Contents Acknowledgments Introduction 1 Contexts: A director and his two careers Cast and creative personnel Historical and political contexts 2 Genesis, evolution, preparation: A long gestation The evolving script The plagiarism case The set 3 Analysis: Structure Motifs Film style Shooting in deep time Sequences and scenes Misrepresenting the war? 4 Reception: Pre-war triumph Post-war controversy Serene mastery? Anti-Semitism? Conclusion Appendix 1: Renoi'r's films Appendix 2: Cast and creative personnel Appendix 3: The evolving script Appendix 4: Selected bibliography
Directed by the great Jean Renoir, "La Grande Illusion" (1937) is the finest of all anti-war films and a cinematic masterwork. This title shows how, not content to register the world as it is, the film plays off competing historical possibilities against each other, facing the public with their responsibility to shape the future.
Martin O'Shaughnessy is the Reader in Film Studies at Nottingham Trent University. He is one of the leading international specialists on Renoir and is the author of "Jean Renoir" (2000) and "The New Face of Political Cinema" (2007).
'Ginette Vincendeau has assembled an elite corps of film scholars to address a marvellous array of modern and classic French films with the close-up scrutiny they deserve.' - Dudley Andrew
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