Grand Illusion is acknowledged as a masterpiece by critics, but largely forgotten by everyone else.
Since it is a black and white foreign language movie with subtitles, it does not really matter what I say about it here, none of you are ever going to watch it. Most people watch the Seven Samurai and then give up on that "genre" - but I am going to tell you about it anyway.
After an unpromising start with an irritating theme tune, and credits in French (uh oh!) the movie takes us back to WWI, where two French officers are shot down, and taken to a prisoner of war camp. They are treated with courtesy and respect, and lead a good life with food parcels, escape plans, pipe smoking, and musical theatre.
There are several comic characters and a surprising amount of slapstick, but this is a serious movie. It explores the divided loyalties one of the French officers has; he must choose between his country (the other prisoners), and his class (the German officers, with whom he has more in common).
The movie has an interesting history of its own. During WWII it was banned by the Nazis, who destroyed every copy of it in Europe, except one, which for some reason, they kept for themselves. American troops discovered it in 1945 when they advanced on Munich.
Cast: Lots of French people I don't recognise, plus the butler from Sunset Boulevard as a German flying ace.
