La Grande Illusion (1937), review Dir: Jean Renoir Starring: Jean Gabin, Dita Parlo, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim Not only hugely important in film history - it was the first foreign-language movie ever to be Oscar-nominated for Best Picture - but a sorrowful, acutely thoughtful, and wholly imperishable masterpiece, Renoir's drama about First World War fortunes and the demise of Old Europe holds up sublimely: better, even, than La Règle du jeu (1939), which is more often called his crowning achievement. The friendship forged between Pierre Fresnay's French captain and Erich von Stroheim's refined German commandant lends a core of humanity as vulnerable as it is profound; and the feelings between Jean Gabin's escapee mechanic and the farm widow Elsa (wonderful Dita Parlo) have all the purity of a great silent romance.