Friday, October 21, 2005
GREAT ESCAPE
La Grande illusion / Grand Illusion (1937)
Today's Best NYTimes Film was
It is the first war prisoner escape film and a template for all those that followed.
But, it is also about class and the dissolution of the old order.
Jean Renoir.
I liked it a lot. There is nothing particularly 'new' about the plot because it has been copied so many times. What is unique is the interplay between the men who escape. They are not the stereotypes that came later.
There is one scene which is just a show stopper. There is the requisite drag show and one of the guys gets dressed up to see if the clothes fit. He repeatedly moans about how awful he looks while the entire dormitory stops dead to look at this 'female' apparition. They have not seen a skirt for a long time and by this time, gender is immaterial. The guy in drag is oblivious.
Other stuff like that. Good bits and a good whole.
It is sometimes hard to watch older films that suffer from primitive production techniques. On the other hand, it focuses one on the acting and story. Of course, contrasted with a lot of today's films, there has to be acting. There has to be a story. Or it is all 'effects'.
The film has Erich Von Stroheim as a german commander. You can see why he was considered a star director. He controls all his scenes even when he is 'only' acting.
The film has an interesting history. It was seized immediately upon the fall of France and the negative was to be destroyed. But it was smuggled from here to there and survived.
This is another reconstruction by Criterion and the film appears to be brand new.
Anyway a 4 out of Netflix5 on this one.
