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July 9, 2012

6

Photo Play: Grand Illusion (1937)

by HELEN GEIB

This month on Photo Play: four wars, four POW escapes

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Last Week: Escape from Fort Bravo (1953)
Coming Next: tba Monday

Read more from Helen Geib, Photo Play
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6 Comments Post a comment
  1. Dave Enkosky
    Jul 9 2012

    Thanks for the post. I haven’t seen this movie in at least a decade. I gotta rewatch it.

  2. Nir Shalev
    Jul 10 2012

    This is a film that I fell in love with immediately. Jean Renoir is the best French filmmaker, ever and Grand Illusion is one of the big reasons as to why.

  3. Miriam
    Jul 10 2012

    When the most precious remnants of human civilization are gathered for the space ark, this movie will be included.

  4. Nir Shalev
    Jul 10 2012

    @Miriam, yup. I love the size of the castle that the P.O.W.s are taken to and the terrific hospitality that they’re treated with. There’s so much irony in that film and it’s all handled so brilliantly…

  5. Helen
    Jul 11 2012

    It’s such a wonderful movie. The captures are from the Criterion DVD; fitting that it was the first film released under the label. The irony in the negative surviving the war only because it was first looted by the Germans and then by the Russians (to be next thought lost while sitting unlabeled in the French film archives for decades) is just too rich.

  6. Nir Shalev
    Jul 11 2012

    lol

    I also have the Criterion version and will probably get the Blu-ray version one day. I double dipped with “Rules of the Game” (1939), “Le Cercle Rouge” (1970), “Army of Shadows” (1969), “Solaris” (1972), “Paths of Glory” (1957), and “Red Desert” (1964).

    I love the Criterion Collection…