File:GrandeIllusion.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
La Grande Illusion
Sign in to saveAlso known as Grande Illusion, Grand Illusion
1937 film by Jean Renoir
OverviewAI-generated
*La Grande Illusion* is a 1937 French black-and-white drama film directed by Jean Renoir. The screenplay was written by Renoir and Charles Spaak, with Joseph Kosma composing the music. The cast includes Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Erich von Stroheim, and Pierre Fresnay. Christian Matras served as director of photography, Eugène Lourié as production designer, and Marguerite Renoir as film editor. The film’s original languages are French, English, German, and Russian.
Set in Germany with a narrative environment involving aircraft, the movie has a runtime of 113 to 124 minutes. It was produced by Réalisation d'Art Cinématographique and distributed by The Criterion Collection and Netflix via video on demand. The film received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture and has accumulated seven wins and two nominations in total. Audience ratings include an IMDb score of 8.0 based on 41,123 votes, a TMDb average of 7.9 from 775 votes, and a 97% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Synthesized by Vinony from 45 facts across 5 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, IMDb, OMDb, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.9A 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.
Cast
- Jean Gabin as Le lieutenant Maréchal
- Pierre Fresnay as Le capitaine de Boëldieu
- Erich von Stroheim as Le capitaine von Rauffenstein
- Marcel Dalio as Le lieutenant Rosenthal
- Dita Parlo as Elsa
- Julien Carette as Cartier, l'acteur
Themes
- prisoner
- france
- countryside
- escape
- germany
- world war i
- prisoner of war
- brotherhood
- camp
- aristocrat
This product uses the TMDB API but is not endorsed or certified by TMDB.
Ratings
IMDb
8.1/10
40,437 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
97%
- Year
- 1937
- Runtime
- 113 min
- Genres
- Drama, War
- Rated
- Not Rated
- Awards
- Nominated for 1 Oscar. 7 wins & 2 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Key facts
- Directed by
- Jean Renoir
- Written by
- Charles Spaak Jean Renoir
- Produced by
- Albert Pinkovitch Frank Rollmer
- Starring
- Jean Gabin Dita Parlo Pierre Fresnay Erich von Stroheim Julien Carette Georges Péclet Marcel Dalio
- Cinematography
- Christian Matras
- Edited by
- Marguerite Renoir Marthe Huguet
- Music by
- Joseph Kosma
- Production company
- Réalisation d'Art Cinématographique
- Distributed by
- Réalisation d'Art Cinématographique
- Release date
- 8 June 1937 ( 1937-06-08 )
- Running time
- 114 minutes
- Country
- France
- Languages
- French German English
- Box office
- $414,620 (US re-release)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Part of
- Vatican's list of films
- Genre
- drama film
- Country of origin
- France
- Original language
- Russian
- Main subject
- aviation
- Director
- Jean Renoir
- Screenwriter
- Charles Spaak
- Cast member
- Julien Carette
- Composer
- Joseph Kosma
- Cinematographer
- Christian Matras
- Narrative location
- Germany
- Duration
- 124
- FilmAffinity ID
- 174723
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- Grand-Illusion-1937.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- publication date
- 1937-00-00
- nominated for
- Academy Award for Best Picture
- title
- La Grande Illusion
- color
- black-and-white
- production designer
- Eugène Lourié
- distributed by
- Netflix
- Commons category
- Grand Illusion
- set in environment
- aircraft
- review score
- 97%
Sources (15)
via Wikidata · CC0
~25 min read
Encyclopedic overview
La Grande Illusion (commonly known in English as "The Grand Illusion") is a 1937 French war drama film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relationships among a small group of French officers who are German prisoners of war during World War I and are plotting an escape.
The title of the film comes from the 1909 book The Great Illusion by British journalist Norman Angell, which argued that war is futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations. The perspective of the film is generously humanistic to its characters of various nationalities.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “La Grande Illusion” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.