The story opens with two French officers - the aristocratic Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the garage-mechanic-turned-Lieutenant Marechal (Jean Gabin) looking at some aerial photographs and flying off to inspect a suspicious-looking area. Twenty minutes in, I was beaming in admiration of how simply perfect - and timeless - Renoir's film is. I was looking forward to this new Blu-ray, but wondered if the film would hold up to my memories of it (which were, vaguely, that the film was wonderful and not at about war or prison). I fear that might not sound exciting, either. It is about humanity and society, and the breakdown of class.
This is a wartime prison picture, yes but it isn't really about war or prison. Jean Renoir's La Grande Illusion offers grand, gripping entertainment from first to last.
#The art of illusion dvd release date movie#
If the prospect of viewing a two-hour, black & white French-language prisoner-of-war movie leaves you less than enthusiastic, you may safely banish all qualms. Joining our first selection is one of the biggest and most influential hits of the 1970s, which remains one of the best movies of its kind.
This month we get one of the finest foreign films of the 1930s - which can also be deemed one of the finest films of the '30s and one of the finest films ever. While good movies remain good and bad remain bad - be it on VHS, Laserdisc or DVD - these new product launches can serve to bring acknowledged classics to new audiences. This serves as an excuse to launch "new" product which has, in reality, been long available. New technological formats - audio, visual or otherwise - allow purveyors of existing products to refine and repackage yesterday's up-to-the-minute edition into today's.
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