History Film / TheGrandIllusion

This film, released a decade before the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestForeignLanguageFilm was given out, was the first film in a language other than English to be nominated for Best Picture. It remains one of only 12. It was also the first film released on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} by Creator/TheCriterionCollection [[note]]Actually, it ''would've'' been, but the release was delayed for a year when the long-lost original camera negative was discovered.[[/note]]. Oh, and Maréchal's uniform? That was Jean Renoir's uniform from when he fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* HarsherInHindsight: Even if Maréchal survives the war and returns to marry Elsa, their countries (and thus friends & relatives) will again be at war, two decades later.

Here they are quartered in a room with other French officers, including Lieutenant Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio), the son of a Jewish banker, who supplies the others with food and delicacies sent from France via the Red Cross. The officers are digging a tunnel to escape from the camp, but shortly before it is finished, they are transferred to another camp. After several transfers (and failed off-screen escape attempts), de Boeldieu, Maréchal and Rosenthal are reunited in a camp in an old castle. The commandant is Major von Rauffenstein, now invalided out of frontline duty; he feels an affinity towards fellow aristocrat de Boeldieu, and talks with him about how the UsefulNotes/WorldWarI is bringing an end to the class they belong to and its code of honour. De Boeldieu provides the diversion necessary to permit Maréchal and Rosenthal to escape, forcing Rauffenstein to shoot him.

* GratuitousEnglish / HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier / SurprisinglyGoodEnglish: Von Rauffenstein can speak French and de Bouldieu can speak German, but the two of them sometimes lapse into English when they are talking with each other. It's not clear why, but some scenes imply that the two of them use English when they don't want others to understand. Or it may be just a sign of cultural solidarity between the two well-educated aristocrats.

This film, released a decade before the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestForeignLanguageFilm was given out, was the first film in a language other than English to be nominated for Best Picture. It remains one of only nine. It was also the first film released on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} by Creator/TheCriterionCollection [[note]]Actually, it ''would've'' been, but the release was delayed for a year when the long-lost original camera negative was discovered.[[/note]]. Oh, and Maréchal's uniform? That was Jean Renoir's uniform from when he fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

** The film's title refers to the economist Norman Angell's book "The Great Illusion"(In French, "grande" means "great"). In that book he argued that modern nations had no real economic justification for going to war, since the global economy depended on co-operation and free network among citizens. [[note]]The acknowledgment of this fact led many philosophers before him to argue that free trade could put an end to war for good. Angell however argued that wars would continued to be waged against rational economic concerns for either political benefit or a way to unite dissension at home, calling it the "Great Illusion" that rational concerns rather than sentimental or political ones, led to war.[[/note]]

This film, released a decade before the UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestForeignLanguageFilm was given out, was the first film in a language other than English to be nominated for Best Picture. It remains one of only nine. It was also the first film released on UsefulNotes/{{DVD}} by Creator/TheCriterionCollection. Oh, and Maréchal's uniform? That was Jean Renoir's uniform from when he fought in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI.

* DisguisedInDrag: The British officers participating in the variety show in the first camp.

* LanguageBarrier: As the gang is being taken away to another prisoner-of-war camp, Maréchal tries to tell an incoming prisoner about the escape tunnel, but the new inmate is British and can't understand a word.

During UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, two French aviators, aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and working-class Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin), embark on a flight for a reconnaissance mission. They are shot down by a German aviator and aristocrat, Captain von Rauffenstein (Creator/ErichVonStroheim) who upon returning to base, sends a subordinate to find out if the aviators are officers and, if so, to invite them to lunch. During the meal, von Rauffenstein and de Boeldieu discover they have mutual acquaintances. From there the French aviators are moved to an officers' POW camp.