Grand Illusion

Before we talk about the film, I’d like to shine some light upon the director, Jean Renoir.  Born in Paris, he was the son of the impressionist painter Pierre Renoir.  In World War I, he fought in the French army, and earned a Croix de Guerre for his heroism that left him suffering from wounds that would never heal properly.  After the war, he began his film making, fled to the US during the German occupation of France in WWII and continued his work .  Orson Welles considered him to be the greatest director of all time and most consider him to be the greatest French director.

Grand Illusion follows two French officers in WWI who are shot down over Germany by Captain von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), captured and put in POW camps.  Lt. Maréchal (Jean Gabin) is a lower class officer, a mechanic in civilian life and a bit hot-headed.  Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) is calmer, of higher rank and is treated better by the Germans because of it.  In their first camp, they share a room with men who are working on an escape tunnel.  The tunnel construction scenes are very tense and don’t spare the dangers.  Later, Maréchal and de Boeldieu are joined by Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) and moved to a 13th century castle converted into a fortress.  There de Boeldieu is reunited with von Rauffenstein and is given special treatment due to his rank.  Many times von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu muse together, realizing that once the war is over their high military rank will mean nothing.  This drives a wedge between de Boeldieu and his French comrades, but becomes essential in an escape plan.

While the men are in the first POW camp, a major event in the war happens.  Fort Douaumont is captured by the Germans and the French prisoners cannot escape hearing their celebration.  It brings their moral a little lower, but they try to occupy themselves by organizing a play.  The evening of their performance, they decide to invite their main captor, Sergant Arthur (Werner Florian), and fill the show with men in ridiculous women’s dancing costumes, singing and some defiant jokes towards their captors.  The play is interrupted by the good news that the French have recaptured Fort Douaumont and all the POWs stand and sing together, celebrating right in front of their captors.   It’s a very uplifting moment.

Grand Illusion has caused quite a ruckus in it’s time.  In French, this is the first foreign language film nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards.  Later, as German occupation swept France, Joseph Goebbels (one of Hitler’s closest associates), made sure to take prints of the film calling Jean Renoir “Cinematic Public Enemy Number 1.”  The film was assumed to be destroyed in air raids until 1945 when Russians entered Berlin and kept it in an archive in Moscow.  Renoir would know nothing about his film’s capture or whereabouts until his restoration in the 1960’s.  Isn’t film history fascinating?

If you’re a real film or history buff, Grand Illusion should be on your must-see list, but I don’t imagine many causal movie-goers dying to see this film.  Pit falls for the in-betweeners is that the film is in French and with having to keep up with the subtitles, it can be easy to overlook the visual beauty Renoir brings.  If you’re fluent in French, I say go for it, it was made for you.

“Out there, children play soldier… In here, soldiers play like children.”

The Bridge on the River Kwai

In a Japanese POW camp, prisoners are overworked and the death rate is extremely high.  We first meet Shears (William Holden) as he’s digging a grave, by the time he’s finished he can’t even remember who he just buried.  He has seen so many men arrive and die in this camp his spirit is nearly broken and  he’s thinking about trying to escape.  There are no fences or barbed wire to hold him back, but the armed guards and jungle have proven too much for all who have tried.

One day a troop of British soldiers come marching and whistling into the camp, still keeping their head up and back straight under their leader Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness).  At first, Nicholson seems stupidly defiant against his Japanese captors, insisting that they do things by certain codes and that he lead his men on their project; to build a bridge over the Kwai River.  This lands Nicholson in “the oven,” a metal box that heats up in the sun, but once the Japanese realize how badly they need someone to lead the men efficiently, Nicholson is put in charge of building the bridge.

Nicholson turns what could be a laborious task and turns it into a moral exercise for his troops.  He believes that doing something constructive with their time will help the men cope with their capture and keep them good soldiers.  That all sounds perfectly fine, but soon Nicholson takes so much pride in the work he and his men put into the bridge, he believes it to be a testament to British foreign relations.  He seems to forget that they are at war with their captors, that the bridge they are building could be seen as treason to his country.

Meanwhile, Shears (who is assumed dead by the whole camp) has narrowly escaped the and is part of a plan to blow up the bridge.  This part of the story shows us jungles, cliff sides and beautiful waterfalls to bathe in.  These beautiful shots are just a preview for the amazing things director David Lean is capable of showing.  As the team journeys to take down the bridge, Nicholson is becoming more attached to his work.  Up to the very end, tension is pulled tighter and everything comes down to one moment.

Alec Guinness is so convincing in his portrayal of Colonel Nicholas.  He fiercely believes in his principals to near stubbornness and that sort of conviction is what rallies his troops behind him.  When he agrees to build the bridge, and build it well, his ideas behind making solid structure he and his men could be proud of is compelling.  He believes so much that what he was doing was right that I started to believe as well.  And that’s what makes an Oscar winning performance.

One of the things most people remember about The Bridge on the River Kwai is the whistling melody.  That played a big role in winning the award for best musical score.  Believe me, you’ll recognize it once you hear it and will probably find yourself whistling along within the first fifteen minutes.

I do believe that The Bridge on the River Kwai is a fantastic film that everyone should see.  It won a slew of awards including best picture and David Lean’s first win for best director.  In the end though, 1957 gave us three amazing films.  There is still one left that I’d like to consider at the top, by just a small margin.  More tomorrow.

“As I’ve told you before, in a job like yours, even when it’s finished, there’s always one more thing to do.”