributors: British Film Institute
Series: BFI film classics
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan in association with the British Film Institute
Published: 2009
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
ISBN-13: 9781844572854
Description: "Jean Renoir's cinematic masterpiece La Grande Illusion (1937) tells the story of two French prisoners-of-war escaping through Germany towards France during the First World War. Its themes of loyalties divided by class, racial and national identities and the conflict between patriotism and pacifism made it particularly compelling and controversial on its release in the last days of the French Popular Front. Julian Jackson's study of the film places it in the historical context of France in the late 1930s, and also addresses the film's unforgettable character studies and its unusual structure, with the narrative divided into a series of self-contained set pieces"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : Paris 1937; title: Renoir before La Grande illusion; title: An escape story; title: The making of the film : auteur as "ringmaster"; title: Variations on realism : "interior truth" and "exterior truth"; title: Boundaries and crossing boundaries; title: Politics : La Grande illusion between the Popular Front and Vichy; title: Afterlives : escape and survival; title: What illusion(s)?