Grand Illusion (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Wikipedia
Featured:  Illustration: Portrait fantaisiste du marquis de Sade (1866) by H. Biberstein |
Grand Illusion (French: La Grande Illusion) is a 1937 war film directed by Jean Renoir, the son of artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The screenplay was written by Renoir and Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relationships among a small group of French officers who are prisoners of war during World War I and are plotting escape.
The title of the film comes from a book — The Great Illusion by British economist Norman Angell — which argued that war is futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations. The perspective of the film, which is regarded by critics and film historians as one of the masterpieces of French cinema, is generously humanistic to its characters of various nationalities.
