FILM SCREENING:

Grand Illusion
(Jean Renoir, 1937, 114 min, France, in French with English subtitles, B/W, Blu-Ray)

Jean Renoir made this powerful pacifist classic a generation after World War I, when France was confronted with Hitler's warmongering. Renoir memorializes the Great War, not through combat, but by taking us instead to a POW camp, where escape is an art and emotions run deep. This camp is a place where French and German aristocrats befriend each other and a mechanic from Paris falls in love with a German farmer's wife. Jean Gabin and Erich von Stroheim's performances remain compelling, their performances create a sense of solidarity for a brief, heartening moment in the midst of war.

Cost: Free and Open to the Public

Sponsors: The Center for French and Francophone Studies, the Program in the Arts of the Moving Image (AMI), and the Department of Romance Studies.