Grand Illusion (1937, Fr.) (aka La Grande Illusion)

In Jean Renoir's Nazi-banned, anti-war dramatic masterpiece about a prisoner of war camp during WWI in 1916, and the 'grand illusion' and hypocrisy of men at war - it was the first foreign film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture:

• the aristocratic, stern but gracious host Prussian officer Capt. von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim) invited two French officers to an elegant lunch - after shooting them down and capturing them as POWs; then, they were taken to the Hallback prison camp:
  • Lieut. Marechal (Jean Gabin) - aviator-pilot, working-class plebian mechanic
  • Capt. de Boeldieu (Pierre Fresnay) - a French officer/hero and aristocratic nobleman
• the Prussian officer promised them preferential treatment: ("If they're officers, invite them for lunch...I am honored to have French guests")
• camaraderie was exhibited between two opposing enemy officers with common aristocratic roots; at one point, Rauffenstein confided in Boeldieu:
  • "I don't know who will win this war, but whatever the outcome, it will mean the end of the Rauffensteins and the Boeldieus"
• a musical variety-revue show was held in the prison; one of the men donned a women's costume as everyone raptly watched - and a tuxedoed singer Cartier (Julien Carette) sang a nonsense-song during the vaudeville show: ("Have you met Marguerite? She is neither tall nor petite. With eyes that glow, Skin like snow, and Lips in a Cupid's Bow, Well when this divine creation..."); he led a group of prisoners dressed as female-impersonating showgirls in a stage dance

Musical Variety-Revue Show in Prison
Cartier's Nonsense-Song	Female Impersonators	Marechal "Stop the show, fellas!"

• the stage show was interrupted by news from the front - read backstage in a newspaper by French prisoners Marechal and wealthy French Jew Lieut. Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio); Marechal took the stage and shouted out the recent news that the French had retaken Fort Douaumont in the epic Battle of Verdun:
  • "Stop the show, fellas! We've captured Douaumont! It's in the German papers"

Singing the Marseilles Anthem

• the group of French POWs (on stage and in the audience) defiantly and proudly began to sing their national anthem - the Marseilles - in front of their German guards-jailers in a one-minute moving frame shot amongst the men
• the POWs dug an escape tunnel, but all for naught when the prisoners were transferred to a different prison camp
• Russian prisoners opened up a wooden crate sent from the Empress, who insensitively sent them textbooks and cookbooks instead of food
• in an iconic image, von Rauffenstein was represented as a stiff, uniformed Prussian aristocrat with a steel back and neck brace, white gloves (to cover battle burns) and wearing a monocle - now promoted (after war injuries) to be commandant of Wintersborn; it was a converted, medieval 13th century castle - the German's maximum-security camp
• in a later scene, Boeldieu created a fatal, self-sacrificing diversion (an incident that allowed Marechal and Lieutenant Rosenthal to escape); he was shot in the stomach by reluctant Capt. von Rauffenstein
• in a touching deathbed farewell scene, Boeldieu was consoled and mourned over by German von Rauffenstein; as a poignant gesture after Boeldieu's death, Rauffenstein clipped a flower from his geranium plant to honor his friend and to punish himself

Widowed German Farm Woman

Ending Scene: "Don't shoot! They are in Switzerland"

• the fugitive escapees (injured Rosenthal and Marechal) took refuge in the remote farmhouse of widowed German farm woman Elsa (Dita Parlo) and ultimately found safety across an invisible border as they traversed through a snowy valley - when German troops came upon them and began shooting, the patrol leader shouted out:
  • "Don't shoot! They are in Switzerland," to which another responded: "All the better for them"
• the final view was of the two trudging through deep snow to freedom