Oscar nomination: Frank Rollmer, Albert Pinkovitch (best picture)
Venice Film Festival: Jean Renoir (overall artistic contribution), Jean Renoir (Mussolini Cup nomination)
Sometimes it takes the horrors of war to reveal the things we all have in common. That humanistic irony is the central conceit of Jean Renoirs masterpiece La Grand Illusion, a film set during World War I that finds levity and fraternity in a German POW camp. Lieutenant Maréchal (Jean Gabin) and Captain de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) are two French officers making the best of their situation with their men, under the watchful eye of the polite German commandant von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). Theyve developed a mirror image of aristocratic society based on honor and order, a system of mutual respect and protocol based on years of tradition.
But its only an oasisor, more specifically, a miragein the midst of devastating conflict, hence the title of the film: the grand illusion is that somehow class and upbringing sets these officers above the commonness of war, when in fact bullets dont know one bloodline from another. They tirelessly dig an escape tunnel without considering that once they return to freedom, the false camaraderie encouraged by incarceration will once again revert to the harsh realities of life.
One of the most poignant aspects of La Grand Illusion is the feeling that the central characters understand this truth all too well, yet subconsciously wish things could be different. You can sense that von Stroheims melancholy commandant really wishes he were socializing with the French officers under different, less severe circumstances. In the POW camp, Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) is one of the guys. On the outside, hes just a Jew, a jarring reminder of the imminent evils of World War II. In fact, the Germans later banned La Grand Illusion during their eventual occupation of France, so effective was its ever timely humanistic vision. That Renoirs remarkable film, with all its memorable characters, thought-provoking themes, and engaging dialogue, could have been lost forever because of its political viewpoint is a pointed reminder of the power of cinema and the ability of fiction to convey the kind of profound truths and moral guidelines that we use and need to direct our lives. JKl
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1930s
STELLA DALLAS (1937)
U.S. (Samuel Goldwyn) 105m BW
Director: King Vidor
Producer: Samuel Goldwyn, Merritt Hulburd
Screenplay: Joe Bigelow, Harry Wagstaff Gribble, Sarah Y. Mason, Gertrude Purcell, Victor Heerman, from novel by Olive Higgins Prouty
Photography: Rudolph Maté
Music: Alfred Newman
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, John Boles, Anne Shirley, Barbara ONeil, Alan Hale, Marjorie Main, George Walcott, Ann Shoemaker, Tim Holt, Nella Walker, Bruce Satterlee, Jimmy Butler, Jack Egger, Dickie Jones
Oscars: Barbara Stanwyck (actress), Anne Shirley (actress in support role)
King Vidors Stella Dallas offers a lively and moving portrait of a workingclass woman strong enough to sacrifice herself for the sake of her daughters advancement in society. Olive Higgins Proutys famous novel had already been filmed successfully in 1925. But unlike Henry Kings silent version, Vidors has the advantage of Barbara Stanwyck in the title role.
Stanwyck plays Stella as a resilient, glamorous, intelligent woman. Its easy to understand why well-to-do Stephen Dallas (John Boles) finds her attractive when he decides to abandon his family and strike out on his own. Not long after the birth of their daughter Laurel (Anne Shirley), however, Stephen wants to return to his former girlfriend. Stella raises Laurel on her own, devoting her life to the girls happiness, but as a teenager Laurel finds herself attracted to her fathers more affluent lifestyle and wants to live with him. Stella initially resists the move, but eventually relents, forcing her daughter to leave by pretending to be drunk and no longer interested in the young womans company. Laurel decamps to her fathers house and is soon married to a socialite at a huge wedding that her mother glimpses, tears streaming down her face, through a window from the street outside.
Stella will continue on, but never again will she cross the social divide separating her from Laurel. A moving and heartfelt story, under Vidors able direction Stella Dallas never descends into mawkish sentimentality. RBP
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1930s
THE LIFE OF ÉMILE ZOLA (1937)
U.S. (Warner Bros.) 116m BW
Director: William Dieterle
Producer: Henry Blanke
Screenplay: Norman Reilly Raine, Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, from book by Matthew Josephson
Photography: Tony Gaudio
Music: Max Steiner
Cast: Paul Muni, Gale Sondergaard, Joseph Schildkraut, Gloria Holden, Donald Crisp, Erin OBrien-Moore, John Litel, Henry ONeill, Morris Carnovsky, Louis Calhern, Ralph Morgan, Robert Barrat
Oscars: Henry Blanke (best picture), Heinz Herald, Geza Herczeg, Norman Reilly Raine (screenplay), Joseph Schildkraut (actor in support role)