La Grande Illusion -- May 31, 2021

 

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Happy Memorial Day, everyone. 

World War One veteran Jean Renoir made La Grande Illusion in 1937. A group of French POWs wants to escape, but class differences get in the way. Pierre Fresnay is an aristocrat and Jean Gabin is a working man. They land in a prison commanded by a crippled German officer, played by Erich von Stroheim.

I watched it several times on our local PBS station, KQED-Channel 9. 

Jean Renoir 125 -- September 15, 2019

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Director Jean Renoir was born 125 years ago today, on 15-September-1894.  Our local PBS station  showed La Grande Illusion and La Règle du Jeu each several times. I watched them each time they were on. I found his memoir, My Life and My Films in the Main Library and read it many times.

I wanted to see more of his films, but they were hard to find until I took a film class in college and then later when home video became available.

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Bastille Day, 2015 -- July 14, 2015

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In honor of Bastille Day, here is mignon French actress Simone Simon.  I liked her in Val Lewton's The Cat People and Jean Renoir's Zola adaption La Bête Humaine. 

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