#grand illusion 1937

[oscarupsets]

This one was definitely a contentious match-up for me. Rom-com You Can't Take It with You won over the war drama La Grande Illusion, the first foreign language film to be nominated for Best Picture.

You Can't Take It with You was based off of a 1936 play of the same name. During the film's release in 1938, the play was STILL running on Broadway. It was an instant box office success. The Radio City Music Hall had to increase to 5 screenings a day to handle the demand.

It was clearly a play adaptation, and it was wonderful. I have a soft side for screwball comedies, and this one was definitely a riot. There are also way too many characters, but not in a bad way.

La Grande Illusion is listed as a war drama, but definitely has some light-hearted comedy to it. I struggled to find a solid review from its US release, but many considered it the best French film to date.

Honestly, there was something different about La Grande Illusion. I'm not sure if I'm just getting desensitized to 1930s films, but this one felt significantly more sophisticated. And I couldn't even tell you exactly why (and it was not just the fact that it was in French). There were nuances that did not need to be described. The film style was simple but effective. It's aggressively political in nature without being overbearing. All around a great film. Great job, France.

As for the Academy Awards, we may have ditched the categories of Dance Direction and Assistant Director, but we've still got the weirdly similar Original Story and Screenplay, AND we've added a new confusing duo: Original Score and Scoring!

There were also some brief changes to the voting system prior to the 11th Academy Awards, but each source seemed to just confuse me more on that.

Current reception for both films is solid. Some argue that You Can't Take It with You is one of Frank Capra's weaker films, but still praise the comedy and the casting. Critics consider La Grande Illusion to be a successful anti-war film on par with All Quiet on the Western Front (and even more so because both were banned in Germany for some time.)

Unofficial Review: Watch both!

[france-cinema]

Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, La grande illusion, Jean Renoir, 1937.

[loveinstreams]

That fucked up little gay geranium

[erstwhile-punk-guerito]

[likeitovich]

The Grand Illusion by Jean Renoir (1937)

[entrehormigones]

[criterion-poll]

[alexlacquemanne]

Les frontières, c’est une invention des hommes. La nature, elle s’en fout !

Le lieutenant Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) dans La Grande Illusion (1937) de Jean Renoir, scénario et dialogues de Charles Spaak et Jean Renoir

[mogwai-movie-house]

The 50 Best War Films of All Time

This is a tricky genre to try summarize, because of what each individual will choose to classify as a "war film", but I've done my best and tried to focus for the most part on stories set within the thick of actual warfare, rather than dramas taking place afterwards or behind the scenes, and except for a small number of impossible-to-ignore exceptions, very few comedies. Ranked and rated in loose order of quality, high-to-low:

Apocalypse Now (1979) ★★★★★★★★★★

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) ★★★★★★★★★½

The Great Escape (1963) ★★★★★★★★★½

Ballad of a Soldier (1959) ★★★★★★★★★☆

Schindler's List (1993) ★★★★★★★★★☆

The Cranes Are Flying (1957) ★★★★★★★★★☆

The Boat (1981) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Saving Private Ryan (1998) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Catch-22 (1970) ★★★★★★★★½☆

The Last Bridge (1954) ★★★★★★★★½☆

The Deer Hunter (1978) ★★★★★★★★½☆

The Thin Red Line (1998) ★★★★★★★★½☆

The Killing Fields (1984) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Ice Cold in Alex (1958) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Lawrence of Arabia (1962) ★★★★★★★★½☆

The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Wings (1927) ★★★★★★★★½☆

The Grand Illusion (1937) ★★★★★★★★½☆

Enemy at the Gates (2001) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Three Kings (1999) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Good Morning, Vietnam (1987) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

The Big Parade (1925) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

The Destiny of a Man (1959) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

The Bridge (1959) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Army of Shadows (1969) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Dr. Strangelove (1964) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Full Metal Jacket (1987) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

The Burmese Harp (1956) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Five Graves to Cairo (1943) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Patton (1970) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Napoleon (1927) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

The Wooden Horse (1950) ★★★★★★★★☆☆

Zulu (1964) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Birdy (1984) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

1917 (2019) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

The Tin Drum (1979) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Valkyrie (2008) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

The Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1959) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

M*A*S*H* (1970) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

Land of Mine (2015) ★★★★★★★½☆☆

The Hurt Locker (2008) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Gallipoli (1981) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Empire of the Sun (1987) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

'71 (2014) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Born on the Fourth of July (1989) ★★★★★★★��☆☆

Paths of Glory (1957) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Breaker Morant (1980) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Inglourious Basterds (2009) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

Platoon (1986) ★★★★★★★☆☆☆

[davidhudson]

Marcel Dalio, November 23, 1899 – November 18, 1983.

With Jean Gabin in Jean Renoir’s La grande illusion (1937).

[kvetchlandia]

Jean Gabin as “Maréchal,” Screenshot from Jean Renoir’s "La Grande Illusion" 1937

Lieutenant Maréchal : The theater's too deep for me. I prefer bicycling.

[france-cinema]

A. Jourcin, La Grande Illusion, Jean Renoir, 1937.

Synopsis : Au cours de la Première Guerre mondiale, deux militaires français tombent entre les mains du commandant von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim), un aristocrate allemand qui fait preuve d'une élégance et d'un respect notables. Emprisonnés dans un camp, ils collaborent avec d'autres prisonniers pour creuser un passage souterrain clandestin. Néanmoins, juste avant leur tentative de fuite, un transfert imprévu les emporte loin du camp. Leur destin les conduit dans une forteresse impénétrable, sous l'autorité de von Rauffenstein. Ce dernier offre un traitement empreint de dignité aux captifs, nouant une relation particulière avec Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay). Malgré cela, les prisonniers français ne renoncent pas à leur désir de liberté et concoctent un nouveau plan d'évasion.

[loveinstreams]

anyways. It’s was the castle’s only flower. all that grows there and ivy and nettles. It was the only flower.

[filmnoirfoundation]

NOIR CITY 21 Day 3

NOIR CITY returns to Oakland's Grand Lake Theatre with a double feature of THE HUMAN BEAST / LA BÊTE HUMAINE and HUMAN DESIRE both based on Émile Zola's novel. Full festival schedule, tickets and Passports (All-Access Passes) available at NoirCity.com

Sunday • January 21, 2024  DOUBLE FEATURE

THE HUMAN BEAST / LA BÊTE HUMAINE

1:30, 5:30, 9:30 PM

In the 1930s, Jean Gabin brought a gallery of doomed anti-heroes to life with a blend of poetic fatalism and blunt proletarian defiance, becoming the first global icon of the noir spirit. He personally selected Jean Renoir, after their collaboration on the classic La Grande Illusion (1937), to direct La bête humaine, adapted from a novel by Émile Zola. Untrammeled by Hollywood censorship, they stayed true to Zola’s disturbing conception of Gabin’s character: a decent working-class man whose “hereditary flaw” causes violent psychotic episodes, mostly aimed at women. When he falls in love with the wife of a railway official (Simone Simon), herself damaged by a history of abuse and exploitation, they are on track for inevitable tragedy. Renoir gives the film a gritty, neorealist flavor (Gabin, a train enthusiast, learned to drive a locomotive for his role) and instills the bleak story with unsentimental empathy.

In French with English subtitles

FRANCE (1938) Dir. Jean Renoir. 100 min.

HUMAN DESIRE

3:30, 7:30 PM

Following the popular success of 1953's The Big Heat, Columbia Pictures reteamed Glenn Ford and Gloria Grahame with director Fritz Lang for this Americanized adaptation of Le bête humaine, smuggling the sordid tale of adultery and murder past the censors. Gloria Grahame gives a bruised and beleaguered performance as the abused woman who wonders if murdering her loutish husband (Broderick Crawford) is the only way out of her domestic hell. DP Burnett Guffey adds noir panache to Lang's cruel and suffocating depiction of the eternal noir triangle.

UNITED STATES (1954) Dir. by Fritz Lang. 91 min.

TICKETS FOR SUNDAY MATINÉE DOUBLE FEATURE STARTING AT 1:30 PM

TICKETS FOR SUNDAY MATINÉE DOUBLE FEATURE STARTING AT 3:30 PM

TICKETS FOR SUNDAY evening DOUBLE FEATURE STARTING AT 5:30 PM

TICKETS FOR SUNDAY evening DOUBLE FEATURE STARTING AT 7:30 PM

[sirbogarde]

The Grand Illusion (1937) dir. Jean Renoir

[de-gueules-au-lion-d-or]

Capt. de Boeldieu: I think we can do nothing to stop the march of time.

Capt. von Rauffenstein: Believe me, I don't know who is going to win this war the end, whatever it is will be the end of the Rauffensteins and the Boeldieus.

La Grande Illusion (1937) — Jean Renoir