It’s early September 1937, the European continent faces its future. The Spanish Civil War rages on, Nazi authorities increase their antisemitic policies, and fascism is on the rise in Italy… oh, and also in Italy the Fifth Venice Film Festival is coming to a close. This event would mark the premiere of a movie that was not going to elude what was happening, and which decidedly used the past to make a statement about the present.
This film is The Grand Illusion, a cinematic triumph by master Jean Renoir, in which he deconstructs the nature of conflict (by using World War I). The film showcases a compassionate approach to class relations in a changing continent that once again found itself at a moment of profound change as it approached a looming war.
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German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels deemed it as “Cinematic Public Enemy No. 1.” In its native France, it received a ban from authorities in 1940 for as long as World War II lasted, as it would “create a decline in the fighting morale.” Why did this happen?
Jean Renoir Wages War Against War
World Pictures
It’s simple: this is a war film that doesn’t show the war. It focuses on the social divisions present in society and how these transcend frontiers and nationalities. Ultimately, The Grand Illusion shows how those that found themselves in conflict, when deprived of what made them become who they are in the hierarchical social order, find that they have more in common with those pertaining to a different class.
Renoir made a case for the futility of war, as individuals, regardless of their nationalities or social status, have more in common with each other than they do apart. It’s the interest of few that places them in these situations. It’s then clear that the themes explored in the film served no interest to any war effort, thus making the film non-desirable to any nation that’s sending their people to fight.
Instead of hate, heroism, duty, and love of country, common storylines at the time of war films, The Grand Illusion is about shared human experiences, the different ways in which war has changed the soul, and how compassion can prevail in the face of the eternal conflicts between humans.
What Happens in The Grand Illusion?
Aristocratic captain De Boeldieu and working-class lieutenant Maréchal (the great Jean Gabin) finds themselves as POWs in WWI. As they join other French officers in a prison camp, they struggle with their class differences. After being transferred to a high-security fortress, their prison escape plans run parallel to the bond forged between De Boeldieu and also aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein.
Strange politeness between officials from both militaries, nuanced jabs interwoven with a sense of camaraderie, individual struggles, and the absurdity of their situations all set the stage for a film about the common struggles of the human spirit.
Class and Frontiers
The perfect example to understand how class relations were in Europe more than a century ago comes from the rulers at the time of the Great War. Tzar Nicholas II, Kaiser Wilhelm II, and King George V were the grandsons of Queen Victoria, and thus World War I was a conflict waged by cousins. Aristocracy transcended frontiers, the idea of nation-state as it is known today is still not engrained in the collective unconscious, empires share blood, there is more in common through family, status and what came before birth than the place of origin.
The respect between members of the same social class, transcends the war. De Boeldieu and von Rauffenstein, as aristocrats, see themselves in each other, just as Maréchal bonds strongly with the other fellow middle-class French officers. Class here also determines how one experiences the war; as the elites bond, the working classes are being taken to another camp to work.
The Discreet Disenchantment of What’s to Come
The film’s courteous plea for decency, civility, and love plays out in two ways. The most explicit one is through its antiwar and humanistic message, but it also plays as a farewell to old civility through conflict, as the carnage nature of the next war (the one beginning while Renoir made the film) looms on the horizon.
This plea is played out through subtlety. Almost every scene in the film has officers either saluting each other, apologizing, or having courteous arguments on how they see the world and current situation. This is particularly shown through the conversations between De Bouldieu and von Rauffenstein. It’s important to remember though that as respectful as this ritualistic civility may be, it comes from a secluded world that frowned upon others found to be of inferior social rank. Rauffenstein tells Bouldieu that whatever is the outcome of the war, it will mark the end of their class, as the growth of the middle class and burgeoning new rich (brilliantly exemplified in Marcel Dalio’s performance as Lieutenant Rosenthal) will take over.
Renoir does not portray this old world with false nostalgia or contempt, neither does he with the new one. The death of the social norms and civility that bring men of a certain social class together, despite being enemies, marks the beginning of a new humanism. This new form of bonding comes from the mutual understanding that can be forged regardless of one’s origins, exemplified by the relationships Maréchal creates with De Bouldieu and Rosenthal.
As mentioned, the death of this civility also brings in a new nature to conflicts. Released two years prior to World War Two, the film implies a birth of a new violence, one where these common threads of society are cut loose by new ideals such as national identity, racism and antisemitism. Brief moments where Rosenthal is seen as inferior for being Jewish, or where a Black prisoner is ignored (his name not even mentioned), seem to allude to the growing threat of Nazism to humanity.
Renoir’s Triumph of Humanism Over Imperialism
By the time The Grand Illusion has reached its final act, set after a heartbreaking escape, the love for other humans has prevailed over the whatever has sent these characters to war. Whether it is von Rauffenstein cutting his geranium, Maréchal talking to a cow, or German widow Elsa telling the recent escapees how the war has destroyed her family and left her alone to take care of her daughter, these beautiful moments of compassion and understanding stand as the emotional climax of both the story and the lives of these gorgeously written characters. Despite their lives moving on, they have learned something about themselves and the world around them; they have bonded with persons they thought they would’ve never imagined.
War has proven futile, as it only concerns the wellbeing of the few. These so-called leaders have not been close to combat and resent those they consider their enemies, without even having a conversation. As for those who have gone through war, and have their lives forever changed by it, many have discovered that who they saw as enemies were in fact just other human beings, living complicated lives that hold as much pain as theirs.
Renoir has by the final frames of this masterpiece set respect and decency as the key to human understanding. Even though war was about to come and ravish these away, here stood a reminder that as long as people are willing to listen to one another, war will be a foolish exercise in ignorance and self-destruction.
