La Grande Illusion
I finished 5 paper reviews today, most of which I am rather unsatisfied with, but then again there is no good reason to spend an incredible amount of time on paper reviews. They were mostly bad papers and the really good paper was interesting but I would prefer to read the paper version of it, because the 4-page-version doesn’t really give you enough information. Or maybe I am really too dense to understand the paper but I choose not to believe that. On top of all that, The Big Boss sent me an e-mail this evening, making me feel really really guilty for not having worked hard enough. With that said, I decided to write this posting first and then write the one for “The Guard” later, although I saw it earlier.
On another completely unrelated side note, I wonder if you can get “Dial M for Murder” somewhere in its 3D version and then use some 3D glasses to watch it. But I guess the technology must be different and so I have no idea how that is supposed to work.
After digressing so much, I should probably say something about the film itself. But I will do so by digressing more. I was recently told that I like “Big Bang Theory” because I am as nerdy as the guys. That is a valid point but not entirely true. Certainly I am nerdy but I have almost no interest in physics whatsoever. I always thought I did, but learning more and more about it, I came to the conclusion that physics doesn’t excite me as much as it does for many of my friends, and that there are a lot of aspects of it that I just am unable to buy. On the other hand, I like to dance, I am into buying clothes, jewelry and shoes (although not as much as a certain other person) – technically I am like Penny and the guys at the same time. There is another similar example: I recently had a discussion on how boring I think biomedical engineering is. I called it the uncanny valley of the world of science and engineering – if something is close enough to what I do I find it interesting, if something is far away, there is a good chance I find it fascinating. If you tell me that you think about biomed before you go to sleep and you are not doing that because you are going to make tons of money in the industry, I am probably going to declare you crazy and lose interest in befriending you. I am into the extremes, no matter what it is. However, if you are into anything in the humanities or arts, there is a high chance I would find it interesting too. In the same way, there is the category “cerebral movies that I don’t watch”, even though I normally like them. I should have added “La Grande Illusion” to this category.
Actually the film not really that cerebral and the sophisticated aspects of the film actually help. I liked the topics the film addressed. The decline of the Ancien Régime, the differences between classes, human friendships overcoming national borders – all of these are really beautifully and carefully treated throughout the film. All in all, it was a well-written film which was suspenseful (but much less so than other French films such as “Le salaire de la peur” or “Le Trou”), had some lovely characters and really awesome actors supporting them. Boeldieu and Rauffenberg were perfectly cast, I think there are no two other actors who could possibly have pulled that off. But I guess that concludes it. Despite all that, I think the film is simplistic and portrays a world which simply has never existed. To me the film merely represents wishful thinking, something like Renoir’s personal utopia in which a German woman would fall in love with a Frenchman during the WWI, and in which every major character is exceedingly good. The film is the French “Casablanca”, though of course it’s not as bad. It’s one of these films which looks almost targeted at the American audience which loves these fairytales praising human goodness. Of course the French hated the film for portraying likable Germans and the Germans hated it because the most likable character in the film was the Jew. (This fact actually makes me like the film more.)
All in all, “La Grande Illusion” has drowned dead in its politics and I had some seriously issues with its optimism. If a movie shall be judged by how realistic its characters are, this is probably the worst film of all times. Nothing about it particularly stood out and even though I think it’s good I saw it, I find it totally overrated for being such a highly acclaimed film. But who knows, maybe there is some irony here which I am unable to see.