La Grande Illusion

La Grande Illusion (commonly known in English as "The Grand Illusion") is a 1937 French war drama film directed by Jean Renoir, who co-wrote the screenplay with Charles Spaak. The story concerns class relationships among a small group of French officers who are German prisoners of war during World War I who are plotting an escape. The title of the film comes from the 1909 book The Great Illusion by British journalist Norman Angell, which argued that war is futile because of the common economic interests of all European nations. The perspective of the film is generously humanistic to its characters of various nationalities. La Grande Illusion is regarded by critics and film historians as one of the masterpieces of French cinema. Orson Welles named La Grande Illusion as one of the two movies he would take with him "on the ark".

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