Also known as
Grande illusion, La
Lists
- ranked 7 in Edward Copeland's Satyajit Ray Memorial Anything-But-Definitive List of Non-English Language Films
- ranked 26 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (December 2006)
- ranked 27 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (March 2006)
- ranked 29 in They Shoot Pictures, Don't They? 1000 Greatest Films (August 2005)
- ranked 61 in Channel 4's 100 Greatest War Films
- ranked 85 in WGA 101 Greatest Screenplays
- ranked 221 in The IMDb Top 250
- one of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die
- one of Guardian 1,000 films to see before you die
- one of Leonard Maltin's 100 "Must See" Films of the 20th Century
- one of The New York Times Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made
Captured French officers in the First World War attempt to escape from a succession of German prisoner-of-war camps.
Entertaining as a prison-escape flick, interesting as a class-conscious take on the death of the "gentleman's war"; and notable, amongst other things, for a superb performance by Erich von Stroheim as Captain von Rauffenstein, head of the Wintersborn camp, situated in a converted 12th-century castle. As always with Renoir, the images are exquisite and startlingly modern, e.g. with complex tracking shots which technological limitations made much harder in 1937 than today.