Grand Illusion

One of the very first prison escape movies, Grand Illusion is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. Jean Renoir's antiwar masterpiece stars Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay as French soldiers held in a World War I German prison camp, and Erich von Stroheim as the unforgettable Captain von Rauffenstein.

Jean Renoir
France
1937
114 minutes
Black & White
1.33:1
French
Spine #1

Special Features

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

Newly restored digital transfer, created from the long-lost camera negative
New and improved English subtitle translation
A rare theatrical trailer in which Jean Renoir discusses both Grand Illusion and his personal war experiences
Audio essay by film historian Peter Cowie
Archival radio presentation: Renoir and Erich von Stroheim accept Grand Illusion's Best Foreign Film honors at the 1938 New York Film Critics Awards
Press book excerpts: Renoir’s letter "to the projectionist," cast bios, an essay on Renoir by von Stroheim, and essays about the film's title and recently recovered camera negative
Restoration demonstration
Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Cover illustration by Paul Davis

Purchase Options

DVD 1 Disc Out Of Print SRP: $39.95

Collector's Sets

Collector's Set

Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films

DVD Box Set

50 Discs

$650.00

Special Features

SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

Newly restored digital transfer, created from the long-lost camera negative
New and improved English subtitle translation
A rare theatrical trailer in which Jean Renoir discusses both Grand Illusion and his personal war experiences
Audio essay by film historian Peter Cowie
Archival radio presentation: Renoir and Erich von Stroheim accept Grand Illusion's Best Foreign Film honors at the 1938 New York Film Critics Awards
Press book excerpts: Renoir’s letter "to the projectionist," cast bios, an essay on Renoir by von Stroheim, and essays about the film's title and recently recovered camera negative
Restoration demonstration
Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition

Cover illustration by Paul Davis

Cast & Credits

Cast

Jean Gabin: Lieutenant Maréchal
Dita Parlo: Elsa
Pierre Fresnay: Captain de Boeldieu
Erich von Stroheim: Captain von Rauffenstein
Julien Carette: Cartier, the actor
Jean Dasté: The schoolmaster
Sylvain Itkine: Demolder
Georges Peclet: Charpentier
Gaston Modot: The engineer
Marcel Dalio: Rosenthal

Credits

Director: Jean Renoir
Screenplay: Jean Renoir
Screenplay: Charles Spaak
Cinematography: Christian Matras
Producer: Frank Rollmer
Producer: Albert Pinkovitch
Editing: Marguerite Renoir
Music: Joseph Kosma

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Explore

Jean Renoir

Writer, Director

The son of the great impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir was also a master of his medium: cinema. After making his mark in the early thirties with two very different films, the anarchic send-up of the bourgeoisie Boudu Saved from Drowning and the popular-front Gorky adaptation The Lower Depths, Renoir closed out the decade with two critical humanistic studies of French society that routinely turn up on lists of the greatest films ever made: Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game (the former was celebrated in its time, but the latter was trashed by critics and audiences—until history provided vindication). After a brief, unfulfilling Hollywood stint during World War II, Renoir traveled to India to make his first Technicolor film, The River, and then returned to Europe in the early fifties to direct three visually dazzling explorations of theater, The Golden Coach, French Cancan, and Elena and Her Men. Renoir persisted in his cinematic pursuits until the late sixties, when, after the completion of The Little Theater of Jean Renoir, a collection of three short films, he decided to dedicate himself solely to writing, leaving the future of the medium to those who looked to him in reverence.