061 - Grand Illusion, 1937, France. Dir. Jean Renoir.
I am big! It's the pictures that got small.
So says Norma Desmond, the great silent film star who has been out of work since the birth of the talkies.
She also makes the famous statement, "All right, Mr. De Mille. I'm ready for my close-up," which people misquote as, "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. De Mille."
This is the film Sunset Blvd. (1950) directed by Billy Wilder. We met him in our first film, People On Sunday (001, January 1, 2017).
Norma lives in the past.
She still lives in her Beverly Hills mansion, on Sunset Blvd., and she is still waited upon by her butler Max.
Who used to be her husband.
Max was a great film director. He discovered Norma as a teenager. He made her a star. He married her. She divorced him. He is no longer a director. He has become her servant.
Norma watches her old silent movies. We see one of them. It just happens to be Queen Kelly (1929).
And this is what is stunning.
Norma Desmond is played by Gloria Swanson.
Her butler Max is played by Erich von Stroheim.
Queen Kelly was a real movie starring Gloria Swanson, directed by Erich von Stroheim.
In Sunset Blvd., as Norma Desmond and her butler Max are watching Queen Kelly, the actors portraying them are really watching the real movie that they really made twenty-one (21) years before.
Erich von Stroheim started with D. W. Griffith as an actor in silent films. He worked on one of the great Hollywood silent epics, Intolerance (1916).
If you go to Hollywood and visit the shopping plaza known as Hollywood and Highland, and you see giant elephants and wonder what that is, it is a reproduction of the set from the film Intolerance.
It was the movie D. W. Griffith made after he made The Birth of a Nation (1915). It answered it. It told the other story. It was important.
Eric von Stroheim began as an extra, became a silent film star, and went on to become one of the great silent film directors of all time. Like Orson Welles, he was known as a genius who made masterpieces that were in turn cut down by the studios.
His film Greed (1924) is one of the most legendary stories of studio tampering. If you think Orson Welles' second film, The Magnificent Ambersons, got chopped up by the studio, consider this.
Eric von Stroheim, in adapting Frank Norris's novel McTeague, made a 10-hour movie. Under pressure, he reduced it to 6 hours. He reduced it again to 4. The studio brought it down to a couple hours. After that, it is said, they destroyed all the other footage.
All that work lost. Destroyed forever.
If that is true, why?
If it is not true, then there is a treasure out there yet to be found.
Twelve people saw the full-length version. Some of them and people who followed them for years called it the greatest film ever made.
Eric von Stroheim would have success directing a few more movies, such as The Merry Widow (1925), The Wedding March (1928), and Hello, Sister! (1933). He would act in a parody of himself, playing a dictatorial director in The Lost Squadron (1932).
And he would never direct again.
By the time he made Sunset Blvd. he had not directed a film in seventeen (17) years.
The world-weary melancholy he puts into his character is palpable, because it is true.
His character, remember, is a man who was divorced by his wife but loves her so much he chooses to work as her servant for the rest of their lives. A willing humiliation.
He seems to be a broken man.
von Stroheim would act for five more years, ending with a role as Ludwig van Beethoven.
Like Orson Welles, he would die being considered one of the greatest to have ever lived and yet one who realized only a small fraction of his great potential.
And as he stands there in Sunset Blvd., watching his own movie that he made so long ago with his now co-star, now sitting in the room with him again, portraying two people looking at what was lost . . .
You get the feeling that he is not acting.
That this moment is really happening for him. To him. Inside of him.
He would be nominated for an Academy Award for his role as Max in Sunset Blvd.
The pain is real.
The pathos is real.
The sorrow is real.
It is important that we take the time for you to know the history of this man.
Because in 1937 in France, this Austrian who had made it as an actor and director in Hollywood, during the birth of Hollywood, and who had flamed out, was back in business. Acting in Europe.
And he delivers one of the finest performances in one of the finest films of all times.
This is Eric von Stroheim.
This is Grand Illusion.
And this is the story of but one of the actors in the ensemble cast of this film, a film which has gone down as one of the greatest of all films.
Now let us consider another actor.
The star of Grand Illusion was the star of France. Jean Gabin. A man of incredible strength. And depth. Just look into those shoulder-fatigued eyes betraying his nonchalant smile. As if his old-soul knowledge of human evil counter-weighted his easy-going, good-natured charm.
Gabin was the Clark Gable of France. Or the Spencer Tracy. Or the Jimmy Cagney. Or the Humphrey Bogart. All of those comparisons have been made. And people have fought over them. His nearly 60-year output of legendary roles remains almost unmatched in world cinema.
Here are a few Jean Gabin films just on our list: Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths (1936), Julien Duvivier's Pepe Le Moko (1937), Marcel Carne's Port of Shadows (1938), Jean Renoir's The Human Beast (1938), Marcel Carne's Le Jour Se Leve (1939), Max Ophuls's Le Plaisir (1952), Jean Renoir's French Cancan (1955). A mere handful of films among his illustrious career, which includes landmarks such as Jacques Becker's Touchez Pas au Grisbi (1954), Sacha Guitry's Napoleon (1955), Georges Lampin's Crime and Punishment (1956), and yes, Jean Valjean in Jean-Paul Le Chanois's Les Miserables (1958).
Here is what happens in our film.
Captain von Rauffenstein, played by Erich von Stroheim, shoots down a French airplane carrying two French soldiers. They bring the two new prisoners to him.
One is Lieutenant Marechal, played by Jean Gabin.
The other is his superior officer, Captain Boeldieu, played by Pierre Fresnay.
Captain Boeldieu is from the upper class. Captain von Rauffenstein is from the upper class. Lieutenant Marechal is from the working class.
von Rauffenstein grants Boeldieu every kind of courtesy and comfort he can. They shake hands with each other, salute one another. He feeds him, trusts him, calls him into his quarters to talk to him, to discuss culture and philosophy, to share a drink.
The German officer and his French officer prisoner of war spend time together in brotherly communion. They respect one another.
It was a time of honor.
Honor among men.
They do their duty as officers for their respective countries, but they value their shared humanity.
The members of the French army spend time together in the German prison camp. They find ways to make life more bearable, to amuse themselves, and to try to escape.
Boeldieu himself explains. "A golf course is for golf. A tennis court is for tennis. A prison camp is for escaping."
Of course.
While the men are in captivity, they see news posted about the activities of the war. News in German newspapers. One of the men complains that the German newspapers exaggerate German victories. Another responds that the French newspapers do the same thing for French victories.
The news announces that Fort Douaumont has been taken by the Germans. The French prisoners mourn. The German captors celebrate.
They receive gifts from home.
Sometimes food! Sometimes what is thought to be food turns out to be books. Food for the mind. Food for the soul. Please do not burn them.
They talk about what they miss. Food from home. Girlfriends. Wives. The Tour de France. The Greek poet Pindar. Each has his own interest. They come together, get to know each other, tease each other, learn to survive.
They are digging a tunnel under the floor.
They put on a show.
The costumes sent to them are dresses. They dress in drag.
A prisoner named Cartier, played by actor Julien Carrete, is the ham. He wears the tuxedo with the giant flower blossom over the heart. He plays the Emcee. He sings. He dances. He leads the men in song.
And then this happens.
In the middle of the show, Marechal sees the latest news. The French have retaken Douaumont.
And Marechal rushes out on stage in his black turtleneck to announce the French victory.
He announces it.
The men on stage stop.
The members of the audience stand.
They remove their hats. And their wigs. And whether in uniform or prison garb or dress, they hold their hat or wig over their hearts, and with their hairy chests peaking out over their spaghetti strap dresses, without irony, and with great commitment, they sing in unison.
"La Marsellaise."
"La Marsellaise" is the national anthem of France. Written in 1792.
The man stand united and sing in solidarity.
Remember that image.
For at this point it is necessary to introduce you to one of the other legendary actors in the cast. And then state what makes him important to this moment.
Marcel Dalio. Credited as Dalio. A figure in French and international cinema from 1931 to 1980. He plays the Jewish prisoner Rosenthal. He will end up on a journey with Jean Gabin's Marechal. The two of them together. And they will appear together again in the same year in Pepe le Moko. And Dalio will star--star--in Jean Renoir's next film, the film of films, The Rules of the Game (1939). When we watch it, remember that it is he. Because you can watch these two films back to back and not realize you are watching Marcel Dalio in both of them, especially in these two roles.
Dalio will move effortlessly back and forth between France and America, something even Jean Gabin did not do, and appear in some of Hollywood's most classic of films, including: the film-noir classic, Joseph von Sternberg's The Shanghai Gesture (1941); The Song of Bernadette (1943) with Jennifer Jones; Henry King's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Snows of Kilamanjaro (1952), starring Gregory Peck, Susan Hayward, and Ava Gardner; Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953), starring Jane Russell and Marilyn Monroe; Billy Wilder's Sabrina (1954), starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart, and William Holden; the Robert Lewis musical Anything Goes (1956), starring Bing Crosby, Donald O'Connor, and Mitzi Gaynor; Henry King's adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1957), starring Tyrone Power and Ava Gardner; William Wellman's Lafayette Escadrille (1958), featuring a young Clint Eastwood; Michael Gordon's Pillow Talk (1959), starring Rock Hudson and Doris Day; John Ford's Donovan's Reef (1963), starring John Wayne; William Wyler's How to Steal a Million (1966), starring Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole; and Mike Nichols's Catch-22 (1970).
Notice that in that list, Marcel Dalio appeared in Sabrina. And notice that Sabrina starred William Holden, who also starred in Sunset Blvd., which featured Eric von Stroheim so prominently as stated above. Notice also that Sabrina also starred Humphrey Bogart.
Marcel Dalio was to appear in two other Humphrey Bogart pictures that we have not yet mentioned.
One was as the memorable Frenchy in Howard Hawks' adaptation of Ernest Hemingway's To Have and Have Not (1944). Interesting that Dalio kept finding himself in Hemingway adaptations. To Have and Have Not was the first of four movies that Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall made together. And it contains that moment in the end when she does the swishy dance in which she breaks character and you see the real love for Bogie in her 19-year-old heart. It is also the film where Walter Brennan asks if you have ever been stung or bit by a dead bee. And where Hoagy Carmichael tears up the piano. And there is Marcel Dalio as Frenchy. In a movie you could watch once a year and never tire of viewing.
But a couple years before that, Marcel Dalio appeared in another little Humphrey Bogart film.
It was called Casablanca (1942).
Another among the greatest films ever made. How does Dalio keep turning up in them?
And featuring one of the greatest casts of international actors ever assembled.
You may know Casablanca. I certainly hope so. If not, then please stop everything and watch it now. And then watch Grand Illusion. And then watch both of them once a year for life.
But there is this moment in Casablanca that we need to discuss.
Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) has shown up at Rick's Cafe Americain with her husband Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid). Rick (Humphrey Bogart) is still bitter over her standing him up back when they dated in Paris, and he did not know she was married. He has adopted a policy where he will stick out his neck for nobody. He has just proved it when he stood by and watched his colleague Ugarte, played by Humphrey Bogart perennial Peter Lorre, get arrested over the murder of two German couriers and the corresponding theft of two letters of transit. Victor does not know his wife Ilsa and Rick share a past. But he does believe Rick has the letters of transit. So he tries to offer Rick money for them, and he is stumped to learn that Rick cannot be bought at any price.
While Victor is attempting to negotiate with Rick, the two men overhear the Germans out in the dining room singing a German song, "The Watch on the Rhine." They have taken over Sam's piano. Ironically for them, the letters of transit are sitting safely inside Sam's piano.
Both husband and wife tell someone to play something.
Ilsa the wife says to Sam, "Play it, Sam. For old time's sake. Play 'As Time Goes By.'"
Victor the husband says to the band, "Play 'La Marseillaise.'"
Victor steps out of Rick's office and stands at the top of the stairs watching what for him is a disgrace. And in a perfectly written, perfectly acted, perfectly lit, perfectly photographed, and perfectly edited (even though we cross the line and flip the direction of the piano) scene, Victor the hero walks straight to the band and says, "Play 'La Marseillaise.'"
And the band plays on. The people join them. The woman on her guitar. And especially Yvonne. They drown out the Germans. The Germans give up. The Germans sit down.
Do you remember Yvonne? A lot of people do. If you watch again, you will never forget her. During the song Michael Curtiz cuts to an extreme close-up of her singing for 7 seconds, and then at the end of the song he cuts back to her as she shouts, "Vive le France!" for another 2 seconds. And in 9 seconds she steals the scene. There is something going on in her face that looks so personal. So authentic. So heartfelt.
Have you ever seen such intensity in an actress's expression in such a short amount of time?
What caused it?
During the filming of Casablanca, Madeleine Lebeau, the actress playing Yvonne, was Marcel Dalio's wife. About two and a half years after filming Grand Illusion and about two and half years before filming Casablanca, the two of them had fled Nazi Germany. Seeking asylum. In America.
Yes. It was personal to her.
And here in both films, during the singing of "La Marseillaise" in France in 1937, and during the singing of "La Marseillaise" in America in 1942, here stands Marcel Dalio in both moments, in both movies. Born of Romanian Jewish parents who had immigrated to France, himself born French Jewish, here he stands first as the wealthy Rosenthal, who somehow must make his way to freedom with the middle-class Christian Marechal, and then here he stands again, as Emil the Croupier, as his real wife really sings, from the heart, what they have lived.
It is during that moment in Casablanca that you can see what makes Victor a hero, and Paul Henreid plays it himself with such intensity that in one shot it looks as though his temples might burst.
And in the next shot of Ingrid Bergman, you can see that Ilsa is proud of her husband, deeply, deeply proud of him. She is not merely in love with Rick while being stuck with her husband. No. Her heart is torn. She loves them both. In different ways. And that is why she ultimately asks Rick to decide for both of them.
After the men in Grand Illusion sing their version of "La Marseillaise," they are punished for it. As you might imagine. Marechal is put in solitary confinement. He goes mad.
Fort Douaumont will be retaken by the Germans. And retaken by the French. Back and forth. Back and forth. It all seems so futile.
The men are transferred to another prison camp. Before they are able to finish their tunnel.
Eventually they are imprisoned in a castle. Reunited under Captain von Rauffenstein.
He puts them under French rules rather than German rules to make their stay more comfortable. He gives them a tour of the castle.
There are funny moments.
He shows them the Maxim gun his guards use. Implying that they should not try to escape. He asks if they have heard of the Maxim.
Marechal quips that he has only heard of the restaurant, Maxim's.
von Rauffenstein laughs. "I knew a girl there in 1913. Her name was Fifi."
Boeldieu responds, "Me too."
Those officers sure do walk in the same circles.
When the German soldiers conduct an inspection of the French quarters, von Rauffenstein excuses Boeldieu. He asks him simply for his word.
von Rauffenstein includes Boeldieu in his inner company but not Marechal and Rosenthal. Boeldieu stands up for them. He says they are officers too. He is a product of the French Revolution. Times are changing. All men are equal.
Neither you nor I can stop the march of time.
In the final effort at a prison, they cannot go together. One must sacrifice for the others. Otherwise, it can never occur.
Boeldieu sacrifices for Marechal and Rosenthal. The rich man, old money, upper class gentleman sacrifices himself for the working class man and the nouveau riche Jew.
Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. - John 15:13.
In their efforts to escape, Marechal and Rosenthal will meet a woman. A German woman. A farmer.
Elsa. Played by Dita Parlo. Whom we saw in Jean Vigo's l'Atalante (1934).
Marechal tries to communicate with her.
They cannot speak each other's language. The men appear to be thieves. They are enemies.
They fall in love.
But it cannot last. The men are enemies combatant in a foreign land. Prisoners of war. Fugitives. How could Marechal possibly make it with Elsa?
How will everything end?
Will our heroes gain their freedom?
Will they remain in a German prison camp?
Will they die?
Grand Illusion is a film about World War 1, released in 1937, during the build-up towards World War 2.
The world is in chaos. On the brink of destruction.
Yet it knows something about humanity. Heroism. Integrity. Honor.
The brotherhood of man.
This is what movies are for.
Jean Renoir, the son of the great painter, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, has made a masterpiece.
And it will not be his last. Not by a long shot.
In his 1979 crisp black-and-white, Gershwin-scored masterwork Manhattan (1981), Woody Allen plays Isaac, who is dating Tracy, played by Mariel Hemingway. Isaac is sharing everything he knows with Tracy, giving her a cultural education. He tells her about Grand Illusion. His favorite movie. He says that he sees it every time it airs on television. Later, after they have broken up, he recalls that she had left a message for him that Grand Illusion was on television and that he should turn it on and watch it. She remembered. It was a token of shared love between them.
Orson Welles said, "If I had to save only one film in the world, it would be Grand Illusion."
Grand Illusion has Spine # 1.
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