CRITERION COLLECTION #1

Grand Illusion

France • 1937 • 114 minutes • Black & White • 1.33:1 • French
Directed by Jean Renoir

One of the very first prison escape movies, Grand Illusion is hailed as one of the greatest films ever made. Jean Renoir’s antiwar masterpiece stars Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay as French soldiers held in a World War I German prison camp, and Erich von Stroheim as the unforgettable Captain von Rauffenstein.

Special Features

• Restored digital transfer, created from the long-lost camera negative
• Rare theatrical trailer in which Jean Renoir discusses both Grand Illusion and his personal war experiences
• Audio essay by film historian Peter Cowie
• Archival radio presentation: Renoir and Erich von Stroheim accept Grand Illusion‘s Best Foreign Film honors at the 1938 New York Film Critics Awards
• Press book excerpts: Renoir’s letter “to the projectionist,” cast bios, an essay on Renoir by von Stroheim, and essays about the film’s title and recently recovered camera negative
• Restoration demonstration
• New and improved English subtitle translation
  
  Cover illustration by Paul Davis

CRITERION COLLECTION
DVD (Out of Print)
Original Release Date: November 23, 1999

CAST

CREW

HIGHEST GROSSING FILMS OF 1937

1	Saratoga	Directed by Jack Conway	MGM
2	Maytime	Directed by Robert Z. Leonard	MGM
3	The Good Earth	Directed by Sidney Franklin	MGM
4	Stella Dallas	Directed by King Vidor	United Artists
5	Rosalie	Directed by W. S. Van Dyke	MGM
6	Broadway Melody of 1938	Directed by Roy Del Ruth	MGM
7	Captains Courageous	Directed by Victor Fleming	MGM
8	Lost Horizon	Directed by Frank Capra	Columbia
9	A Day at the Races	Directed by Sam Wood	MGM
10	Thin Ice	Directed by Sidney Lanfield	20th Century Fox