museless aiming

Two french films

Perhaps it's just having seen its latter incarnations, Stalag 17, The Great Escape, etc., but I found The Grand Illusion greatly overrated. Renoir's mixture of comic and bleak works in Rules of the Game, whose void leaves its audience to ponder society's vacuity. In The Grand Illusion, most of the jokes fall flat, and one is left questioning the point of the film.

Not that there isn't something likeable about Marechal, or something touching about the final scenes, but overall the film dragged along lamely for its relatively meagre 112 minutes, and leaves one with some rather unilluminating tautologies about the pointlessness of war and life.

I saw another piece of French cinema recently that is more to the heart of such matters: Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player. This is a wonderful reflection on ambition, regret, and loss, and does the cliche glory-days thing in a way that breathes new life into it. Not much more needs to be said, besdies do yourself a favour and see it.

: film : : reviews :

Tue Jul 22 00:09:08 BST 2008