LA GRANDE ILLUSION (1937)

JEAN RENOIR

Classics Art House Prison War 1900-1919 Recommended

Cast

JEAN GABIN PIERRE FRESNAY ERICH VON STROHEIM MARCEL DALIO

Plot

One of the greatest war films ever made; three captured French soldiers, one an aristocrat, one a mechanic and one a Jew, bond together when imprisoned together by German soldiers. Their attempts to escape and their relationships with their captors, especially that between the French aristocrat and his German counterpart, are superbly dramatised in this indictment of the mass slaughter that is war. Subtle, emotive and timeless.