La Grande illusion (Grand Illusion) (1938)
La Grande illusion (Grand Illusion) Photos
Movie Info
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Cast
as Lieutenant Maréchal
as Capt. de Boeldieu
as Von Rauffenstein
as Rosenthal
as Elsa Farm Woman
as The Actor
as An English Officer
as The engineer
as A French Soldier
as The Teacher
as Demolder
News & Interviews for La Grande illusion (Grand Illusion)
Critic Reviews for La Grande illusion (Grand Illusion)
All Critics (64) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (62) | Rotten (2) | DVD (3)
This elegy for the death of the old European aristocracy is one of the true masterpieces of the screen.
It's among the most understated anti-war films ever made, effortlessly humanistic but far too subtle to indulge in preaching.
A model of simplicity and grace, with emotional effects that move you when you least expect it, the kind of great film that only a master can pull off.
Funny, heart-wrenching, nail-biting, caustic and profound, touting the futility of armed combat while turning imprisonment and escape into a microcosm for society's aspirations and contradictions.
It's still one of the key humanist expressions to be found in movies: sad, funny, exalting, and glorious.
It's an excellent film, with Renoir's usual looping line and deft shifts of tone, though today the balance of critical opinion has shifted in favor of the greater darkness and filigree of The Rules of the Game.
Audience Reviews for La Grande illusion (Grand Illusion)
An apparently simple yet notably complex film that uses a subtle approach to explore a gamut of humanistic themes, and Renoir avoids any sort of sentimentality, which can also be seen in the elegant way that his camera seems to float, unaffected, among the characters.
Super Reviewer
This movie expertly depicts class warfare--no, it's not a new thing, it's been around forever competing with nationalism. As a college student in Germany, I had to watch this movie about 5 times and dissect it from all angles: historical, sociological, as well as literature and I never got sick of it. This movie really depicts the utter senselessness of war--how lost soldiers will take up with enemy women for succor and warmth and vice versa and how the officers (the aristocrats of the day, the 1%)inhabit a much different world than the hoi polloi. I am looking forward to seeing the remastered film as when I saw it, it was physically pretty damaged.
Super Reviewer
Experiência cinematografica cinco estrelas. Um filme que quase desapareceu da história do cinema mundial.
Super Reviewer
La Grande illusion (Grand Illusion) Quotes
| Rosenthal: | Not looking back? |
| Lieutenant Maréchal: | If I do, I'll never leave |
| The Actor: | "Make my day" |
| The Actor: | Make my day. |
| Rosenthal: | Lieutenant Rosenthal: Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot. |
| Rosenthal: | Frontiers are an invention of men. Nature doesn't give a hoot. |