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La Grande Illusion [Blu-ray]

Jean Gabin (Actor), Dita Parlo (Actor), Jean Renoir (Director) Rated:
NR
Format: Blu-ray
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 604 ratings
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Genre Drama
Format Subtitled, DTS Surround Sound, Blu-ray, Full Screen, Black & White
Contributor Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Jean Renoir, Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo
Language French
Runtime 1 hour and 53 minutes
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Product Description

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.

Product details

  • Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
  • MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
  • Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.4 ounces
  • Item model number ‏ : ‎ Relay time: 113min
  • Director ‏ : ‎ Jean Renoir
  • Media Format ‏ : ‎ Subtitled, DTS Surround Sound, Blu-ray, Full Screen, Black & White
  • Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 53 minutes
  • Release date ‏ : ‎ July 31, 2012
  • Actors ‏ : ‎ Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim
  • Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, German, French
  • Studio ‏ : ‎ Lionsgate
  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00827OWSO
  • Country of Origin ‏ : ‎ USA
  • Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 604 ratings

Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
4.7 out of 5
604 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Gregory J. Casteel
5.0 out of 5 stars The brilliance is in the subtext
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2012
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I'm a geek. I'm actually the sort of pathetic egghead who goes online and watches free webcasts of university lectures for entertainment. So, a few years ago I was watching the webcast of a UC Berkeley course on social psychology; and, as one of the assignments in this course, the professor had his students watch the classic 1937 French film "La grande illusion" ("Grand Illusion"), and write a paper about how the characters in the movie see themselves, and relate to each other, largely in terms of the various socially-defined roles they occupy. According to the professor, this film does an excellent job of illustrating how personal identity, interpersonal relations, and group solidarity are often the product of what are essentially arbitrary lines of distinction that have been drawn for us by the society we live in -- distinctions based on social constructs such as nationality, language, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, class, wealth, education, occupation, rank, etc. -- which we often just take for granted without ever questioning their legitimacy or whether they even make sense. The professor's comments about the movie intrigued me; so I decided I'd have to watch it sooner or later. Unfortunately, it ended up being later rather than sooner; but I eventually managed to watch it.

And I liked it. It was a good movie. Its exploration of how identity and relationships are often socially constructed was much subtler than I had imagined it would be based on the professor's comments; but it's definitely there if you look for it. The film also presents a subtle, yet masterful, commentary about the absurdity of nationalism, anti-Semitism, and war. It's no wonder that Hitler had this movie banned.

The film was made just two years before the outbreak of the Second World War, at a time when the clouds of impending war were already looming over Europe. There can be little doubt that director Jean Renoir (son of celebrated Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir) intended this movie to convey an anti-war message; but he didn't feel the need to bash the audience over the head with that message. This film is not at all "preachy" in its pacifism, unlike that other great anti-war movie of the 1930s, "All Quiet on the Western Front", which openly laments the horrors of war and the folly of jingoism. Renoir is far more subtle in his approach to the subject. Both films are set during the First World War, and deal with the experiences of the ordinary men who were called upon to fight that war. But "La grande illusion" takes us away from the front lines and the hellish nightmares of trench warfare that are the focus of "All Quiet on the Western Front", and takes us instead to the surreal tranquility of prisoner of war camps deep inside Germany, where captured French, Russian, British, and American officers are being held. To these prisoners, taken out of the fight, the war is little more than a distant rumor, and yet they live the war every day. They have much closer contact with the enemy than do any of their comrades back in the trenches; but this contact lacks the intense hostility of front-line combat. Prisoners and guards in the POW camps are in a position to see each other as fellow human beings, not merely as faceless enemies occupying opposite sides of a smoke-covered battlefield. So, by looking at the war from the perspective of the POW camps instead of the trenches, we can clearly see the absurdity of decent people -- people who could have been friends under different circumstances -- fighting each other to the death based solely on which side of an imaginary line they happened to have been born. Renoir doesn't need to go out of his way to point this out to us. It's obvious. So he lets us draw our own conclusions and leaves the sermonizing for others.

Likewise, Renoir doesn't feel the need to lecture us about the way that people's identities, relationships, and loyalties are shaped by arbitrary, socially-constructed distinctions. All he has to do is show us how people interact, and we can see it for ourselves. It is often quite subtle; but it's there. The old adage in filmmaking is: "Show, don't tell." So, if the mark of a great filmmaker is the ability to get an idea across to the audience without just blurting it out, then Jean Renoir is a great filmmaker. On the surface, this is simply an entertaining movie about an escape attempt by French POWs during the Great War. But look beneath the surface to the subtext and you'll find something far more profound. No wonder "La grande illusion" is considered a cinematic masterpiece.

As for the DVD, this particular edition contains just the film, with no special features. If you're looking for a version that has lots of bonus material, you'll have to get a different edition. (I believe that multiple editions are available on Amazon; so look around.) All I really cared about was the film itself; so I chose the least expensive DVD I could find. In case you're wondering, the film is in black & white, and has a running time of just a little under two hours. Most of the dialogue is in French and German, with just a few lines of English and Russian thrown in here and there. This DVD has English subtitles that are on by default; though you are given the option of turning them off.
16 people found this helpful
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Richard Laban
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic film about WW I POWS
Reviewed in the United States on March 14, 2024
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Classic film about French POWS in a German POW camp during WW I. Must see. In French with English subtitles. Clear picture for DVD.
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Glenn F. Read, Jr.
5.0 out of 5 stars The illusory nature of war and violence as a solution to conflict resolution.
Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2016
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La Grande Illusion is an essay, written and drawn on celluloid film by the great French film director Jean Renoir, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. To fully understand and appreciate this seminal work by the second son of that icon of French Impressionist art, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, one needs more than a nodding familiarity with the times in which the film was made, and the time in which the story was set, i.e. 1937 and 1916. Both were periods of great economic, cultural, social and political upheaval in Europe. The latter representing the midst of World War I, that some called “The Great War” or “The War to End All Wars”, and the former being just two years before the outbreak of a Second World War. While in the movie we see men in military uniforms representing several countries, the film contains only two scenes with brief, sporadic gunfire, and only one fatal, but deliberate pistol shot is made, but the context of the film that Renoir chooses is that of life in a German prisoner-of-war camp, the interactions of the prisoners, and their interaction with those German officers and enlisted men charged with guarding them. So, amidst a time in the 1930’s when a civil war raged in Spain, Benito Mussolini and Joseph Stalin were consolidating their political grip on Italy and the new Soviet Federation, respectively, and Adolph Hitler and National Socialism were on the rise in Germany, the world was still able to maintain some semblance of order by holding the “International Exposition dedicated to Art and Technology” in Paris in 1937, attracting some thirty-one million visitors to the “City of Lights”, and providing a showcase for the release of La Grande Illusion, a film about humanism, love, charity, and the universal brotherhood of mankind. The genius of Renoir, as storyteller, idealist, and humanist is the way he deals with serious subjects such as nationalistic pride, ethnicity, race, culture, social class distinctions, prejudice and bigotry by using good hearted humor, plus a little satire, and weaving into the story compassion, love, warmth, human understanding and, at times, a little pathos, to produce a cinematic masterpiece that have inspired future generations of directors and screenwriters in many different ways, and given such enjoyment to generations of movie goers the world over. The film is, in short, an appeal to our “Better Angels”. In its implicit message, Renoir makes much the same appeal as his contemporary and fellow countryman, the Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the idealist philosopher and paleontologist, in his book "The Phenomenon of Man". To understand some of the dialogue in the film, before viewing it, one might Google the following terms: “Fort Douaumont” and “Pindar”, things that mostly students of WWI and Greek poetry would recognize.
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Pierre Paul Nélis
4.0 out of 5 stars Un classique
Reviewed in Belgium on March 7, 2024
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Un excellent film, je le conseille pour Gabin, Fresnay et Von Stroheim.
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afj van ommen
1.0 out of 5 stars Verkeerd bezorgd
Reviewed in the Netherlands on January 7, 2023
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JJD000090254011008705157 is door DHL niet bezorgd bij ons (terwijl we gewoon thuis waren!!), maar bij de buren op nummer 4!! BALEN HOOR. Het pakketje kon gewoon in de brievenbus..
NB. Het ging de laatste tijd eindelijk een stuk beter met de bezorgingen door DHL...dit is weer een domper...
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great transfer
Reviewed in India on January 13, 2021
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Superb print delivered in tone
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Luis Bonachera
5.0 out of 5 stars Se entiende que los nazis la confiscarán al conquistar París
Reviewed in Spain on October 22, 2016
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Una película fuera de serie. Y pensar que Renoir fue prisionero alemán precisamente tras la Primera Guerra Mundial. Qué forma tan hermosa, y carente de resentimiento, de hablar de la guerra, los prisioneros y la desaparición de la aristocracia europea
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Ray
5.0 out of 5 stars Das Überwinden der Grenze....
Reviewed in Germany on October 15, 2014
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Erster Weltkrieg an der Westfront: Bei einem Aufklärungsflug werden der französische Jagdflieger Maréchal (Jean Gabin) und der hohe Stabsoffizier de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) von dem deutschen Jagdflieger Major von Rauffenstein (Erich von Strohheim) abgeschossen und geraten in Kriegsgefangenschaft. Trotz allem herrscht gegenseitiger Respekt unter den "Feinden" und bevor die Franzosen ins Kriegsgefangenenlager abtransportiert werden, wird noch gemeinsam gegessen. De Boeldieu und auch Rauffenstein entstammen dem Adel und aufgrund der Klassenzugehörigkeit ist zu erkennen, dass sie sich wünschen, sie hätten sich unter anderen, friedlichen Umständen kennengelernt. Im Lager selbst machen die Gefangenen das Beste aus ihrer Lage - unter den wachsamen Augen der teilweise höflichen Wärter, beginnen die Franzosen einen Tunnel zu graben, der sie in die Freiheit bringen soll. Unter den Gefangenen ist auch der vermögende Jude Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), der die Gruppe mit köstlichen Konserven seiner Verwandten versorgt, die Pakete werden auch zugestellt, da die Deutschen so auch die teure Verpflegung für Gefangene sparen. Die Männer üben mit dem Schauspieler Cartier (Julien Carette) auch eine Gesangsstil im Boulevard- und Burleskestil ein. Während dieser Aufführung trifft die Nachricht eintrifft, dass das hart umkämpfte Fort Douaumont wieder in französischer Hand ist. Vor lauter Begeisterung stimmt Marechal die Marseillaise an und landet dafür im Bunker. Derweil graben seine Kameraden weiter und in der Nacht soll es losgehen. Marcheal kommt sogar an diesem besagten Tag aus der Einzelhaft. Doch dann werden die Männer überraschend verlegt. Damit gibts auch ein Wiedersehen mit von Rauffenstein, der nach vielen schweren Verwundungen nun der Kommandant eines sicher geltenden Gefangenenlagers geworden ist. Die Gemeinschaft der beiden aus dem Adel stammenden Männer intensiviert sich. Um die Flucht von Marcheal und Rosenthal zu ermöglichen, fingiert Boeldieu selbst einen Ausbruchsversuch und ermöglicht den beiden Kameraden einen Vorsprung. Bei einer deutschen Bäuerin (Dita Parlo) finden die beiden vorübergehend Unterschlupf...
Das Filmdebüt von Jean Renoir, dem Meister des poetischen Realismus, entstand 1937 zu einer Zeit extremer wirtschaftlicher und politischer Turbulenzen in Europa. Noch lange nicht waren die Wunden des 1. Weltkriegs verheilt und das Drohen neuer Konflikte war spürbar. Rein oberflächlich gesehen ist sein Kriegsfilm, der im eigenen Genre sehr stark aus dem Rahmen fällt, ein pazifizistisches Plädoyer gegen die Flut nationalistischen Eifers und faschistischer Politik dieser Zeit. Vielmehr kritisiert der Film auch die Konstrukte, mit denen vorhandene Unterschiede zementiert werden können und die allesamt vom Menschen selbst gebaut werden. Renoir gelingt es die Menschen vernünftig zu zeichnen - es gibt keinen Hass. Aber allen ist klar, dass sie verschiedenen Herren dienen, die den Kampf befehlen. Also inmitten des Wahnsinns eines mörderischen Krieges sind die Menschen tagtäglich zu friedlichen Handlungen bereit. Auch wenn sie einen Tunnel graben. Renoir sieht in seinem Film weniger eine Schranke wegen der Rasse, dem Volk oder ethnischen Zugehörigkeiten. Vielmehr sieht er ein Problem darin, dass die Klassen untereinander vielmehr getrennt sind. So verstehen sich die Aristokraten untereinander gut (Rauffenstein und Boeldieu). Auch zwischen Marcheal und der deutschen Bäuerin existiert sehr schnell keine Fremdheit mehr. Der historisch wertvolle Film ist brilliant in seiner Objektivität. Er wurde zu seiner Zeit sowohl in Frankreich selbst als auch im benachbarten Ausland (Deutschland, Italien) geschnitten oder gar verboten. Seltsam das Gegenspiel von Militärismus und Pazifismus. Das Miteinander der beiden Aristokraten basiert beispielsweise auf Tugenden wie Ehre, Ordnung und gegenseitigem Respekt, die aus der Mode kommen - wie sie es in einem Gespräch untereinander formulieren und erkennen, dass ihre Zeit wohl abgelaufen ist. Somit sind die Deutungen, was eine große Illusion ist, vielschichtiger. Renoir könnte zwar die Illusion als eine Art Wunsch oder Zukunftsvision gemeint haben, dass nicht nur die Nationen, sondern auch die gesellschaftlichen Klassen sich irgendwann miteinander versöhnen. Im Bezug auf seine Entstehungszeit war es aber wohl eher auch schon ein resignierendes Element, dass man nicht aufhalten konnte. Der Weltfrieden war bald wieder in Gefahr. Das Darstellertrio Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay und der deutsche Erich von Strohheim spielen ihre Figuren grandios und mit viel Würde. Man empfindet Trauer darüber, warum es gelingt den Menschen immer wieder für den Krieg zu konditionieren. "Die große Illusion" zeigt eindrücksvoll, dass das Miteinander nicht verloren ist. Ein sehr schöner und wichtiger Klassiker der europäischen Filmgeschicht und einer der besten Filme der 30er Jahre. .
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