The grand illusion
La grande illusion, feature film, 1937
DIRECTED BY: Jean Renoir
CAST:
Jean Gabin (Maréchal),
Pierre Fresnay (de Boeldieu),
Erich von Stroheim (von Rauffenstein),
Marcel Dalio (Rosenthal)
SCRIPT:
Charles Spaak,
Jean Renoir
PHOTOGRAPHY:
Christian Matras
Synopsis:
During WW I two French airmen are shot down and captured. They end up in a war prisoner’s camp where their class differences arise to surface. Lieutenant Maréchal is a mechanic from a working class while de Boeldieu is a rich aristocrat officer. During their imprisonment they meet Rosenthal, a wealthy Jewish banker and the camp commander Von Rauffenstein, a German and a member of the same social class as de Boeldieu.
b/w, 113'