La Grande Illusion: French Film Guide (Cine-Files: the French Film Guides)

135 Pages·2009·2.69 MB·English

by  Martin O'Shaughnessy

CINÉ-FILES: Te French Film Guides
Series Editor: Ginette Vincendeau
From the pioneering days of the Lumière brothers’ Cinématographe in
1895, France has been home to perhaps the most consistently vibrant
flm culture in the world, producing world-class directors and stars, and a
stream of remarkable movies, from popular genre flms to cult avant-garde
works. Many of these have found a devoted audience outside France, and
the arrival of DVD is now enabling a whole new generation to have access
to contemporary titles as well as the great classics of the past.
Te Ciné-Files French Film Guides build on this welcome new access,
ofering authoritative and entertaining guides to some of the most signifcant
titles, from the silent era to the early twenty-frst century. Written by experts
in French cinema, the books combine extensive research with the author’s
distinctive, sometimes provocative perspective on each flm. Te series
will thus build up an essential collection on great French classics, enabling
students, teachers and lovers of French cinema both to learn more about
their favourite flms and make new discoveries in one of the world’s richest
bodies of cinematic work.
Ginette Vincendeau
Published Ciné-Files:
Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) – Chris Darke
Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet, 2001) – Isabelle Vanderschelden
Casque d’or (Jacques Becker, 1952) – Sarah Leahy
Cléo de 5 à 7 (Agnès Varda, 1962) – Valerie Orpen
La Grande Illusion (Jean Renoir, 1937) – Martin O’Shaughnessy
La Haine (Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) – Ginette Vincendeau
La Règle du jeu (Jean Renoir, 1939) – Keith Reader
La Reine Margot (Patrice Chereau, 1994) – Julianne Pidduck
Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1943) – Judith Mayne
Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955) – Susan Hayward
Nikita (Luc Besson, 1990) – Susan Hayward
Riff (Jules Dassin, 1955) – Alastair Phillips
Un chien andalou (Luis Buñuel, 1929) – Elza Adamowicz
(Jean Renoir, 1937)
Martin O’Shaughnessy
Published in 2009 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifh Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifh Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © 2009 Martin O’Shaughnessy
Te right of Martin O’Shaughnessy to be identifed as the author of this work has been asserted
by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may
not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978 1 84885 057 6

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Printed and bound in India by Tomson Press India Ltd
from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author
Contents
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
Notes 3
1 Contexts 5
A director and his two careers 6
Cast and creative personnel 12
Historical and political contexts 22
Notes 26
2 Genesis, evolution, preparation 28
A long gestation 28
Te evolving script 31
Te plagiarism case 39
Te set 41
Notes 46
3 Analysis 48
Structure 49
Motifs 52
Film style and group dynamics 59
Shooting in deep time 71
Close analysis: form and meaning 77
Misrepresenting the war? 89
Notes 97
4 Reception 99
Pre-war triumph 99
Post-war controversy 102
Serene mastery? 105
Anti-Semitism? 107
Notes 109
Conclusion 111
Appendix 1: Renoir’s flms 115
Appendix 2: Cast and creative personnel 117
Appendix 3: Te evolving script 119
Appendix 4: Select bibliography 125
Acknowledgements
My warm thanks go: to Ginette Vincendeau, the series editor, for all her
support and advice; to Christopher Faulkner and Olivier Curchod for
their generous willingness to discuss ideas and share their tremendous
knowledge of Renoir; to staf at the Bibliothèque du Film in Paris and the
Lilly library of the University of Indiana for their invaluable assistance; to
Pat FitzGerald, Jayne Hill, Philippa Brewster and David Oswald for helping
to bring the book to fruition; to my wife and children for their support and
understanding and for the sense of perspective they helped me hold on to.
Introduction
Made by France’s greatest director, Jean Renoir, at the very height of his
powers, La Grande Illusion is widely considered one of the very fnest French
flms, the world’s greatest pacifst flm and one of the most important war
flms. Premiered on 8 June 1937 and opened to the public a day later at the
Marivaux cinema in Paris, La Grande Illusion was an immediate critical
and popular success and number one French box ofce hit for the year. Ex-
servicemen’s associations sponsored its release around the country in the
autumn of that same year, while to commemorate 11 November, Armistice
Day for the Great War, it was specially shown in 52 cinemas.1 It was also a
major international hit at a time when the reputation of French cinema as a
whole ran very high. One of several flms representing France at the Venice
flm festival in 1937, it seemed set to win the Mussolini Cup, the major
prize. Because such a triumph might have been more than a little awkward
in a fascist Italy far from committed to peace, it was deemed more expedient
to award it a specially invented trophy, the international Jury Cup, for the
best artistic ensemble.2 It was a major success in the United States, running
for twenty-six weeks in New York in 1938, and was voted best picture that
same year by the National Board of Review and best foreign flm at the
New York Film Critics Circle awards. In 1939, it was the frst foreign flm
ever nominated for the Oscar for best picture, although it failed to win.
Mussolini reportedly much admired the flm, although it was blocked from
general release in Italy until a reciprocal deal was made in 1938.3 Goebbels
apparently labelled it ‘cinematic enemy number one’.4 It was unsurprisingly
banned in Nazi Germany. In contrast, when it was privately screened for
President and Mrs Roosevelt at the White House on 11 October 1938, the
President is said to have declared that it was a flm that should be seen in all
the democracies of the world.5