Grand Illusion



Grand Illusion (French: La Grande Illusion) is a 1937 war film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak.

Not to be confused with the LP by Styx.


 * Aristocrats Are Evil: Averted.
 * Captivity Harmonica: One of the guards gives Maréchal one when he's imprisoned in a Cooler.
 * Crowning Music: The battle of Die Wacht am Rhein and La Marseillaise reflecting the battle of Verdun.
 * Disguised in Drag: The British officers participating in the variety show in the first camp.
 * During the War
 * Ear Worm: Joseph Cosma's main theme.
 * Gentleman and a Scholar: Lieutenant Demolder, who spends his time translating Pindar from Ancient Greek in his free time.
 * Glove Slap: Does not actually occur, but their white gloves are clearly important to de Boeldieu and von Rauffenstein.
 * Great Escape
 * Heroic Sacrifice
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Marcel Dalio (Rosenthal) later played Émile, the croupier, in Casablanca.
 * Hey, Let's Put on a Show
 * I Gave My Word
 * Improbable Aiming Skills
 * Irony: Elsa's male relatives were all killed in the greatest German victories of the war.
 * Nice Jewish Boy: Rosenthal.
 * Officer and a Gentleman: Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu crank this up to 150.
 * Prussia: The film avoids many stereotypes - von Rauffenstein is cultured and cosmopolitan, fluent in French and English, and the NCO in the first prison camp good-naturedly suffers the imprisoned officers calling him "Arthur".
 * Token Minority: One of the French officers in the first POW camp is Senegalais.
 * Tunnel King: The civil engineer.
 * Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The character of Maréchal was based on a French fighter pilot called Pinsard whom Jean Renoir had met during the war and who had made multiple escapes from German POW camps.
 * The Von Trope Family
 * We Need a Distraction
 * World War I: The effects seen in Germany are that every able-bodied male is called up (the POW camp guards are old Landsturm militiamen), food shortages etc.
 * Worthy Opponent