La Grande Illusion ****
La Grande Illusion is Jean Renoir’s poetic 1937 anti-war masterpiece that triumphs international unity while poignantly and good-heartedly mocks man’s egotistical obsession with gaining power. It has some genre-defining performances from Jean Gabin and Pierre Fresnay that surely influenced later, like-minded films, such as those of The Great Escape, Catch 22 etc. It also quirkily …