Vintage Poster
The Great Illusion
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Find this classic of French cinema starring Jean Gabin with this magnificent La Grande Illusion Poster!
- Paper characteristic:
- 🎨 Canvas: world standard in terms of printing and imitating a “painting canvas” appearance .
- By default, the poster contains a 4 cm white border for framing (frame not included). If you don't want it, please choose "without white border".
- ✅ Size: several choices available . ✅
- Great UV resistance .
- Maximum color vibrancy, without reflections .
- Recycled paper, guaranteeing respect for the environment.
- Poster carefully packaged and delivered in a protective tube for total protection .
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FREE STANDARD DELIVERY .
⚠️ Frame not included. ⚠️
Description of this Poster The Great Illusion
La Grande Illusion is a 1937 French war film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relations among a small group of French officers who are prisoners of war during World War I and are plotting an escape. The film's title is taken from the 1909 work The Great Illusion by British journalist Norman Angell, who argued that war was futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations. The film's perspective is generously humanistic for its characters of various nationalities.
La Grande Illusion is considered by critics and film historians to be one of the masterpieces of French cinema and among the greatest films ever made. Orson Welles named The Great Illusion as one of two films he would take with him "on the ark." In 1958, the film was voted number 5 on the prestigious list of 12 from Brussels during the World's Fair of 1958. In 1995, the Vatican included The Great Illusion in its list of 45 "great films" in the "Art" category. Empire magazine ranked it #35 in "The 100 Best Films of World Cinema" in 2010.
During the First World War, two French aviators, the aristocratic Captain de Boëldieu and the worker Lieutenant Maréchal, set out in search of a blurry spot on reconnaissance photographs. They are shot down by German flying ace and aristocrat Rittmeister von Rauffenstein, and both are taken prisoner by the Imperial German Army. Back at the airfield, von Rauffenstein sent a subordinate to find out if the airmen were officers and, if so, to invite them to lunch. During the meal, Rauffenstein and Boëldieu discover that they have common acquaintances, which illustrates the familiarity, even solidarity, that exists among the upper classes across national borders.
Boëldieu and Maréchal are then taken to a prisoner of war camp, where they meet a colorful group of French prisoners and put on a vaudeville-style show just after Fort Douaumont is taken by the Germans during the epic Battle of Verdun. During the performance, we learn that the French have recaptured the fort. Maréchal interrupts the show, and the French prisoners spontaneously begin “La Marseillaise”. Following this interruption, Maréchal is placed in solitary confinement, where he suffers cruelly from the lack of human contact and hunger; the fort changes hands again while he is imprisoned. Boëldieu and Maréchal also help their fellow prisoners finish digging an escape tunnel. However, just before it is over, everyone is transferred to other camps. Due to the language barrier, Maréchal is unable to introduce the tunnel to an arriving British prisoner.
Boëldieu and Maréchal are moved from camp to camp, eventually arriving at Wintersborn, a mountain prison fortress commanded by Rauffenstein, who was so badly wounded in combat that he was posted far from the front, much to his regret. Rauffenstein tells them that Wintersborn is safe from escape.
In Wintersborn, the couple found another prisoner, Rosenthal, from the first camp. Rosenthal is a wealthy French Jew, naturalized French, who generously shares the food packages he receives. Boëldieu has an idea, after carefully observing how the German guards react in an emergency. He volunteers to distract the guards for the few minutes necessary for Maréchal and Rosenthal to escape. After an agitation staged by the prisoners, the guards are ordered to gather them in the courtyard of the fortress. During the call, we discover that Boëldieu is absent. He makes himself known in the heights of the fortress, leading the German guards in pursuit. Maréchal and Rosenthal take advantage of this to lower themselves from a window by a homemade rope and escape.
Rauffenstein stops the guards from shooting Boëldieu and begs his friend to surrender. Boëldieu refuses, and Rauffenstein reluctantly shoots him with his pistol, aiming at the legs but fatally hitting him in the stomach. Cared for in his final moments by a grieving Rauffenstein, Boëldieu laments that the war is destroying the purpose of nobility and its usefulness to French and German culture. He expresses pity for von Rauffenstein, who will have to find a new purpose in the post-war world.
Maréchal and Rosenthal cross the German countryside to try to reach neutral Switzerland. Rosenthal injures his foot, slowing down Maréchal. They argue and separate, but Maréchal then returns to help his comrade. They take refuge in the modest farm of a German woman, Elsa, who lost her husband in Verdun, as well as three brothers, during battles that she describes, with quiet irony, as "our greatest victories". She shelters them and does not betray them when an army patrol passes. She and Maréchal fall in love, despite not speaking each other's languages, but he and Rosenthal eventually leave out of a sense of duty after Rosenthal recovers from his injury. Maréchal declares that he will return to Elsa and her young daughter, Lotte, if he survives the war.
A German patrol spots the two fugitives crossing a snowy valley. They fired a few shots, but their commander ordered them to stop, claiming that the two men had crossed into Switzerland.
