The Critics' Corner on GRAND ILLUSION

The Grand Illusion was an immediate success with audiences in France and Renoir's most successful release up to that time. Most critics were enthusiastic about the film on its release, making it unique among Renoir's works. Most of his films had been panned or, at best, received mixed reviews.

"Everyone who believes in Democracy should see this film." - President Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1938

The Grand Illusion tied for fourth in the 1952 list of Best Films of All Time by the Cinematheque Belgique. In 1958, on the occasion of the Brussel's World's Fair, 177 film historians from 26 countries chose the 12 best films of all time; The Grand Illusion placed fifth. And the 1983 British Film Institute 50th anniversary poll of its 1200 members ranked this movie number 14 of the best films of all time.

"How has The Grand Illusion held up over the years? It is not enough to say that it has retained its power. Not only has the stature of the film remained undiminished by the passage of time (except in a few minor details), but the innovation, the audacity, and, for want of a better word, the modernity of the direction have acquired an even greater impact." - Andre Bazin, Jean Renoir (Simon & Schuster, 1973)

"It is one of the true masterpieces of the screen. ... The performances of Von Stroheim, Fresnay and Gabin are in three different styles of acting, and they illuminate one another. With Gabin, you are not aware of any performance; with Von Stroheim and Fresnay, you are - and you should be: they represent a way of life that is dedicated to superbly controlled outer appearances." - Pauline Kael, 5001 Nights at the Movies (Henry Holt and Co., 1982)

"With no real combat scene, only a single death, and its fragile humanist heart sewn on its sleeve, there's never been a war film of the intimate magnitude of Jean Renoir's The Grand Illusion." - Wesley Morris, San Francisco Examiner, December 3, 1999

"The Grand Illusion, often cited as an enigmatic title, is surely not that peace can ever be permanent, but that liberty, equality and fraternity is ever likely to become a social reality rather than a token ideal." - Tom Milne, TimeOut Film Guide

"Jean Renoir's heartfelt cry for an end to wars, which are casually undertaken at the expense of the natural bond among all men." - Danny Peary, Guide For the Film Fanatic

"La Grande Illusion is much too complex to be reduced to a thesis film, and although an anti-war statement can certainly be read from it (Renoir's detestation of war is not in doubt), that is incidental rather than essential to the film's meaning...If the film celebrates the possibility of demolishing boundaries, it also acknowledges, with the existing social system, their inevitability." - Robin Wood, The International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers

"With the passing years, La Grande Illusion has acquired a certain quaintness, a stylized nostalgia that enhances the warmth of its sentiments, the courage of its faith in human friendship." - Peter Cowie, Eighty Years of Cinema

"The French picture, The Grand Illusion, is a war story without any war in it, and one so simply, and at times crudely, told that you might think it had been produced back in the old silent movie days. The very fact that it has no great airplane battles, that is has no huge so-called production sequences, only adds to the great power and tragedy you will find in the picture." - Pare Lorentz, McCall's, December 1938

"Celebrated mood piece with much to say about war and mankind; more precisely, it is impeccably acted and directed and has real tragic force." - Halliwell's Film & Video Guide.

Awards & Honors

The Grand Illusion (1937) was nominated for an Academy Award as Best Picture, the first foreign language film to be so honored.

The Grand Illusion received Best Foreign Film awards from the National Board of Review and the New York Film Critics Circle.

by Rob Nixon