The Grand Illusion (released as La Grande Illusion) is director Jean Renoir's French-language war film which was initially released in 1937. Renoir's film follows a group of French soldiers, led by Captain de Boeldieu and Lieutenant Maréchal, who has been captured by the German army during World War I. While at their first prison camp, the men observe how different they are from each other (mostly because of their social class). Eventually, the men are transferred to another, more high-security prison which was led by the ruthless and intelligent Officer von Rauffenstein. The men band together and work hard to escape the camp and return to their homeland—but several unexpected things develop.
The Grand Illusion is considered by many to be among the greatest films ever made in any language. Acclaimed actor and director Orson Welles wrote that, if he could only take two films with him on an ark, one of the films he would take would be The Grand Illusion.
In France, and across the world, The Grand Illusion was a massive success when it was released. In France, the film sold twelve million tickets (in 1931, the population of France was 41.5 million people). The film was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture—the first foreign film to do so in history. Film Critic Janet Maslin, in her review of the film sixty years after its release, wrote that "It seems especially disarming now in its genius for keeping its story indirect yet its meaning clear. Its greatest dramatic heights seem to occur almost effortlessly, as a tale of escape derived from the experience of one of Renoir's wartime comrades evolves into a series of unforgettable crises and stirring sacrifices."
But the film was not well-received across the world. Joseph Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister, wrote that the film was "public enemy number 1" and ordered the film to be destroyed in Germany. Additionally, during World War II, the French government banned the film from being shown for the duration of the war, fearing that it would decrease the morale of the French public.
