The Grand Illusion 1937  N/R, 111 min.
Genre: Drama
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Dita Parlo, Marcel Dalio, Julien Carette, Gaston Modot, Jean Daste, Jacques Becker, Georges Peclet, Werner Florian, Sylvain Itkine, Albert Brouett, Claude Sainval, Michel Salina
Written while Hitler was beginning to make his move in Europe, this film examines the mindset of men involved in World War I and shows how the aristocratic backgrounds of French prisoner de Boldieu (Pierre Fresnay) and the German commandant of the prison camp, von Rauffenstein (Eric von Stroheim), contribute to them forming a bond that will have deadly consequences when they allow two French soldiers (Jean Gabin and Marcel Dalio) to escape. The negatives of the film survived, and the restored movie was released in 1999, complete with a new translation.
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La Chienne 1931  N/R, 95 min.
Genre: Foreign / Thriller
aka: The Bitch
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, Georges Flamant, Magdeleine Berubet, Roger Gaillard, Jean Gehret, Alexandre Rignault, Lucien Mancini, Romain Bouquet, Max Dalban, Courme, Pierre Destys, Henri Guisol, Sylvain Itkine, Jane Pierson
Painfully shy Maurice Legrand (Michel Simon) paints pictures as an escape from his miserable home life with his nagging wife, Adele (Magdeleine Berubet). One night, he meets Lulu (Janie Mareze) and becomes her lover, but Lulu is really a manipulative prostitute working for her pimp, Dede (Georges Flamant). Together, Lulu and Dede contrive to sell Maurice's paintings for their own financial benefit. Finally, Maurice lashes out and kills Lulu. Police question him but believe he does not fit the pattern of a murderer. In an intriguing twist, it is Dede who is charged with, and convicted of, Lulu's murder.
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| 1. The Grand Illusion (1937)
2. La Chienne (1931)
aka: The Bitch
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