LA GRANDE ILLUSION (1937) - ♦♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Jean Renoir

Written by - Charles Spaak, Jean Renoir

Starring - Jean Gabin, Eric Von Stroheim, Pierre Fresnay

"One of the best anti war movies ever made was made in 1937, on the brink of another world war, and in France, on the brink of German occupation. Based on personal experiences of the first world war, and utilising an impressionist style that ran in the family, Renoir tells the tale of a a group of soldiers escaping German prison camps before inevitably being recaptured, and all the while maintaining the notion that war (or freedom) was just the biggest illusion of them all. A ground breaking and deeply influential humanistic film from its narrative structure to its charismatic cinematography with ground breaking tracking shots and camera motion."

War, France