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Jean Renoir Collection on DVD (1998)

Jean Renoir Collection cover art
Average rating: 74%
1111571420711
3.5
from 529 members
 
Starring: Julien Carette, Marcel Dalio, Georges Peclet, Erich Von Stroheim, Jean Renoir, Dita Parlo, Simone Simon, Sylvain Itkime, Jean Gabin, Gaston Modot, Jean Daste, Ingrid Bergman, Werner Florian, Pierre Fresnay, Fernand Ledoux
Director: Jean Renoir
Studio: OPTIMUM HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Run time: 708 mins
Certificate: PG
User collections: Guardian 1000 films to see before you die, Foreign language favorites, Films I love, that you may not have seen, For no other reason than I can., marvellous movie moments, My All-Time Favourite Foreign Flicks, wants
Genres: Drama, World Cinema
Languages: French
Released: 04/06/2007

Brief synopsis of Jean Renoir Collection

Seven films by French auteur Jean Renoir. La Grande Illusion (1937) is an archetypal prison escape film, generally regarded as Jean Renoir's most popular film of the 1930s and one which, although often seen as a humane and pacifist indictment of war, offers an ambiguous perspective on class differences. Set in a WWI German prisoner-of-war camp, the film tells the story of three French soldiers, the working-class Marechal (Jean Gabin), the middle-class Jew Rosenthal (Marcel Dalio) and the aristocrat senior officer Boieldieu (Pierre Fresnay), who are held prisoner by Commandant Von Rauffenstein (Erich von Stroheim). The film shows how a bond of sympathy exists more between the German Commandant and the senior French officer than between the three Frenchman of different classes. Even though Boieldieu sacrifices himself for the two others to escape, the film makes no attempt to conceal what they are returning to once their role as war-heroes is over. In 'Le Caporal Epingle' (1952), an upper-class corporal from Paris is captured by the Germans when they invade France in 1940. 'La Merseillaise' (1938) is a news-reel like film about early part of the French Revolution, shown from the eyes of individual people across the country. 'La Bete Humaine' (1938) is an adaptation of the novel by Emile Zola. Jean Gabin plays a train driver who falls in love with a colleague's wife, Severine (Simone Simon). Her jealous husband has already murdered his wife's former lover. Jean Renoir directs this tense love triangle, which focuses on love, betrayal and violent jealousy. In 'Le Testament Du Docteur Cordelier' (1959), a lawyer, Joly (Teddy Bilis) is disturbed when his friend, the eminent psychiatrist and researcher, Dr Cordelier (Jean-Louis Barrault), makes out a will leaving everything to a mysterious stranger, Opale (also played by Jean-Louis Barrault). In 'Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe (1959)', Etienne Alexis, a candidate for president of the new Europe, is a scientist promoting artificial insemination for social betterment and therapy to eliminate passion. Finally, in 'Elena et les Hommes' (1956), Polish countess Elena (Ingrid Bergman) falls in love with a French radical party's candidate in pre-World War I Paris - but another officer pines for her.

All DVDs in this series

La Grande Illusion
One of the great classics of French Cinema. La Grande Illusion tells the story of French soldiers of very diff...
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Le Testament Du Docteur Cordelier
A lawyer, Joly (Teddy Bilis) is disturbed when his friend, the eminent psychiatrist and researcher, Dr Cordeli...
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La Bete Humaine
A mad train driver falls in love with a married woman. They plot to kill the wife's husband... ...
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Le Dejeuner Sur L'Herbe
Etienne Alexis, a candidate for president of the new Europe, is a scientist promoting artificial insemination ...
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Le Caporal Epingle
An upper-class corporal from Paris is captured by the Germans when they invade France in 1940....
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La Marseillaise
A news-reel like movie about early part of the Frensh Revolution, shown from the eyes of individual people....
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Elena Et Les Hommes
Polish countess Elena falls in love with a French radical party's candidate, a general, in pre-World War I Par...
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Reviews Voted Most Helpful

Rated - 4 starsLa Grande Escape

Leon Collins from London , 10/12/2005

Surprisingly for one of the greatest war films ever made there are no scenes of combat, just the experiences of French POWs in WW1. Renoir deals with the comradeship amongst the POWs and the chivalry of their German captors - there are no *beastly huns* here. Many of the films elements, such as the details of escaping by tunnel, were copied in later POW films but La Grande Illusion remains as powerful and uplifting today as it was in 1937.

  11 out of 14 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 5 starsA masterpiece all round

Jalfrezi from Hants , 08/03/2005

There is something incredible about Jean Renoirs film making! Knocks the socks off Kubrick. The characters are very interesting. I particularly liked la bete humaine. It somehow celebrates the french working class hero of the industrial age. Likewise in La grande illusion there is a very interesting look at how the bond of class transcends national barriers.

A very interesting insight into human nature at its best.

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsFrench Movie Milestone

ThomasKus ThomasKus from Gloucester [Highly rated reviewer] , 23/02/2007

La Grande Illusion is a thoroughly enjoyable and in many ways ageless film. It is perhaps also one of the few war films where the real heroes are not the best fighters but the best human beings. Made in the historic context of the looming second world war it not only avoids any demonisation on nationalistic grounds but it also gives a message of the futility of war which was no doubt one of the many reasons why it was banned in Germany and Italy at the time.

The DVD Extras also contain two of Renoirs silent movies from his more experimental phase in the 1920s. One is an adaptation of Andersen's fairy tale 'The Little Match Girl' (1928) and the other is a tale about modern life called 'Charleston' (1927). I have to say both are rather clumsy and no match for other silent movies of this era, for instance those by FW Murnau or Fritz Lang. Whilst 'The Little Match Girl' has a nice music score 'Charleston' is presented here without any soundtrack - clearly not the intention of the director as it has a couple dancing the popular 1920s Charleston as it's centrepiece.

'La Grande Illusion' is a film for anyone, especially for those wanting to go back to the original that inspired the likes of John Sturges and Stanley Kubrick. The extras on the DVD are worth watching if you want to find out more about Renoir's work. One more tip - both the Renoir introduction and the trailer contain a few spoilers so if you don't know the storyline make sure you watch the film first.

  6 out of 6 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 4 starsFrench Noir

Leon Collins from London , 01/10/2005

La Bete Humaine is a classic French film that contains all the elements of the Hollywood noir cycle: a femme fatale, sexually motivated murder and doomed protagonists. The story is told against a background of the French railway system, stunningly shot from the cab of a locomotive, the tracks being symbolic of the characters crossing each other's paths.

  5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
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Most Recent Reviews

Rated - 5 starsGreat Escape

A customer from London , 27/12/2006

An obvious inspiration for 'The Great Escape', this movie is set during WW1 but comments on the Nazi racial policies of the 30s. Multi faceted, very interesting.

  2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
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Rated - 3 starsA Late Jean Renoir

A customer from \London , 28/06/2007

'Le Testament di Docteur Cordelier' is a Jean Renoir-dorected movie from his late period and it is a treatment of the Jekyll-and-Hyde story. Renoir's version is a curious movie that borders on the risible at times, yet it has a certain compelling appeal to it, partly because of the intrinsic interest of the subject matter ,but also because of Renoir's dark view of human nature, which is not something you usually associate with this director who is best known for 'humanist' movies such as 'La Grande Illusion', 'La Regle du Jeu' and 'Partie de Compagne.'

The movie does not bother with transformation scenes as other film treatments such as the Frederic March or Spencer Tracy Hollywood versions of the Jekyll-and-Hyde do. One minute Jean-Louis Barrault is a respectable doctor, the next he is a hairy, rather jaunty, borderline comic monster. At times these scenes have an unintended Python-esque quality and it is obvious that Renoir is not a great director of action. Barrault is fine as the severe doctor, less convincing as the evil side of his nature.

All-in-all, the movie has become a historical curiosity. I would recommend it to anyone with a serious interest in French cinema and Jean Renoir. It was made in the same year as 'A Bout de Souffle' ('Breathless'), directed by Jean-Luc Godard. Classical French cinema was about to be displaced by the Nouvelle Vague.

  1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
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