La Grande Illusion (1937) - Renoir's high-flying anti-war smash

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The dove of freedom dies gruesomely on the barbed wire inside of a war-time soldier ensconced in grey on this evocative, artsy poster for Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion

We follow some mainly French soldiers in a German POW camp during World War I, their brotherhood amongst themselves, and even with their enemies, - and eventually their escape from said camp.

La Grande Illusion is written by Charles Spaak (Two Women/L'Empreinte du Dieu (1940)) and great French co-writer/director Jean Renoir (Whirlpool of Fate/La Fille de l'Eau (1925)). The film features a rebellion using flutes! And towards the end of the story we follow two of the prisoners, who now co-habitate with a German women, again in a striking harmony.
This is a very fine film about humanism on a profound level. The proposed humanity, in the context of the First World War, - and one inevitably also watches it and reflects on the Second World War, - seems somehow escapist, though, in its strange, combat-free idealization. Still the film attains rare moments of brotherhood while it commits a powerful portrayal of the illusion behind humanly made grand conflicts, which has made it an especially scholarly favorite.

Related post:

Jean Renoir: Top 10: Best French movies

The Human Beast/La Bête Humaine/Judas Was a Woman (1938) or, Train of Love, Lust and Murder!

Watch an original French trailer for the film here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: Unknown 
= Uncertain - but seemingly at least a box office success
[La Grande Illusion premiered 8 June (Paris) and runs 114 minutes. Shooting took place in France from February - May 1937. Jean Gabin (Their Last Night/Leur Dernière Nuit (1953)) wore Renoir's aviator's uniform from the war, in which he actually served in France's air force. The film reportedly sold the incredible amount of 12.5 mil. tickets in production country France. However, fearing its possibly detrimental impact on the national fighting moral, the French authorities banned the film in 1940 for as long as the Second World War would last. In Germany, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels declared the film "cinematic public enemy no. 1", and Nazi troops seized prints and negatives of the film, when they marched into France in 1940. La Grande Illusion became the first foreign film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, which it lost to You Can't Take It with You. It won 3 National Board of Review awards, a prize at the Venice Film Festival and a few other honors. Regrettably neither the cost nor the gross numbers are known, but the film is recorded to have made 174k $ in a 2012 North-American re-release. No doubt if the huge French admissions tally is correct, La Grande Illusion was at least a box office success. The film was nearly lost due to the Second World War and the few left prints were scattered in Germany and later the Soviet Union. Roger Ebert gave the film a 4/4 star review, translating to 2 notches higher than this one. Renoir returned with La Marseillaise (1938). Gabin returned in The Messenger/Le Messager (1937); Pierre Fresnay (Les Affreux (1959)) in La Bataille Silencieuse (1937); and Erich von Stroheim (The Honeymoon (1930)) in Under Secret Orders (1937). La Grande Illusion is certified fresh at 97 % with a 9.37/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of La Grande Illusion?

A Star Is Born (1937) - The Hollywood melodrama landmark

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The rising star and her moody husband stand out on this colorful poster for William A. Wellman's A Star Is Born

A sincere, good country girl has only a single thing on her mind: Hollywood. That magical place, where a person becomes a celebrated star. But when she pursues her dream, she learns that indeed very many share that very same dream. Her success comes nonetheless, (as the title indicates), but her worries do not end for that reason.

A Star Is Born is a wonderful story, and its description of the hard-elbowed, unusually tough movie business is still incisive.
The acting is excellent; Janet Gaynor's face is a perfect mold for the melodrama deluxe that takes place here, and Lionel Stander (New York, New York (1977)) has a marvelous role as a cynical PR-agent.
A Star Is Born is a first-rate romantic melodrama with an early Hollywood portrayal of alcoholism and a fine morale about loyalty, being true to one's feelings and coming back after a terrible loss.
It is directed by William A. Wellman (The Public Enemy (1931)), with uncredited sequences directed by Jack Conway (Saratoga (1937)) and Victor Fleming (Captain Courageous (1937)), and written by Dorothy Parker, Alan Campbell (Suzy (1936), both) and Robert Carson (Western Union (1941)), with producer David O. Selznick (Dracula's Daughter (1936)), Ben Hecht (Cleopatra (1963)), Ring Lardner Jr. (Laura (1944)), John Lee Mahin (Test Pilot (1938)), Budd Schulberg (Nothing Sacred (1937)) and Adela Rogers St. Johns (The Red Kimona (1925)) contributing uncredited writing.

 

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Top 10: Best Hollywood-set movies

  

Watch the original trailer here

Budget: 1.1 mil. $
Box office: 2 mil. $ (North America only)
= Box office success (returned 1.81 times its cost in North America alone)

[A Star Is Born premiered 22 April (Los Angeles) and runs 111 minutes. The story was reportedly inspired by Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Fay's marriage and upon John Bowers. Fredric March (Bedtime Story (1941)) was paid 125k $ for his performance. Shooting took place from October - December 1936 in California, including Los Angeles. The film had reportedly turned a profit of 181k $ by the end of 1939. It was nominated for 7 Oscars, including the first ever nomination of a color film as Best Picture. It won Best Writing, Original Story and an honorary Oscar for cinematographer W. Howard Greene (Night in Paradise (1946)) for the film's color photography. It lost Best Actor (March) to Spencer Tracy in Captain Courageous, Actress (Gaynor) to Luise Rainer for The Good Earth, Assistant Director to In Old Chicago, Director to Leo McCarey for The Awful Truth, and Writing, Screenplay and Picture to The Life of Emile Zola. It also won a National Board of Review award. It has been remade theatrically 3 times with the same title, in 1954, 1976 and in 2018. It has fallen into public domain and can be seen and downloaded free and legally right here. Wellman returned with Nothing Sacred (1937). March returned in Nothing Sacred; Gaynor in The Young in Heart (1938). A Star Is Born is fresh at 100 % with a 7.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of A Star Is Born?