“Renoir’s distinctive approach to filmic writing was very much related to the social and political realities of the day and to Renoir’s own intensive politicization in the period” (Strebel, 77).
Emblematic of Time
Emblematic of its time period and Renoir’s viewpoint, La Grande Illusion, his film about the Great War, was made at the end of the Popular Front movement in France, while the country was still recovering from the emotional and economic upheaval of the Great War. Not surprisingly, Renoir’s film reflects the hopes, fears and anxieties of the Popular Front in a time marked by both a rising threat of Nazism and a national policy of German appeasement.
Renoir was not only deeply influenced by the Popular Front, but he made several political films during that movement’s heyday (Strebel, 76). The Popular Front was a response to Nazi militarism and a growing Fascist threat embraced by the far right. The Communists, Socialist and the Radical Party united to fight this threat to the Republic, and the Popular Front assumed power in 1936. Initially, a combination of strikes and new factory jobs greatly improved working class conditions. The Popular Front was, however, deeply divided on how to respond to the growing threat of Germany (Lecture 3.1).
Specifically, in the face of foreign threats, the nation itself was deeply divided on who should be included in the French nation (Lecture 3.1; McMillan 3-13; 89-123). The Great War and economic growth had brought a wave of immigration, and the French also had a long-history of anti-Semitism, which was marked by the Dreyfus Affair (McMillan, 3-13; Lecture 1.1). By 1937, racism ran rampant, as reflected in just a few short years by the Vichy regime’s (1940-1944) deep-seated hatred of the French Jews, and its horrific decision to round up for deportation thousands of “scapegoat” women and children, far exceeding the Nazi requests (Lecture 4.1; McMillan 139-141). While there are many ways to see war, given that Renoir was a strong advocate of the far-left movement, the film provides critical insight into how the Popular Front likely viewed the Great War (Strebel, 76). As the nation teetered on the brink of another World War, La Grande Illusion is a clear reflection of France’s memories of the First World War as horrific, not grand. From Renoir’s perspective, common understandings between humanity were destroyed by this worldwide slaughter.
Interest in commonality of man is also grounded in Renoir’s nostalgia for the belle époque, a zenith in France where art, science, and culture were able to prosper when compared to the post-war years. The belle époque lasted from the 1871 Franco-Prussian War until World War I broke out in 1914 (Lecture 2.1; McMillan 47-88). Renoir’s film tries to make sense of the drive to nationalism that mobilized its citizenry in the Great War, while responding to the clear challenges of France’s 1937 society, including the rise of the working class (Maréchal), the likelihood of foreign invasion, and the dangers of racism (Rosenthal). While La Grande Illusion is very much a film of its time, its themes and message are relevant in every era. As Jean Renoir himself noted, La Grande Illusion is “a story about human relationships and I am confident that such a question is so important today that if we don’t solve it, we will just have to say ‘goodbye’ to our beautiful world.”
Source: La Grande Illusion, 1937. Other Sources consulted: Bowles, 398-413; Jackson,73-89; Macdonald, 136-138 and 173-180.
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