French postcard by Crépa Editeur, Paris. Photo: Sam Lévin / Production R.A.C. Erich von Stroheim in La grande illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
French postcard by Crépa Editeur, Paris. Photo: Sam Levin / Production R.A.C. Jean Gabin in La grande illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
French postcard by Crépa Editeur, Paris. Photo: Sam Levin / Production R.A.C. Dita Parlo, Marcel Dalio and Jean Gabin in La grande illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
French postcard by Crépa Editeur, Paris. Photo: Sam Lévin / Production R.A.C. Jean Gabin, Dalio, Carette, Gaston Modot and Pierre Fresnay in La grande illusion / The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
War is futile
The title of La grande illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) 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. During the First World War, two French aviators of the Service Aéronautique, the aristocratic Captain de Boëldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), set out to investigate a blurred spot found on reconnaissance photographs. They are shot down by German flying ace and aristocrat Rittmeister von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), and both are taken prisoner by the Imperial German Army. Upon returning to the aerodrome, Rauffenstein sends a subordinate to find out if the aviators are officers and, if so, to invite them to lunch. During the meal, Rauffenstein and Boëldieu discover they have mutual acquaintances — a depiction of the familiarity, if not solidarity, within the upper classes that crosses national boundaries.
Boëldieu and Maréchal are then taken to a P.O.W. camp, where they meet a colourful group of French prisoners and stage a vaudeville-type performance just after the Germans have taken Fort Douaumont in the epic Battle of Verdun. During the performance, word arrives that the French have recaptured the fort. Maréchal interrupts the show, and the French prisoners spontaneously burst into 'La Marseillaise'. As a result of the disruption, Maréchal is placed in solitary confinement, where he suffers badly from lack of human contact and hunger. The fort changes hands once more while he is imprisoned. Boëldieu and Maréchal also help their fellow prisoners to finish digging an escape tunnel. However, just before it is completed, everyone is transferred to other camps. Because of the language barrier, Maréchal is unable to pass word of the tunnel to an incoming British prisoner.
Boëldieu and Maréchal are moved from camp to camp, finally arriving in Wintersborn, a mountain fortress prison commanded by Rauffenstein, who has been so badly injured in battle that he has been given a posting away from the front, much to his regret. Rauffenstein tells them that Wintersborn is escape-proof. At Wintersborn, the pair are reunited with a fellow prisoner, Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), from the original camp. Rosenthal is a wealthy French Jew who generously shares the food parcels he receives. Boëldieu comes up with an idea after carefully observing how the German guards respond to an emergency. He volunteers to distract the guards for the few minutes needed for Maréchal and Rosenthal to escape. After a commotion staged by the prisoners, the guards are ordered to assemble them in the fortress courtyard. During the roll call, it is discovered that Boëldieu is missing. He makes his presence known high up in the fortress, drawing the German guards away in pursuit. Maréchal and Rosenthal take the opportunity to lower themselves from a window by a homemade rope and flee.
Rauffenstein stops the guards from firing at Boëldieu and pleads with his friend to give himself up. Boëldieu refuses, and Rauffenstein reluctantly shoots him with his pistol, aiming for his legs, but misses and accidentally and fatally hits him in the stomach. Nursed in his final moments by a grieving Rauffenstein, Boëldieu laments that the whole purpose of the nobility and their usefulness to both French and German culture is being destroyed by the war. He expresses pity for Rauffenstein, who will have to find a new purpose in the postwar world.
Maréchal and Rosenthal journey across the German countryside, trying to reach neutral Switzerland. Rosenthal injures his foot, slowing Maréchal down. They quarrel and part, but then Maréchal returns to help his comrade. They take refuge in the modest farmhouse of a German woman, Elsa (Dita Parlo), who lost her husband at Verdun, along with three brothers, at battles which, with quiet irony, she describes as "our greatest victories". She takes them in and does not betray them to a passing army patrol. She and Maréchal fall in love, despite not speaking each other's language, but he and Rosenthal eventually leave for a sense of duty after Rosenthal recovers from his injury. Maréchal declares he will come back to Elsa and her young daughter, Lotte, if he survives the war. A German patrol sights the two fugitives crossing a snow-covered valley. They fire a few rounds, but their commanding officer, hurrying to the scene, orders them to stop, saying the pair have crossed into Switzerland.
French postcard by Crépa, Editeur, Paris. Photo: Sam Lévin / Production R.A.C. Marcel Dalio, Gaston Modot and Jean Gabin in La grande illusion / The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
French postcard by Editions Hazan, Paris, in the Collection Magie Noire, 1989, no. 6191. Photo: Sam Lévin. Jean Gabin and Erich von Stroheim in La Grande Illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
Italian programme card for Il Cinema Ritrovata 2012 by Cineteca Bologna. Photo: Sam Lévin. Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay in La grande illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
French postcard by L'Aventure Carto, Cinéastes, no. 6, 2003. Photo: Marcel Thomas / Collection Gérard Gagnepain. (Edition of 120 ex.). Jean Renoir.
Semi-autobiographical elements
La grande illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) examines the relationships between different social classes in Europe. The aristocrats Boëldieu and Rauffenstein are represented as cosmopolitan men, educated in many cultures and conversant in several languages. Their level of education and their devotion to social conventions and rituals make them feel closer to each other than to the lower class of their own nation. They share similar social experiences: dining at Maxim's in Paris, courting dalliances with the same woman, and even knowing of each other through acquaintances. They converse with each other in heavily formal French and German, and in moments of intimate personal conversation, escape into English as if to hide these comments from their lower-class counterparts.
Jean Renoir depicts the rule of the aristocracy in La grande illusion as in decline, to be replaced by a new, emerging social order, led by men who were not born to privilege. He emphasises that their class is no longer an essential component of their respective nation's politics. Both Rauffenstein and Boëldieu view their military service as a duty and see the war as having a purpose. Renoir depicts them as laudable but tragic figures whose world is disappearing and who are trapped in a code of life that is rapidly becoming meaningless. Both are aware that their time is past, but their reaction to this reality diverges. Boëldieu accepts the fate of the aristocracy as a positive improvement, but Rauffenstein does not, lamenting what he sarcastically calls the "charming legacy of the French Revolution".
Renoir contrasts the aristocrats with characters such as Maréchal, an engineer from Paris. The lower-class characters have little in common with each other. They have different interests and are not worldly in their views or education. Nonetheless, they have a kinship too, through common sentiment and experience. Renoir's message is made clear when the aristocratic Boëldieu sacrifices himself by distracting the prison guards by dancing around, singing, and playing a flute, to allow Maréchal and Rosenthal, members of the lower class, to escape. Reluctantly and strictly out of duty, Rauffenstein is forced to shoot Boëldieu, an act that Boëldieu admits he would have been compelled to do were the circumstances reversed. However, in accepting his inevitable death, Boëldieu takes comfort in the idea that "For a commoner, dying in a war is a tragedy. But for you and me, it's a good way out", and states that he has pity for Rauffenstein who will struggle to find a purpose in the new social order of the world where his traditions, experiences, and background are obsolete.
Some elements of La grande illusion are semi-autobiographical. In 1914, when the First World War began, Jean Renoir was a sergeant in the 1st Dragoon Regiment under the command of Captain Louis Bossut. He later received a change of post after being wounded in action. Renoir's life was saved by a French pilot, Armand Pinsard, when he was under attack by a German Fokker in 1915. In 1934, during the production of Toni (Jean Renoir, 1935), they met again by chance, and Pinsard recounted his WWI history. He was shot down seven times, captured seven times, and escaped seven times from German POW camps. His escape was facilitated by General Paul de Villelume, a character similar to Captain de Boëldieu. Pinsard became the model for Lt. Maréchal. Renoir used his own uniform as Jean Gabin's costume in the film. Several other cast members had also fought in the war. Marcel Dalio won the Croix de Guerre for his actions with the French artillery during the Action at Villers-Cotterêts (1914), and Pierre Fresnay was in the army between 1916 and 1919. Renoir developed the screenplay with Charles Spaak and spent several years trying to finance it. Through Albert Pinkévitch, an assistant to the financier, Frank Rollmer, and the attachment of Jean Gabin, private producers finally supported a small production budget.
The casting of Erich von Stroheim came as Jean Renoir was a great admirer of the director's films and had been inspired by him to pursue filmmaking. According to Renoir's memoirs, Stroheim, despite having been born in Vienna, Austria (then the Austro-Hungarian Empire), did not speak much German as he had been living in the United States since 1909, and struggled with learning the language along with his lines in between filming scenes. Renoir eventually resorted to hiring a dialect coach to help Stroheim with his lines. La grande illusion was filmed in the winter of 1936-1937. The exteriors of Burg Wintersborn were filmed at the Upper Königsberg Castle in Alsace. Other exteriors were filmed at the artillery barracks at Colmar (built by Wilhelm II) and at Neuf-Brisach on the Upper Rhine. The interiors were shot at Epinay and Billancourt Studios. Although the film was recognised at the Venice Film Festival for 'Best Artistic Ensemble' and was favoured to win the Mussolini Cup for best foreign film in 1937, Benito Mussolini overruled the jury and prevented its win, prompting Jean Zay, then France's Minister of National Education and Fine Arts, to propose the creation of a French festival that would become the Festival de Cannes. La grande illusion became a massive hit in France, with an estimated 12 million admissions. Bob Lipton at IMDb: "What makes a truly great movie, one whose value does not fade? (...) However, the problem with greatness is that it attracts imitators, and many of the sequences of this movie have been lifted from Casablanca to every POW movie I've ever seen. What they haven't replicated is the sheer sense of humanity, tired and crushed, like a geranium in a vast prison, somehow blooming where it has no right to."
French postcard by Collection Rozan, no. 684. Photo: Studio Star. Dita Parlo in La grande illusion / The Grand Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937). Sent by mail in 1946.
French postcard, no. 104. Photo: Star. Publicity still of Dita Parlo for La grande illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937). The blouse is identical, the scarf not.
French poster postcard by CVB Publishers. Design: Bernard Lancy. French affiche for La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
French poster postcard by Carterie Artistique et Cinématographique, Pont du Casse in the Encyclopédie du Cinéma series, no. EDC 94, Vis. 5. Jean Gabin, Erich von Stroheim and Pierre Fresnay in La grande illusion / The Great Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
French poster postcard by Cartellerie artistique et cinématographique. Design: Hervé Morvan. French affiche for La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937).
Sources: Bob Lipton (IMDb), Wikipedia (English and French) and IMDb.
This post was last updated on 19 April 2026.