Movies in 2026 121

 

Grand Illusion (Jan Renoir, 1937)

So, Friday night turned out to be quite a doubleheader: Emily Atef's More Than Ever and Jean Renoir's classic Grand Illusion.  It was a first viewing for More Than Ever, but I've seen Grand Illusion many times (and can't imagine a universe where I didn't want to watch it again). The other night I think the inspiration for Grand Illusion was that I'm considering films to show as part of the final exam for my Images of Fascism class, but I never need much inspiration to watch Renoir's classic. It's one of the great anti-war movies, which made it's release only two years before the outbreak of World War II all more emotionally jarring. Jean Gabin was great (I mean, he's Jean Gabin, FFS) as Lieutenant Marechal. If you've seen a great film several times you always find yourself noticing different things and reflecting upon different performances or aspects of the film. Dita Parlo gives an underappreciated performance as Elsa, the German farmwife, who is herself a widow of the war, and who takes in Marechal and Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio). I've always had this odd cinematic category of women in movies who play a character that I imagine myself cinematically living with: such as Stella (Jennifer Black) in Local Hero or Kate (Karen Silas) in Simple Men. I think that living with Elsa in the mountains is now part of that collection. As I was watching the film I began to consider the career of Marcel Dalio, who lived through the war and relocation, and eventually transitioning from leading roles to supporting roles, and the crazy variety of movies he's in: Grand Illusion, Casablanca, One Night in Lisbon, Flesh and Fantasy, Wilson, The Damned, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Flight to Tangier, Sabrina, Anything Goes, Pillow Talk, Donovan's Reef, Catch-22, etc. Most of these you wouldn't know he was there, but he's essentially ubiquitous. You know me, I'm never guilty of hyperbole, but if you haven't seen Grand Illusion, you can't be considered a civilized, let alone a sophisticated or educated, person.