‘The
Grand Illusion’, by any metrics, was one of cinema’s most inspiring gifts. Not
only it was one of the greatest works in the War genre, it was also the very
first ‘Prison-Escape’ film. It inspired numerous other films, the most famed
ones being ‘Casablanca
The
storyline was simple yet humanistic. Two French pilots were shot down by
Germans during the World War I, and they were sent to two prisoner camps, where
they met other Prisoners of War. Under circumstances, they reconciled with some
of the POWs they have met before when they were transferred, and also met the
now crippled German Officer (played by the one and only Erich von Stroheim) who
was now serving as the head officer of the prisoner camps. The POWs had
different backgrounds, and originated from different ranks of social ladder, yet
they could be able to respect each other, and the prisoners could also identity
with their German counterparts. Nevertheless, the POWs hatched a daring escape
plan, and the blue-blooded French officer turned out to be the one to sacrifice
his life and allowed the remaining escapees to run away. After a brief stay in
a common German girl’s house (played by L’Atalante’s Dita Parlo), the surviving
duo eventually made their ways across the Swiss border.
‘La
Grande Illusion’ was considered as an exemplary case of Poetic Realism. The
humanistic elements conveyed in the film contributed to such a notion. Renoir
adopted a cinematic style that would eventually be fully realized in his
masterpiece, ‘The Rules of the Game’, to afford a cinematic naturalism that
audience could be identified with. In order to bind all the characters together
through a frame, he adopted his famous deep-focus photography to balance out
the objective distance between his various characters and the audience. By
using a fluid camera movement, the realism and the objectiveness of the scenes
were enhanced, and this was signified by a far longer Average Shot Length (ASL)
as compared to many contemporary films – which suggested the preponderance of
sequence shots.
Using
the aforementioned techniques, the theme of ‘unity’ could be succinctly stated.
Renoir intended to unveil the illusion that categories and labels were
meaningful and would lead to better ends. In the film, the group dynamics were
not always dictated by stable categorizations – class, nationality, character
were meaningless and these could all be reduced to one class known as ‘man’.
Down under the skin, we are all indeed the same. No one particular attributes
were above other – for example, the blue-blooded French pilot turned out to
have an unlikely friendship with the German officer because they came from a
similar upbringing and gained mutual respect. The Frenchman was far more
reserved with his other working-class comrades, though ironically, at the end
that was him sacrificing for a greater good. This is what humanism is all about
– human characters are so complex and unpredictable that makes it such a
fascinating appeal. By abandoning the futile labels, humans could then
transcend and get closer.
Though
the emergence of this film could not wipe out the arrival of WWII, Renoir has
indeed made this truly inspiring film that its impact could still be felt many
years after its release. As Welles has complimented, ‘La Grande Illusion’ was a
film that should be brought onto the Ark
Poetic
Realism (2/3)
by
Ed Law
8/3/2015
Film
Analysis - 36
