The great illusion
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The great illusion |
| Original title | La grande illusion |
| Country of production | France |
| original language | French |
| Publishing year | 1937 |
| length | 120 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 12 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Jean Renoir |
| script |
Jean Renoir Charles Spaak |
| production |
Albert Pinkovitch Frank Rollmer |
| music | Joseph Kosma |
| camera | Christian Matras |
| cut |
Marthe Huguet Marguerite Renoir |
| occupation | |
| |
The Grand Illusion is a French feature film by Jean Renoir from the year 1937 . It is considered one of the great masterpieces in film history.
action
First World War : The French fighter pilot Maréchal and the staff officer de Boeldieu are shot down by the German fighter pilot Rittmeister von Rauffenstein on a reconnaissance flight and are taken prisoner at his air base. In the first prison camp, they take part in the secret construction of an underground tunnel. They get to know Rosenthal, who supplies the group with delicious canned food that his wealthy relatives send him. You are practicing a farce in the tabloid style; when news arrives during the performance that Fort Douaumont has been retaken, Maréchal agrees to the Marseillaise and is punished for it with solitary confinement. The isolation in the cell almost makes him lose his mind.
Boeldieu, Maréchal and Rosenthal will be relocated before they can use the tunnel. After several more camps and attempts to escape, she and other prisoners are taken to a southern German fortress that is considered to be safe from escape. Rauffenstein, who has since been shot down and seriously wounded, acts as the commandant of the prison camp - which the old fighter feels humiliated. An unusual friendship develops between Boeldieu and Rauffenstein. In lengthy discussions, Rauffenstein laments the end of the old times, which he has glorified as glamorous, while Boeldieu tries to adjust to the future.
Another attempt to break out is based on a division of labor: Maréchal and Rosenthal are supposed to abseil, while Boeldieu, playing on a piccolo and climbing around in the rocks, distracts the guards and Rauffenstein. Rauffenstein, who misinterprets Boeldieu's behavior as an attempt to escape, aims at his knee, but hits him in the stomach. When he learns of the escape of the two French, he understands Boeldieu's behavior. He dies shortly afterwards, mourned by his knightly friend, who cannot forgive himself for being shot dead. Maréchal and Rosenthal manage to escape and find shelter with a German farmer whose husband was killed in the war. The two recover from the exertions of the flight with the farmer's wife and her little daughter. Maréchal and the peasant woman fall in love. Maréchal promises her to come back after the war and bring her to France. A border patrol only tracks them down after they have escaped across the border into safe Switzerland . A single fired volley does not hit them.
background
Neither the German nor the French censors could do anything with Renoir's film: In France it was severely shortened by the censors because it was friendly to German; banned in Germany because of the depicted pacifism . In France the ban was imposed by the German occupation authorities on October 1, 1940. Jean Renoir formulated a clear rejection of nationalism , war and class and racial differences. He also strictly abstains from a one-sided assessment. The Germans do not appear as one-dimensional negative figures. Rather, the protagonists define themselves through their social classes. In this way, a peculiar friendship develops between the opponents de Boeldieu and von Rauffenstein. They meet for long conversations, and Rauffenstein in particular reminisces wistfully and laments the downfall of the world of the nobility . The proletarians are not free from resentment, but stick together when necessary. The message on the eve of World War II was that all races, classes and strata can live together in peace.
The acting, the pacifist message and the exciting plot made this film one of the most outstanding works in film history.
title
The title can be interpreted in different ways:
- The participants in the First World War had the illusion that the war would soon be over, that there would soon be peace again; this illusion is shared by the protagonists of the film.
- Many also believed that after this war there would be no other: In 1937, when Renoir was making the film, there were already signs of a threat to world peace.
- But it could also mean the illusion that not only the nations, but also the social classes, as the film shows as possible, are reconciling with one another.
synchronization
In the original, compatriots always speak their respective mother tongue among each other, so that the scenes are clearly realism . Renoir also uses language changes or mutual misunderstandings as dramaturgical means, the effect of which is lost in the dubbed version made in 1960, in which the dialogues are consistently Germanized.
- The fact that Maréchal's German neighbor speaks fluent French at Rauffenstein's table makes the closeness between the war opponents evident, even before it becomes clear that they both worked for the same factory.
- The camp regulations are read out in French (for good reason: Rauffenstein applies the regulations of the French side so that the inmates cannot accuse the 'German barbarians' of the restrictions and punishments). In the original German, only the admonishing interjections "Strictly forbidden!", Which Maréchal apes.
- Before Rauffenstein shoots Boeldieu, he asks him in English to come down. The two have already shown in their conversation that they can switch to this language in a playful way. English apparently serves as a kind of code between the cosmopolitan aristocrats, whose subordinates are not supposed to understand the conversation. At the same time, as a language that does not differentiate between you and you, it creates a closeness that the manners would otherwise forbid them. The synchronization also replaces the flippancy of Boeldieu's answer (“It's damn 'nice of you, Rauffenstein, but it's impossible”) with the formal: “Thank you, Major Rauffenstein, but I can't.” They speak at Boeldieu's deathbed both French again.
Otherwise, this synchronization, like any other translation, has to cope with the problem of intelligibility in the target language.
- When the two refugees, overtired and hungry, threaten to quarrel, Rosenthal joins the original "Il était un petit navire"; Maréchal picks up the song until he becomes aware of the bitterly ironic reference to their own situation - it is about a sailor whom his starving comrades want to eat. In the synchronization they spoil the internationally known Marseillaise instead .
- The fact that Maréchal understands the farmer Elsa without words and tries to learn a few bits of her language for her sake has to be solved differently in the synchronization. There he speaks to her the sentence “Lotte a des yeux bleus”, while in the original he struggles with “Lotte 'at blau' Augen”. Rosenthal also teaches little Lotte to count in French in synchronization.
Even in the original German texts were not always taken verbatim. At the beginning of the castle scene, Rauffenstein calls out: “Open the window! It smells like puke here! "The dubbed version softens the coarseness:" Open the window! It smells awful here. "
| role | actor | German Dubbing voice |
|---|---|---|
| Lieutenant Maréchal | Jean Gabin | Paul Edwin Roth |
| Captaine de Boeldieu | Pierre Fresnay | Sebastian Fischer |
| Major von Rauffenstein | Erich von Stroheim | Heinz Engelmann |
| Lieutnant Rosenthal | Marcel Dalio | Erich Fiedler |
| Engineer, prisoner of war | Gaston Modot | Wolfgang Eichberger |
| Teacher, prisoner of war | Jean Dasté | Rolf Mamero |
| Sergeant Arthur | Werner Florian | Siegfried Lowitz |
criticism
“Humanitarian pathos and an appeal for understanding across the emerging political fronts spoke from 'La grande illusion' ... Renoir's social outlook was evident in the emphasis on the 'class fronts' within an army. The pacifist film is put in an ambiguous light through the sentimental, transfigured drawing of the German officer as a representative of a declining aristocracy. "
“La Grande Illusion is also a swan song for the ancien régime. Renoir's discussion of the aristocracy is by no means exhausted in a flat class satire. It gives the aristocratic protagonists a dignity that touches and a clarity that is exemplary. Both von Rauffenstein and Boeldieu know that their time is up. "
"By depicting life in captivity, Jean Renoir succeeds in interpreting class relationships in his masterpiece that also condition people psychologically for war."
“The most banned film, 'The Great Illusion': historic but not out of date. The contrast between then and now shows how brutalization grows with every new war ... Every little thing, every half word, every seemingly random angle of view of the camera is meaningful without being overloaded with symbolism ... It is by no means foreseeable when and by whom it will be banned next time. "
“The strength of the film, which advocates the reconciliation of nations, lies in the carefulness of the presentation and in the human credibility of its characters. It is interesting that this film was initially banned in Germany and Italy and, when the war broke out in 1939, also in France and other allied countries. "
Awards
The film won awards at the Venice International Film Festival in 1937 and was nominated for an Oscar in the category of best film in 1939 .
literature
- Fabienne Liptay: The Great Illusion . In: Film Genres. War Movie. Edited by Thomas Klein, Marcus Stiglegger and Bodo Traber. Stuttgart: Reclam 2006, pp. 66–73 [with references]. ISBN 978-3-15-018411-0 .
Web links
- The great illusion in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- La grande illusion at filmreference.com
- Open Course Ware / MIT (analysis of camera technology, in English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Karl Prümm: The great illusion . In: Filmklassiker von Thomas Koebner (Ed.), Volume 1, pp. 359 ff., Stuttgart, Reclam 1995, ISBN 3-15-009416-X
- ↑ German synchronous index: German synchronous index | Movies | The great illusion. Retrieved November 25, 2018 .
- ↑ Karl Prümm: The great illusion . In: Film classics by Thomas Koebner (Ed.), Volume 1, p. 362, Stuttgart, Reclam 1995.
- ↑ Ev. Munich Press Association, Review No. 577/1952