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Grand Illusion - Criterion CollectionRating:
Release Date: 23 November, 1999 Retail Price: $39.95 OUR Price: $35.99 You SAVE: $3.96! Cast: Complete Cast (8 total) |
Grand Illusion - Criterion Collection Reviews
jean renoir's masterwork takes on humanity at all sorts of levels
if "rules of the game" easily wins its spot in the list of the greatest movies ever, then "grand illusion" ***might*** be THE greatest movie ever. on one level, the granddaddy of all POW movies ("stalag 17", "the great escape", "bridge on the river kwai", &c. all shamelessly borrow). but there are so many other levels being explored: class distinctions; shadings of language (would that i spoke french, but even without it i "got" it); homoeroticism; more. all brilliantly executed, with as perfect a cast as could ever be put together, notably featuring erich von stroheim in his ultimate performance as the german camp commandant dying in a slow, agonizing way. the best ever? maybe or maybe not (i doubt anything will ever dislodge "lawrence of arabia" on my personal list) , but i will not argue too strongly with someone who feels that it IS.
GET IT. Now. War is hell. We are all one family. Love your neighbor.
As a viewer who knew this film only from squinting dimly at late night snowy television broadcasts of censored versions (the only available copy was patched together from what had survived the censors of various nations) and reduced to fit the time slot, as a viewer who once heard the great Orson Welles tell Johnny this is the greatest film of all time, as a viewer once deeply moved by what I had heard and seen, I found this Criterion edition a revelation and relief. Incredibly, instead of cranking up the contrast on my old black and white television all the way in order to watch a silouhette show, I can now perceive the film as intended, completely with every nuance of shadows reflected in rain puddles, with the full pallette of greys and shades, with every blink and squint of Gabin's tired expressive eyes, fabled to have brought viewer to tears with a meaningful weary glance, and now knowing how, and why. This film by the son of the great Impressionist painter REnoir, is beautifully composed and written, and is the father of all later war movies, including the great escape by the plagiarist Sturges who also stole from Seven samauri. In fact in the sequences of Marichal and Rosenthal between imprisonment and arriving at the farmhouse we can see where Samuel Beckett got his ideas for Waiting for Godot: tramps sleeping in ditches with sore feet, alternately embracing and fighting, parting and reuniting, singing and discussing, under a bare tree and stone.
My only complaint with this as with many another Criterion edition is the dreary commentary which drones on and on entirely missing the point, calling a corpse a guard and not a prisoner, calling a French officer stand offish when clearly he is suppressing his fear at preparing himself for his sacrificial death in escape. THis is the most unpardonable, the commentators missing the great courage of this officer as he dresses himself for his inevitable death, missing the fact that he is biding time to give the two truly escaping five minutes to get out, while he alone flees up a castle wall keeping carefully in sight. HEY COMMENTATOR- don't you see why he is checking his watch every few minutes!!?? This commentator entirely misses the most important and subtle points while droning on in an english accent and how offensive it is to see english transvestites. Oh, well, do not turn on the commentator and enjoy over and over again this film, which powerfully builds with a subtlety and power which our modern disposable blockbusters will never have.
THe scenes in which Gabin is held in solitary confinement cared for by a compassionate prison guard are so much more powerful than Steve MacQueen throwing a baseball against the wall in Great Escape, and must make us think of the effects of our own "informal" prisoners of war and Supermax prisoners in solitary.
GET THIS FILM TODAY! Watch and learn for a lifetime.
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