Le Grand Illusion (Criterion Collection)

Directed by
Jean Renoir

Produced by
Albert Pinkovitch (uncredited)
Frank Rollmer (uncredited)

Written by
Jean Renoir
Charles Spaak
Starring

Jean Gabin
Dita Parlo
Pierre Fresnay
Erich von Stroheim

Release date
France June 8, 1937


The setting is World War I where three French Army prisoners of war from widely differing backgrounds, share a common interest in an escape. An internationally acclaimed production which highlights the senselessness of war.

One of the very first prison escape movies, Grand Illusion has been hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. Jean Renoir's antiwar masterpiece stars Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay, as French soldiers held in a World War I German prison camp, and Erich von Stroheim as the unforgettable Captain von Rauffenstein.

After it won a prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1937, the Nazis declared the
film "Cinematographic Enemy Number One." There can be no higher praise