Jean Renoir's Grand Illusion

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by dbryant, Sep 29, 2003.

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  1. dbryant

    dbryant Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Cambridge MA
    I got the Criterion DVD of GRAND ILLUSION for my birthday a few months ago, and tonight finally succeeded in sitting my family down to watch it together. My wife had seen it before, years ago, but I especially wanted to show it to my 13-year-old daughter (I thought of Woody Allen insisting Mariel Hemingway see it in MANHATTAN).

    What a great movie! There's more about life and human nature in this one film than in...well, than in a lot of other films, let's leave it at that. I ain't no videophile, but the picture quality looks wonderful to me, and the commentary by Peter Cowie is very informative. I didn't realize that Marcel Dalio, who plays Rosenthal in this film and the marquis in RULES OF THE GAME, later lost his entire family in the Holocaust.

    Highly recommended, especially for family viewing in our current climate of geopolitical insanity.
     
  2. Todd Fredericks

    Todd Fredericks Senior Member

    Location:
    A New Yorker
    Agree 100%! Fantastic film and fantastic DVD from Criterion (#1).
     
  3. Tim Casey

    Tim Casey Active Member

    Location:
    Boston, MA USA
    Lotte has blue eyes....

    A short while ago this movie got panned in the Laserdisc Newsletter as being too slow and too naive. I wrote to him telling him he was watching too many Hollywood blockbusters, since his review of the original laserdisc from the late eighties hailed it as a masterpiece of cinema.

    If you want to dig a bit deeper into older foreign films, their Carl Dreyer box with three films (Day Of Wrath, Ordet, and Gertrude) is absolutely breathtaking. My family watched "Ordet" last night and we were speechless by the end. A great movie to see twice, since once you know the surprise ending (which I refuse to divulge), all the dialog in the movie has a lot more weight to it. And the special about Dreyer that comes with the box is fairly breathtaking, too - they shoot it in the style of his films and interview many of the actors whose work you've just seen.
     
  4. Matt

    Matt New Member

    Location:
    Illinois
    The Grand Illusion DVD has an excellent demonstration on the improvements made. Mostly due to better source material found in recent years, the improvement is astounding! I wish Rules of the Game was as forunate, maybe in another few years of searching.
     
  5. Tim Casey

    Tim Casey Active Member

    Location:
    Boston, MA USA
    The Rules Of The Game is up for the same treatment - I'm pretty sure I read it on their website. They had postponed the DVD because they found an actual camera negative with splices.

    I'm looking forward to just about anything these people can do nowadays. Have you seen their version of Hitchcock's "The Thirty-Nine Steps"?
     
  6. Matt

    Matt New Member

    Location:
    Illinois
    SWEEEET! Thanks for the tip, Tim! I haven't seen their treatment of 39 Steps, but I'll see if I can find it.
     
  7. Tim Casey

    Tim Casey Active Member

    Location:
    Boston, MA USA
    It's REALLY stunning. The only problem now is the thick British accents.....
     
  8. Mike B

    Mike B Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York City
    I adore this movie. The British gentleman, the overly-honorable German warrior, the blue-collar French dude- what a great cast of characters.

    When the guy is dressed like a woman and the room falls silent and it's all awkward- best example of funny-but-sad in a movie.
     
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